More Reflections from Monday

They started their rally by raising banners and setting up a literature table on the sidewalk. When the speakers started they all stopped doing that and moved into the corner of the plaza. When Debbie and Lee Anne walked by them on the sidewalk, they scurried to move their table. While gathered they were set far back from the street and were ensconced in the corner, though they were passing out fliers and pins and such before the speaking began. They didn't try to draw people into their circle or engage passers-by. For all intents and purposes it was a "closed event"; maybe even a circling of the wagons. But maybe we only see what we want to see. This is in contrast to the SNMA events here, which are open and in a public park with lots of room for foot traffic. The women speak on top of a 5 ft. high stage to reach as many people as possible. Yet we can only pray for the kind of the media coverage they got.

There were 2 elected officials who spoke there -- Rep. Baghdad Jim McDermott and King County Executive Ron "keeping-abortion-common" Simms. There was also a "Baptist" minister, and employee of Planned Parenthood of Western Washington, parading around in a Roman collar (pretending to be Catholic?) What an outrage.

When we arrived there was only one police man. About half-way through he started giving me dirty looks (And I didn't even have a sign!) and I noticed the number of police/security had increased to 5 or 6. I think it took the police some time before they realized that the message "I regret my abortion" was not exactly a stunning endorsement of abortion or part of the "pro-choice" lexicon. Or maybe they just didn't bother to read the signs. Or maybe NARAL complained or Ron Simms got worried.

Debbie and Lee Anne mostly walked back and forth on 2nd Avenue. Two pro-life friends came out and supported us by walking along with Debbie and Lee Anne. Jim Anderson of LifeNews Radio was also there, prayed with us and conducted some interviews. There was very little reaction from either the pro-choice participants or random pedestrians. Everyone on the street was pretty blasé. It seemed to me that most of the older women 50+ wouldn't look at us or had the hardest (or easiest) time ignoring the signs. They seemed to be fussing with the brochures on their literature table a lot.

And this...

As for my two cents worth about yesterday I do feel it is important to make a presence at these pro abort gatherings, even if they are pathetic, if only for the reason that we at least provide another side of the story. I only had one woman pass close by me who was maybe 60 or so and hiss the S_ _ _ word at me. I also talked with that young man Lee Anne talked to since his main focus was on the right for a woman to have a choice, even if it wasn't a good experience for all women, at least the government isn't making a choice for them. Lee Anne had told him that hers was when abortion was illegal and I told him mine was right after it became legal in Washington and the result to both of us was eventually the same when we came to grips with what we had done. The legality of it didn't matter a bit, it still caused trauma to both of us. He was polite and we parted politely and Lee Anne gave him a
card.

Lee Anne and I should feel flattered that we would warrant an increase in the police protection. Let's see that is 3 policeman each for both of us. We are a couple of really scary post abortive women with a lot of positive anger!