10/15/2009
Vigil keepers seeking to save lives at Oregon’s abortion centers
| |
|
 |
| Vigil keepers seeking to save lives at Oregon’s abortion centers |
|
Ed Langlois
Non-violent vigils are under way in five Oregon cities as pro-life activists seek to build on increased public disfavor with abortion rights.
The protests will continue through Nov. 1 in Portland, Beaverton, Forest Grove, Salem and Eugene. Catholics lead the campaigns, which include prayer, fasting and gentle conversation with women coming for abortions.
Called 40 Days for Life, the campaigns are taking place in 212 U.S. cities.
The effort comes alongside a new poll from the Pew Research Center that portrays Americans as almost evenly split on abortion. Past polls often showed a 55 to 43 difference in favor. Added are recent scientific discoveries, like the revelation that fetuses have memory.
“It’s growing. It’s getting bigger. A lot of people’s hearts are being stirred,” says Becky Griffo, a member of St. Matthew Parish in Hillsboro who has taken part in the Beaverton vigils. “I hope it’s because people are realizing how important it is that we recognize the dignity of human life because it affects every other part of our lives.”
Also attending the Beaverton protests is Trisha Boyd. A member of St. Cecilia Parish, she knows the damage abortion can do and the wonders adoption can bring.
Boyd had an abortion when young and was wracked by guilt. Then, 26 years ago, as a mother of three separated from her husband, she became pregnant again. She knew she could not support the child. But she had made a vow to God to not have another abortion. She stood by that promise, despite pressure from friends to terminate the pregnancy.
Reading the newspaper one day, she ran across the story of Wayne and Karen Carlson, a Portland couple who had been bilked of an adopted child and their life savings in a scam run from India. The still-pregnant Boyd called them and asked to meet. An agreement emerged. The Carlsons would raise Boyd’s as yet unborn child.
The only thing Boyd asked was that he be raised Catholic.
The pregnancy got complicated, with surprise placenta problems. The boy was born at six months. He had to be kept alive by machines, suffered a stroke and developed cerebral palsy. The Carlsons wanted him anyway.
Now, Nate Carlson is 25 and lives in St. Louis, Mo. with his adoptive parents. Confined to a wheelchair, he has a resplendent personality and has touched many lives. Boyd stays in touch.
“It’s a passion of mine that people change the way they look at abortion and life,” she says.
All the vigil leaders say more volunteers are needed.
The duration, 40 days, has biblical connotations. It was for 40 days that Jesus fasted in the desert and overcame temptations before entering into his public ministry.
Christina DeGoede, 20, leads the daily vigil kept at Lovejoy Surgicenter in Northwest Portland. A member of Holy Rosary Parish, she knows the campaign will not end abortion soon, but is a step toward the goal.
DeGoede is enthused by the large number of young people who have taken part in the protest. The University of Portland’s pro-life group sends a delegation each Saturday.
“The main thing is to surround the place with prayer and carry on a loving outreach to the people who are coming to the clinic,” DeGoede says.
Liberty Grant, a 21-year-old from Portland, reported last week that she helped a young wife cancel her abortion at Lovejoy. After showing the pregnant woman a model of a 12-week-old fetus, Grant noticed her starting to shake uncontrollably. She comforted the woman and gave her information on pregnancy support and adoption.
“I’m going back in the hopes that more babies will have a chance to be saved,” Grant says.
At the site of a Planned Parenthood center under construction in Northeast Portland, hundreds are expected to line the streets on Nov. 1, when the 40 days end. That project has been controversial because Portland’s urban renewal office helped pave the way for the abortion center. The building also has raised charges of racism and profiteering, as it becomes clear that new Planned Parenthood centers nationwide are being placed in African American neighborhoods. Black women have abortions at higher rates than other groups.
“I know the vigils are having a definite affect,” says Marie Barzen, a dental hygienist who directs the weekly vigil in Beaverton. “Lives have been saved.”
In 2007, when the 40 Days effort started in Beaverton, the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Sorrows at Our Lady of Peace Retreat House had been attending the vigils. One afternoon, one of the sisters could not come and instead said a prayer at the Sisters’ chapel that a life be saved in Beaverton that day.
At about the same time at Planned Parenthood, an auto pulled into the lot. Inside it, a couple was arguing. Soon the car pulled out and drove past those keeping vigil. The woman rolled down the window and thanked the group for praying. “We are not going to abort our baby,” she called as the vehicle rolled away.
This year, almost 90 people attended the opening of the 40 days in Beaverton. Between 40 and 45 protesters have shown up each Friday since.
Barzen, a member of St. Cecilia Parish, says the vigils expressly avoid hard talk and politics. Even when foes insult them, the vigil-keepers try simply to pray for the aggressor.
“We have one clear message — to pray to end abortion,” Barzen says.
In Forest Grove, four women have been praying the rosary outside a local abortion clinic for decades. Nurses from the clinic have insulted Georgia Perry and her cohorts as “The Taliban Sisters.”
Perry, a member of St. Matthew Parish in Hillsboro, takes it in stride. She hopes those nurses some day will see the moral sense of the prayerful protests.
A dozen people came out for the opening of 40 Days for Life in Forest Grove and protesters continue to gather on Tuesdays, the usual day abortions are performed at the site.
“It’s not a happy situation there,” says Perry. “You see the girls coming out and you know something is wrong.”
In Salem, members of St. Edward Parish have covered Wednesdays and the people of St. Joseph Parish have come Fridays. Those are the days abortions are performed at Planned Parenthood on Wolverine Street in the state capital. In addition, the Knights of Columbus gather at the site on Saturdays.
“Those are people I can count on,” says Cheri Crocker, herself a member of St. Joseph and captain of the Salem 40 Days for Life campaign.
“We’re hoping that through prayer and the presence of people that maybe the women coming in to Planned Parenthood for all kinds of reasons see that there is someone else who is concerned about them and thinking about them and maybe they will wait before getting an abortion,” Crocker says.
Across the street, Crocker and other activists opened a pro-life pregnancy resource center, giving advice and supplies to women in crisis pregnancies.
In Eugene, a small band of protesters stands outside the Bours Health Center on East 11th each day. Not long ago, a young woman who had accompanied a friend getting an abortion approached the vigil keepers. There, she met protest organizer Kirsten Schneider. The two women exchanged opinions, the pro-choicer speaking up for a woman’s right to control her body and the pro-lifer saying that “no one should have complete dominion over the life of another.” They thanked each other for the civility.
“This is where change will happen, in peaceful dialogue,” says Schneider, a real estate broker who gives a piece of her earnings to the pro-life movement. “It will take compassion to try and understand where the opposition is coming from, because they have bought the lie.”
40 Days for Life campaigns
Portland
• Lovejoy Surgicenter, N.W. 25th and Lovejoy. Every day, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.
• Planned Parenthood, N.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Beech Street. Thursday and Friday night from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Beaverton
Planned Parenthood, 12220 S.W. First St. Fridays 8 a.m. - 8 p.m.
Forest Grove
Bours Health Center, 3303 19th Ave. Tuesdays 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Salem
Planned Parenthood, 3825 Wolverine St. Wednesday and Friday, 8 a.m. - 8 p.m.
Eugene
Bours Health Center, 539 E. 11th Ave. Every day 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. and Thursday and Friday 7 a.m. - 7 p.m.
|
|
