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October: Respect Life Month
Prayer, persuasion and funding aid
pro-life cause
By Andrew Junker, ajunker@catholicsun.org
October 2, 2008
Lynn Dyer stood on the sunny sidewalk at the corner of Seventh and Roma avenues Sept. 24, as she has for countless days over the past 20 years.
“Please don’t go in there today,” she called out to a woman who was entering the Planned Parenthood a few feet away. “Come talk to me instead.”
The woman didn’t respond, and entered the building. Dyer turned back toward the street as cars raced by.
She’s been a sidewalk counselor for more than two decades, standing outside abortion clinics and trying to convince the women entering — and the men accompanying them — not to go through with the abortions they’ve scheduled.
“I have to try to save the babies and help the women,” she said. “Abortion destroys their hearts and it’s something they can never forget.”
Dyer said she became involved in the pro-life movement years ago when she was driving by a Planned Parenthood and saw a group of people praying the rosary.
At the time, she didn’t know that abortions were performed at that site, so she turned her car around and asked the group why they were praying.
“You just think of abortion as a far off thing, and not something that’s happening in your own neighborhood,” she said. “Once I knew it was going on so close to me, I had to do something.”
So she stands outside with information on crisis pregnancy centers, handing out phone numbers women can call to get help and find alternatives to abortion.
But mostly, she said, she tries to bring the women hope.
“They’re in a panic mode when they come here and don’t think there’s any other choice,” she said. “Just being able to tell them that there’s another way can make all the difference.”
Dyer knows. One woman she persuaded to leave the abortion clinic asked her to be the child’s godmother.
This month, Dyer will have more men and women joining her on the sidewalk thanks to the 40 Days for Life national campaign. It seeks to end abortion through prayer, fasting and keeping vigil outside of abortion clinics in more than 170 cities throughout the country.
“I keep saying that the Lord is doing more than we can see,” said Beth Straley, a local coordinator for the campaign. “We just have to be faithful and not worry about being successful. That’s in God’s hands.”
Dyer agreed.
“Prayer is the most important,” she said. “Our prayerful presence is so effective.”
Changing the culture
Mike Phelan, diocesan director of the Office of Marriage and Respect Life Issues, said that prayer lays the foundation of all pro-life efforts.
At the same time, making the culture more welcoming to life also requires legislative efforts, education and supporting the grass-roots network of organizations that provide assistance to women in crisis pregnancies.
This coming Respect Life Sunday, Oct. 5, Catholics can support pro-life initiatives by giving to a special collection.
The funds collected in the Sanctity of Life collection will mainly go to VirtueMedia, a company that produces pro-life commercials aired in the Phoenix area.
“It’s an outreach to 98 percent of the homes in the diocese with the message of a culture of life,” Phelan said. “The ads are particularly focused on women who may be experiencing a crisis pregnancy and the mothers of those women who we know are a big part of how those decisions are made.”
Each ad also features a toll-free number viewers can call that will connect them to an operator who can provide resources and guide them to a pro-life clinic.
Tom Peterson, president and founder of VirtueMedia, said the results of the commercials are overwhelmingly positive. In 2007, more than 4,500 women called the toll free number and were helped.
So far in 2008, more than 1,500 abortion-vulnerable women and 1,000 post-abortive women seeking healing have been helped by the campaign.
“We’re not surprised by the results because we know it’s God’s will to spread hope and good will,” Peterson said. “But this year it may be tougher with the economic challenges. Our money is down. Everyone thinks someone else will help out.”
This year new campaigns will air in the Phoenix market. One features Norma McCorvey — the Jane Roe in the U.S. Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion in the United States. She had a conversion years ago and now speaks out against abortion.
Another ad is called “Window.” It uses recent advances in medical technology as a virtual window to the womb. Inside, viewers will see a 10-week-old fetus that already looks fully human.
“The young women in Planned Parenthood are often told it’s just a blob of tissue,” Peterson said. “The ‘Window’ ad shows them it’s a human life.”
Andrea Summer, a senior at Arizona State University and public relations director for ASU Students for Life, said that many of her classmates are poorly informed as to what abortion actually is.
That’s why the club brought the Justice for All Exhibit to campus in the past. The exhibit includes huge photos of aborted babies.
“So many people view abortion as just a harmless procedure,” Summer said. “Seeing the pictures helps the students grasp what abortion actually is, whether they want to know or not.”
The exhibit draws many strong responses from the crowd, to say the least.
“There’s a lot of anger and disgust. They don’t want to see the images or be confronted with the truth,” Summer said.
“But there’s also a lot of confusion at first. I think a lot of them just have misguided notions. When we talk to students on campus, you find that many of them haven’t thought about why they believe what they believe,” she said. “They may be pro-choice by default, just because that’s the acceptable position.”
ASU Students for Life also helps direct women to pro-life resources and offers training for students to speak eloquently on life issues.
A holistic approach to the issue is what pro-life advocates everywhere should strive for, Phelan said, and it’s helped keep the fight alive for the past three decades.
“We’ve kept abortion from becoming a nice word. That’s a success,” he said. “In much of the developed world a lot of this debate is passé. But it won’t go away in the United States.”
And neither will Lynn Dyer, who has no plans of abandoning her post outside Phoenix abortion clinics. As she stood alongside the road holding a sign that read, “Pray to end abortion,” a pickup truck blew past her, horn honking.
“It’s about 50-50 whether the honk is in anger or support,” Dyer explained. “But I think I saw that driver giving me a thumbs-up.”
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