Protesting.

I seem to be in the "personal stories" mode. One of the previous posts had many comments on protestors. I have actually been a protestor. Let me tell you about my first time.

I had 2 small babies in the late 80's. I was involved in the pro-life movement through my Church. I had counseled at a pregnancy crisis center called Birthright. Birthright has offices all over the country and has been around since the 60's. It is not political, but it offers resources to mothers with unplanned pregnancies. Everything from Lamaze classes to Doctor appts. To diapers to formula. I was a busy young mother at the time also involved with the Nurturing Network, a crisis pregnancy organization that focused on helping single pregnant women in college. Finding jobs, college transfers, and shelter.

"Operation Rescue' was in full swing at the time. If you don't remember, it was the summer Rev. Flip Benham went to abortion clinics all over to protest. The protestors would go slack as they were arrested just as those did in the civil rights and peace movements of the 60's. Of course, that is not how the media portrayed them at all. It just so happened that I had a lovely 18 yr old babysitter from my Church named Mary. She told me she was joining Operation Rescue in Dallas that summer. I was very concerned. To be honest I have always found protests silly. I never see them change things. Perhaps they did have an impact in the 60's, but now they seemed like the 'lefts' way of getting on TV. But this wasn't the left by any stretch of the imagination.

So the next Saturday morning I drove over to Dallas to show support for Mary. I expected wild rantings from "those evangelicals" screaming "murderer!" and the like. That was the media had led me to believe. But what I found was a peaceful display of young mothers with children. Grandmothers, and few young men. The abortion clinic was surrounded by policemen on horses.

I sorta wandered around chatting with different people, looking for Mary. What I didn't know was that Mary had snuck into the abortion clinic as a 'patient' and was counseling the girls there not to go through with the abortions.

A couple of interesting things. There was LOTS of media. One cameraman started kind of following me around. I guess because I was speaking to many of the people and he wanted a good shot of something, because nothing exciting was going on. I spoke to a Hispanic grandmother who had been praying the rosary. She pointed to one of the policemen on a horse and said "That is my nephew." She smiled at him and did a little wave. He kinda smiled back and shook his head. "I kid him that one day he will have to arrest me." she giggled. I smiled. "You do this often?" I asked. "I come every Saturday and silently pray the rosary." she answered.

Scary stuff. These people.

Then a very strange thing happened. Suddenly from the 2nd story balcony of the abortion clinic they brought out a 9 foot purple paper mache woman. Her arms were attached with elastic and they had sticks glued to the back of her hands so she could wave back and forth. Some woman from the balcony shouted that she was the goddess of something ( I couldn't understand her and I never found out what goddess, seems the reporters there weren't that interested in finding out) I turned to the cameraman that had been following me and said, "Aren't you going to film that???" He looked reluctant..."I guess so" he said. "YOU GUESS SO???? THIS isn't newsworthy???? THIS isn't interesting enough for the local news????" I said.

He filmed it, but I never saw it on any news station or written up in the newspaper. It occurred to me later that the station may have told him to only film that which made the pro-lifers look nutty, not the other way around. I just can't explain it any other way.

Finally, Mary and 2 other girls were arrested along with Flip Benham, he was arrested for stepping onto the property. THAT made the news of course. Mary was a straight A student, very active in school and church activies. She had no arrest record. The judge threw her jail for 3 months. Mary spent the summer before going to college in jail. We wrote each other and her attitude was wonderful. She looked at it as an opportunity to share her faith with the other women in jail. Her outlook and tenacity and faith made me remember my own 18 yr old summer spent combing the beaches of Hawaii, surfing, and trying to find the cutest guy with the best tan to take me dancing. Feeling pretty shallow in comparison, I decided to go to a few more protests ( not with Operation Rescue, just local prayer vigils in front of abortion clinics ) Nothing exciting or even confrontational ever happened. Once a security guard asked one of the young men with us why we were doing this. The young man answered "Have you seen a 6-12 week old fetus?, the heart is beating, brain waves can be detected. They don't do abortions before then." The security guard said "you're lying." "Go look it up yourself." said the young man.
We never saw the security guard there again. Maybe he did look it up.

An interesting thing also occurred that summer. Norma McCovery (Jane Roe of the infamous Roe v. Wade case) became a Christian, later a Catholic and denounced all things to do with the pro-choice movement. She became adamantly pro-life.

Those of us in the movement knew of her conversion. But none of us called the news outlets. We felt it was personal for her and it wasn't our place. At the time I was an avid caller into talk shows and I had to BITE MY FINGERS to keep me from calling it in sometimes when they were discussing the pro-lifers. Months later a reporter noticed her at a pro-life center and asked her what the hell she was doing there. That is when the story became news. She said that the pro-choice movement never did anything but use her. Making her lie at the beginning of Roe v. Wade and say she was raped.
But the pro-lifers never did anything but help her.

I didn't do anymore protesting. I felt my concern was with helping the young girls who found themselves pregnant and alone.

I have mixed feelings about protesting. I feel that it is so watered down now that no one really pays attention. I also feel that too many spend their time protesting thinking that that makes them a better person. Well, holding up a sign that says "I'm sorry" and taking a picture of yourself doesn't help mankind, I can tell you that for sure.

In case your wondering. Mary graduated from college. She is a teacher and a happily married mother of 3.

I still call her my little ex con.