It’s one thing to know that 2,363 babies’ lives are lost to abortion daily in America and another to stand in front of a building dedicated to contributing to that number daily. It’s one thing to know that abortion is happening and another to watch a worker toss a tray full of murdered babies into a dumpster on the side of the street to be taken out with the rest of the trash. It’s one thing to know that abortion is not healthcare and another to watch a woman carried out of there on a stretcher into an ambulance. It’s one thing to know that darkness hates the light and another to have people on the street scream at you and literally spit at you for silently praying for the end of abortion. It’s one thing to know of the hardness of hearts of the lost and another to watch clinic workers laugh at you and stand in complete indifference to the fact that they are murdering babies day in and day out. Our pro-life student group at Moody has seen all of this and more at Planned Parenthood as we go down there 3 times a week. Praying outside an abortion clinic moves Christians from merely intellectually affirming abortion as murder to having hearts and lives affected by this truth.
What It Does In You
I’ll never forget the first time I stood outside of a Planned Parenthood, my first semester at Moody. I have been pro-life and recognized abortion as murder for as long as I can remember, but I stood heartbroken and cried over abortion as never before when physically standing by the dumpsters on the side of the building where the bodies of the aborted babies are thrown. As you stand there, the reality of abortion stares you in the face, and you can’t look away or stand passive. It breaks your heart in a way that praying in your room won’t. You pray for the end of abortion with greater burden standing outside this building dedicated to murder. The extent of the brokenness of this world weighs heavy on your heart. Your desire to bring the gospel to the lost grows. And the command to rescue those being taken away to the slaughter convicts deeper. Praying outside abortion clinics leaves you deeply burdened at, disgusted with, and heartbroken over the murder of the unborn. And that moves you to pray for the end of abortion with greater passion and conviction.
What It Says To Others Who Pass By
In a world that celebrates abortion, you standing there in prayer shows that you mourn the murder of the unborn. Even your silent prayer outside an abortion clinic says that you see, care about, and mourn what takes place in that building. As those who pass you by literally spit on you, scream at you and laugh at you, your silent presence in prayer tells others that we look to God for approval and deliverance, not to the world. As we pray, while they laugh, we show them that we, Christians, accomplish more in prayer than by any act of ourselves. As cars drive by, people walk by, and life goes on around this clinic, our presence there says we will not passively go about our day as lives are lost here. It says that we see and care for each life lost in that building. It tells our community to take a minute to stop and think about what is going on in this building.
Praying there says you will use your voice to be a voice for the voiceless. It opens doors for conversation with those passing by, to share the gospel and speak the truth in love. Your presence, even in silent prayer, speaks volumes to those walking by. If you have never prayed outside an abortion clinic, I encourage you to please do so at least once. And I doubt if you go once, that you will only go once. It may break your heart in a way you may never expect, and move you to live out your pro-life conviction passionately.
What It Says To The Workers
Every Saturday outside the clinic, there are workers who guard their door, telling us to stay 8 feet away and trying to stop us from talking to the women, telling the women not to talk to us, and trying to stop us from talking to them and from giving them pro-life resources. Saturdays outside the clinic are some of the most draining days. I remember my first time going down there on a Saturday, I came back to Moody completely drained and exhausted. But I also felt a sense of conviction to go back, and deep joy because that Saturday, was the first time I had ever shared the gospel with an abortion clinic worker. As draining as these days are, they are also the only days in the week where we have the opportunity to reach the clinic workers with the gospel, remind them of the truth of abortion, and pray for them in front of them. That’s why, entering this past semester, I changed our student group schedule to include Saturdays in our weekly schedule being one of the three days we go down there. Watching the workers laugh at us, and stand there in complete indifference as they guard the door to a building that murders babies weighs heavy on your heart. Yet over this past semester, we have had many conversations with the workers, sharing the gospel with them, praying in front of them, and encouraging them to leave Planned Parenthood. What if God uses our presence there to open even one worker’s eyes to know Him, and convict even one worker to leave? Wouldn’t that make it all worth it, even if it’s draining in the moment? But even if that doesn’t happen, it’s still worth it, because we glorify God by standing up for the truth. We pray outside the clinic, looking to God, knowing that at any moment He can shut that place down, but we also stand knowing that even if He doesn’t, He is still good and we go down there to glorify Him. On the discouraging days, we remember that we may not always see the fruit of our labor, maybe not even in our own lifetime, but we know that when our labor is for the Lord, it is never in vain.
No More Looking The Other Way
Passivity on abortion is the result of suppressing the reality of it. Our society is working desperately to make everyone look the other way on abortion. We don’t call abortion what it is to suppress the reality of it. Conviction to act on the evil of abortion is suppressed because the reality of it, as murder, is not weighing on us as heavily as it should. The world has made it so easy to drive and walk by these clinics and go about our day, and not even take a moment to think about it at all, or feel the weight of what happens in there. We have to change that.
As we pray outside a clinic, passivity is replaced by passion.
As we pray there, we remember thousands of lives are being sacrificed inside of what they call clinics.
As we pray there, we remember that right inside those doors, babies are being ripped apart limb by limb from their mother’s womb.
As we pray there, we are overcome by deep sorrow knowing that life that God has created, is now tossed in the trash on the side of the street.
As we pray there, we cannot look the other way.
As we stand there, knowing a life is lost and we can’t stop it, frustration and discouragement seems to overwhelm. And that deep frustration and discouragement leads us to look to the Lord, to pray for the end of abortion with greater burden.
As we pray there, while people yell at us, laugh and spit at us, we are burdened by the hardness of the hearts of the lost. And as we stand in that burden, our gratitude for the cross grows, leading us to pray in humility.
And as we pray in humility, we will stand there knowing that the only reason we are not working there or doing worse than those abortion workers, is by the grace of God, for He has opened our eyes to know Him. And that truth moves us to pray for the lost with deeper conviction. And in that reminder, our passion for evangelism grows.
As we stand there, we pray with greater burden that these workers would find hope and forgiveness in Christ, come to know Him, and leave this place.
Standing there, we pray with the burden of knowing day by day, more and more dumpsters are being filled with the bodies of babies that are murdered in there.
How many more lives have to be lost in these clinics before we Christians stop looking the other way?
As we pray there, we are reminded deeply of the brokenness of the world and the need for the gospel.
“Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.” -Proverbs 24:11
