A woman who became an abortion activist explains why she got involved:
“They were out where you could see them, and you just [sighs and stutters]… I saw a lot of people who had abortions, and they said, this is what happened, this is what I killed. It was a very emotional experience for a lot of them… What I really saw was a lot of hurting people… I mean, the mothers is what really got me. When I saw all these women who were going through postabortion syndrome, and then most people don’t even recognize it is a real disease. I saw people that were really hurting and millions and millions upon millions more were doing this over and over… Seeing the babies – that made an impression on me that will probably stay with me forever – but I don’t think that was it. I guess a lot of it was hearing people stories… I was opened up to just really what abortion was doing to people. Especially to the mothers. So I decided that something needed to be done.”
She became involved in the Rescue movement, a movement in the late 1980s and early 1990s where large groups of pro-life protesters blocked abortion clinics in an attempt to prevent women from entering them and having abortions.
“When I go to a rescue, I’m trying to save people from hurt, trying to keep people from ruining their lives… I don’t think people know what the abortion is going to do to their child’s life and to their life. And to show them that they are valuable. Because people just do not feel valuable… When I see the women coming in. They’re thinking, “What about me? The most important thing is what situation I’m in, people aren’t going to help me, people aren’t going to love me. I’m going to be abandoned.” That’s really the first place to start. From there you can help the baby… It is a family problem, a social problem that can only be solved by dealing with the whole family… Not just to help the mother, but to help the whole family. Because if she’s going to keep that child, and if I don’t have a healthy mother, the child not going to feel good about themselves either. So by helping her, then I can help everybody.”
Carol JC Maxwell. Pro-Life Activists in America: Meaning Motivation and Direct Action. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002) 140 -143
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