There was a car accident, and three people died at Hillcrest Women's Medical Center in Harrisburg yesterday!
A woman was leaving Hillcrest in obvious distress. She hadn't had any procedure that morning, but she was in tears as she drove fast down the driveway. She put her turn signal on, and didn't look at the pro-life sidewalk advocates as they tried to warn her she was turning the wrong way!
Front Street is one way after Division, and this is just a few blocks from that change. This woman obviously didn't know that about Harrisburg (she's from two hours away). So she turned left into one of the two lanes of oncoming traffic.
She was clearly not happy about our presence, and distracted by our pro-life efforts. That may or may not have been part of the reason she turned the wrong way. I have seen two other drivers going the wrong way down Front Street at this location. I've also seen another accident when a woman turned left across the additional lane of traffic, not realizing that it was flowing in her same direction. It's not a safe street for people who are from out of town. There are no one-way signs on Front Street for several blocks.
She didn't see our warnings, and turned into a minivan. The drivers managed to avoid a head-on collision, hitting almost wheel against wheel instead. All the airbags deployed in the minivan.
No one was seriously hurt in the accident, thank God.
But wait, you say, didn't I just say that three people died? Yes. Yes, three people died inside of the Hillcrest Women's Medical Center, where Dr. Thweat was working. Three abortions took away three people's lives before they were even born.
A lot of people came out of the neighboring buildings and were very angry about the car accident. One man railed against our efforts, accusing us of causing this accident and being a danger to society. The woman, weeping openly after the accident, said that we were chasing her. The police officer said that witnesses reported that we were yelling at her.
It was a mess. Emotions were hot. Tensions were high.
In all of the anger and tension, no one mentioned the three people who died.
Our society has completely ignored unborn human beings when their mothers choose abortion. We had firemen, police officers, and EMTs on the scene within minutes of the car accident. These emergency responders all rushed to the scene to protect human life. They didn't save the three lives who died at Hillcrest yesterday.
They didn't even try.
Our team did try. We were offering these new gift packets to everyone who went in or out of Hillcrest. These gift packets are designed to show how much these women mean to us. They are representative of our prayers and our support for those who are choosing abortion. Sadly, no one took our resources today. The three women who came for abortions went through with them.
But we tried. At the very least, these three women who chose abortion now know that there are people who are willing to help them, no matter what.
These other packets are the ones we offer women as they leave. We tell them that we are praying for them, and that this can be a turning point in their lives. We encourage them to seek out post-abortion healing resources, like Rachel's Vineyard, to get healing and help.
We don't hate anyone there, we are trying to help them.
I know that people will be - and already are - using this car accident to bolster their argument that pro-life sidewalk advocates should not be allowed to do what we do. People don't want to be informed about what is going on in Hillcrest. Our presence makes them aware of the abortions going on. We are agitating.
Was our presence a contributing factor to this accident? I can't say. Our neighbors certainly see it that way. The police officer also sees it that way. "Badge 26" (the only name he would give us) said things like, "If I find the facts to prove what I'm sure happened here, I'll charge you with obstructing traffic." He came with a preconceived idea based on "What I've seen before" that we were heckling this young woman.
That is not true. Our presence may have had a major emotional impact on her, but we never heckled her. As soon as the pro-life advocates made sure that everyone was ok, they ran to get a chair for the young woman to sit on as she collected herself. One of our advocates even gave her a hug as she stood there in tears.
We were there to help her. Did our efforts backfire and cause more harm than good? Should we stop being there?
The neighbor thinks we should. The abortion staff member who called us "idiots" thinks we should. The police officer ("Badge 26") thinks we should.
What do you think?
I think that we are doing good. Lives have been saved. Women have been healed from the pain of abortion. The truth has been getting out there. People are being woken up to the horrors of abortion going on inside of Hillcrest.
I think we should do everything we can to protect innocent life. We should make every effort to ensure that people don't turn the wrong way down Front Street. We should also make every effort to protect innocent unborn human beings from abortion. We should not give up doing good. We should continue pursuing life.
And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.
- Galatians 6:9