Let's pray for the best for mother and child - Some pictures of the location are below, coincidentally taken less than a month ago.
Hi, We had a turnaround today at Planned Parenthood, thanks to Marianne’s presence, sidewalk counseling and a wonderful number of prayer warriors!
Here is Marianne’s account of what happened.
All praise and honor to God!
I was sidewalk counselling Tuesday (3/10/2020) at the 26 Bleecker Street Planned Parenthood. We were blessed to have a number of prayer warriors during the morning: Jess, Chris, Jane Ann, a group from King’s College and Jolanta. There was even a spontaneous prayer from a group of tourists.
I haven’t been approaching men recently because their attitudes just made me want to smack them but, for whatever the reason, this morning I was handing out a number of brochures to men going into PP. Around 10:00, an older man in a flag shirt was waiting and smoking a cigarette outside and I handed him a Sisters of Life brochure saying that there is a lot of free help that is not available at PP -- housing, education, legal etc. He looked at me “Yeah, this is bad. Abortion messes the women up.” I agreed, “Four times greater risk of alcohol/drug addiction and suicide and then there’s the abortion regret that generally kicks in seven years later. Even men have abortion regret.”
He looked at the brochure and raised his head saying that he had been told that “the only housing help available was a shelter”. “No” I said, “There are a lot of options including apartments, pregnancy and post pregnancy homes. These are not shelters. You really should call the Sisters and talk about it.” He nodded and I went back to the corner. I saw he continued reading the brochure so I gave him another card listing additional resources. “There is so much help available.” He nodded again and I went back to the corner.
“She has to make the decision. It’s her body and her right.” he said. The baby has its own body, different dna, different sex, different blood type. It is innocent and should not be killed. ”I’m not the father and he doesn’t want it. She has so much going on in her life right now that this is going to ruin it.” he said. A child is not going to ruin her life. A child may change the direction of her life but not ruin it. We have to love something other than ourselves. God wanted her to have this baby. At that point, he finished the cigarette and went inside PP but exited again and walked down the block.
Around 10:45 Laurie joined me sidewalk counselling. I went to throw something into a trash can and, as I turned around, I saw the man with the flag shirt and a pretty young woman going into PP. As she went in the door, she turned her head and we looked at each other in the face. I saw she had one of the cards I had given her friend in her hand. I was so grateful to God that he had actually given it to her.
Laurie and I stayed for another hour. Jolanta was still praying when we left. At 12:09, I got a text from Jolanta “Call me.” I stepped out of church and called her. Jolanta said the man with the flag shirt and the girl came out of PP. They were looking for a sidewalk counselor but stopped to talk to Jolanta. The girl’s name was Sarah and she told Jolanta that she hadn’t made a final decision yet but that she had to “try” to find help for her baby. “The other girls in there are so scared and I have to try.” Sarah then burst into tears. Jolanta gave them both strong encouragement and told me that Sarah had spoken with Sister Bridget and was on her way down to see the Sisters of Life at the Visitation Mission at St. Andrew’s Church. The man in the flag shirt told Jolanta that he would support Sarah’s decision if she kept the baby.
Later this afternoon, Laurie had an update from the Sisters that Sarah had spent the afternoon with them and had two housing options. Please pray for Sarah and the man in the flag shirt that they will be strong and she will keep the baby.
Such a team effort! Thank you to everyone for praying and to Marianne for stepfping up to sidewalk counsel! Thanks be to God!
Please keep praying for Sarah, as she’s not out of the woods yet!
Laurie
Here is the location, on a late Saturday afternoon -
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