Why pray for abortion clinic workers?

I was recently honored to be asked to write a short article fo rthe  St. Joseph Catholic Family Center in Manchester, NH. In particular, she asked me why prolifers should care about people working in abortion clinics. I only had about 250 words to work with, but this is the article. I would love to hear your thoughts.

When I worked at Planned Parenthood and marched in prochoice rallies, I never imagined I would one day be a prolife activist. I believed abortion was not only a right, but a good thing. I didn't know or believe that it was the taking of a life. Why was that? Was it because I buried the pain of my own abortion at age nineteen? Was it because abortion had become inextricably linked in the feminist cause?

              While we can't know for sure why any given individual chooses to work at an abortion clinic, we do know that each one is caught up in an unending web of lies. When everyone around you tells you abortion is a moral choice, even your own family, it is hard to think otherwise.
              It is hard to understand these choices, and sometimes we feel anger, even hatred, toward those participating in abortions. But we must remember them in our prayers, even the doctor performing the abortions. Not because we feel compassion toward them, but because Jesus commands it of us. Remember Mark 2:17: “ And hearing this, Jesus said to them, "It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners." We don't get to decide who is worthy of our prayers. We pray for the salvation of all souls – all souls, even those that make us feel anger and disgust. For the sake of God’s kingdom, we must pray for them. Somebody was praying for me, and my conversion came. Let us pray for the conversion of all abortion workers and doctors. Jesus expects no less.

"They don't care about babies."

One of the common themes of Planned Parenthood's rhetoric is that pro-lifers don't really care about babies. They claim that the "radical right/Christians" are crazy, violent fanatics bent on taking away a woman's rights, but once the baby is here, we scatter and are nowhere to be found.

When I worked for Planned Parenthood, I really believed this. Not being personally acquainted with anyone on the "other side," I truly thought all pro-lifers were women-haters obsessed with controlling women's autonomy.

As a women's studies major in college, I was taught that feminism was synonymous with progressive-ism. Feminists could not be racist, because we were fighting against oppression. Feminism equaled anti-poverty, anti-racism, anti-oppression in all forms, because once the genders were "equal" society would be perfect.

 Planned Parenthood has been extremely effective in marketing itself as a "pro-women's" organization. It has allied itself with radical feminists, such as Gloria Steinem, and in doing so has effectively crushed any dissent. Any criticism of PP is perceived and labeled as an attack on womanhood itself. (Or, womynhood, as some feminists prefer to spell it). This rhetoric has become so accepted by the popular culture and media that nobody even questions it.

Yet, one of the first things that troubled me while I was working at PP was the overt racism and classism that permeated its mentality and business practices. In fact, one of the prime arguments of PP supporters is "how are the antiabortion extremists going to pay for all these babies on welfare? How are they going to support all of these poor women?" Basically they are saying that if you are poor you should have an abortion so we don't have to pay for all your d*&n kids! Right?

The logic is that an unwanted baby = misery, drugs, violence and poverty, therefore abortion is the answer. Does that make sense to you? I started to realize how awful it was that the largest "feminist" organization was the worst perpetrator of violence against women. Because abortion is a violent act. It intentionally murders a child. A child inside a woman's womb. PP doesn't care why you want the abortion - they just want you to have it. The majority of women I dealt with were having abortions because a baby didn't fit into their life plans. We never counseled them as to how they could have their baby and still have a great life, we simply took their medical history and sent them to the abortion room.

Here is what I have learned.  They lied to me. They lied to me, manipulated me, and used me to murder babies. And the so-called radical fanatics? They are the only ones doing anything for babies. They financially support women who need it, they pay for cars, apartments, doctor appointments. They help people get housing, medical care, parenting classes, birthing classes, clothes for baby, diapers, daycare. they do whatever it takes to help women have their babies.

. I don't want to give any details that might compromise the privacy of the mother, but through a mutual friend I met a young lady last summer who was thinking of having an abortion. She was in her second-trimester. After emailing and sending her some information, she decided to have the baby. Now, she is not in the best relationship and the baby tested positive for drugs when he was born, but mom is trying to do all the right things because she loves her baby and wants to be a great mom. My husband and I are foster parents to the baby and have taken her into our home so that her mom can get her life together. Now, Planned Parenthood says she should have had an abortion. As I gaze down on this precious child, I can only think that she disagrees. And her mom, who had she walked into PP would have had an abortion, is so happy she chose the gift of life for her child.

Planned Parenthood claims pro-lifers and crisis pregnancy centers trick women and don't really help them. I have living proof that this is not true.If this mother had an abortion, she would have to live with that for the rest of her life. Already using drugs and in a bad relationship, she might have sunk lower and lower into despair. But now, having a child, she is trying to do the right thing and get her life together. Her child has given her hope!

Due dates

I've heard a lot of post-abortive women talk about the pain they experience on their baby's duedate, or the anniversary of their abortion. But for me, I don't have any of that. I don't remember what day it was, and I have no idea what my duedate was. I know the abortion was around the first week of May because it was just before the annual Walk for Hunger in Boston that I was planning on attending.

Other than that, I have no idea when my baby would have been born. I never named her/him, it never even occurred to me to do so. When I walked out of that abortion clinic, I never thought about that baby again for years. The happiness I had experienced when I found out I was pregnant was replaced with a bitterness and anger. Anger at those people who kept insisting that abortion was the killing of a child. Didn't they know it was just a blob of tissue? Why did they think it was a baby?

What I realize now is that in having an abortion, in killing my baby, I lost a piece of my humanity. In order to see the humanity of the child, I would have to admit my own participation in murder. And when everyone you know insists that abortion is a good thing, it is very hard to see otherwise. In fact, this is exactly why pro-abortion people villify pro-lifers the way they do and label us "extremists."

It has become extreme to care about the unborn. It is extreme to offer alternatives. It is extreme to care for the babies of women who feel they have no other choice than abortion due to various life circumstances. It is extreme to have compassion. It is extreme to think of human babies as being human. I'll take the extreme label, thank you very much, and in the meantime try to recapture that piece of my humanity that was taken from me when my baby was killed.