“Being a public witness peacefully to end abortion will be the most uncomfortable, but most important thing you can do in your life,” said Elizabeth McClung, Executive Director Austin Coalition for Life, while she did just that in front of the Coastal Birth Control Center on Morgan and Crosstown Expressway in Corpus Christi on March 15.
McClung was in town to provide sidewalk-counseling training to local pro-life advocates March 10 at the First Presbyterian Church. The group God’s Most Precious Infants sponsored the training. McClung followed the training with hands on lessons at the abortion clinic.
On this particular day, the 25-year-old McClung joined other prayerful pro-life advocates at the abortion clinic, when their silent Hail Mary’s were interrupted when abortion clinic administrator Julio Aquino warned the group to get off his driveway or he would call police. While he was walking back to the clinic, McClung called out to him, “Julio, I want you to know that I’m out here praying for you.”
Similar exchanges occurred many times between Abby Johnson and McClung before Johnson “blew the whistle on Planned Parenthood and wrote the book ‘unPlanned’,” Pat Pulliam said.
Abby Johnson had been the director of a Planned Parenthood Clinic in Texas when she abruptly quit her job in October 2009, and walked across the road to join the Coalition for Life. That simple act became a national news story and she later wrote a book about it.
“The story of how Elizabeth got Abby Johnson to walk out of being the director a huge Planned Parenthood became very clear when I watched her today.
She treated Abby with respect and unconditional love and broke down every stereotype of how pro-life protesters are perceived,” Pulliam, South Texas Regional Coordinator of Silent No More Awareness Campaign, said.
McClung considers herself persistent. She waits for cars coming onto the fenced-in area of the property and says very loudly, to be heard over the cars going by, “Good morning, I would love to have a minute of your time. Or, Sweetie, I’m not sure if you can here me, but I’d love to talk to you before you go inside.”
McClung says that people do not have to be trained to be a sidewalk counselor, but it makes sense. The training is a four-hour session aimed at putting oneself in another person’s shoes. In the training they take a counseling, psychological approach and engage mothers-to-be in conversation about the different scenarios that are keeping them from having their baby, such as parents, boyfriend, job or school.
“We offer help to them and their baby. The help they offer comes from pregnancy resource centers, and walking with them through their pregnancy and continuum of care for the entire length of the pregnancy and beyond and we offer our prayers,” McClung said.
Marilynn Fields comes everyday to pray at the abortion clinic. McClung thanked her for being a silent witness and encouraged her to keep coming.
“Whenever you’re discouraged don’t be, because the ‘no show’ rate rises 50 percent when people are praying,” McClung said.
She said everyone should pray on site. “It impresses upon us the urgency of the genocide and the urgency of the crisis these women are in. Our presence affects their numbers,” McClung said.
According to Pulliam, who is also registrar of Rachel’s Vineyard a retreat program for women who have had an abortion, women who are registering to attend the post abortion retreats are in there 50s.
“Statistically 10 years after a woman has had an abortion is when they realize they had done wrong. It begins to dawn on them that their lives have been messed up with depression, drug and alcohol addiction… and now they begin to see why. In a culture [where having an abortion] is like having your tooth pulled…society is beginning to develop a conscience,” Pulliam, who had an abortion in her youth, said.
Another woman present outside the clinic on this particular day was Sue Marks who is a post abortion clinic counselor for Refuge of Hope that offers an 8-week Bible study in tandem with Rachel’s Vineyard retreats.
“Sometimes being a sidewalk counselor can be uncomfortable,” McClung said. “A lot of the men and the boyfriends yell at me, but behind that anger is fear and if I need to take a little yelling to maybe saving some baby that day, I’ll do it.”