Dr. Marissa Ogle has written a pro-life book based on her struggles with abortion’s aftermath. In her book Still Healing: A Doctor’s Story of Abortion she details the suffering she went through after her abortion and her slow journey towards healing.
She recalls leaving the abortion facility after her abortion and seeing pro-life demonstrators holding signs. At the time this made her angry, but she later wished they had been there to stop her on her way in:
[A]s I left through the front door of the clinic that day there were several protesters on the front sidewalk. I could feel their stares penetrating me as I avoided their eyes. The best I could muster at that moment was anger towards them. ‘How can they be here at a time like this? They have no idea what I’m going through. I wish they would keep their opinions to themselves.’ What would I say to those people now? ‘Thank you for being here and standing up for what you believe in’? Or would it be ‘Why couldn’t you have been there to stop on my way in?’
What sidewalk counseling looks like (Photo: Austin Coalition for Life)
This is why pro-life sidewalk counseling is so very important. Had the pro-lifers been there on her way in, they might have spared Dr. Ogle years of grief and pain. Had even one person been present at the abortion facility when Ogle arrived, the whole course of her life could have been changed. She might now be the mother of a child. Instead, her child was killed through abortion and lost to the world forever. Pro-lifers weren’t there and a child died.
Many pro-lifers think women going into abortion facilities have already made up their minds. For some, this may be true. But other women are struggling with their decision.
According to a survey conducted by David Reardon, 40-60 percent of women going into abortion facilities are still unsure of their decision. 44 percent said that they were actively hoping to find an option other than abortion. And yet, the counseling they received in the abortion facility only pressured them into abortions. 66 percent of post-abortion women in the survey said their counselors were biased towards the abortion option. Only five percent said their counselors encouraged them to ask questions.
It is likely that a woman will not be presented with support to have her baby while she is inside an abortion facility. She will not hear the truth about her preborn baby’s development. She will not be given information about resources that are available in the community for new mothers. The abortion facility counselors do not tell her these things. Rather, they often pressure women into having abortions. After all, an abortion facility does not make money unless a woman goes through with her abortion.
It falls on pro-lifers to be there for women and present alternatives to them. Women going into an abortion facility need hope and support, and pro-lifers can give that to them.
Source: Marissa Ogle, M.D. Still Healing: (2016) 16
