"A young woman pedestrian took one of the leaflets that I offered here as she turned to walk up the driveway [to the abortion clinic]. She looked at it, then stopped, turned around, stared at T's sign (which said, "Face it, abortion kills a person"), and then she looked back at my sign ("Women deserve better than abortion. Talk to us - we can help").
She then came over to me and asked something about the help centers listed on one side of the leaflet. It turns out that she was heading for an abortion, so I showed her on the other side of the leaflet where it tells about the things that can happen to a woman when she has an abortion, and she acknowledged that she knew about that and was scared, but her boyfriend had left her, and she didn't want the baby.
I asked if she would be willing to have the baby and then give it to someone else, because there are many families wanting very much to adopt a baby and that would be a very loving thing to do. She said she knew it would be, but that the people she is living with would kick her out if they found out she was pregnant. I asked her to please contact one of the pregnancy help centers, because they would be able to help her both before and after the baby was born, and they might be able to find a place for her to stay. She said she was going to call then, but that she had an appointment and was going to go into the clinic. I asked her to please not let them talk her into getting an abortion, and I told her that many women who have abortions later realize that a baby was killed, and they feel guilty and regret it all their lives. She said again that she would definitely call the help centers. (Unfortunately, when I checked the hours of operation for the pregnancy help centers in Alexandria, none were open on Friday, so she couldn't go there immediately. I did notice later that the centers in Fall Church do have Friday hours.)
T. and I hesitated to leave the vigil if our hour was up before the woman came out of the clinic, because she might want to talk to someone again. But, thanks be to God, G. arrived just in time to fill that empty hour on the schedule! We told her the situation and described the woman. G. later called us and told us that she was able to talk to the woman after she left the clinic. It turns out that she was given an ultrasound while she in the clinic, and she showed G. the picture. They could not do the abortion that day because the woman had eaten breakfast. (Thank you, God!) G. said to her, "You know that this is a baby, don't you?" and the woman said yes. They exchanged phone numbers and the woman assured G. that she would contact a pregnancy help center. If G. hasn't heard from her in a couple of days, G. says that she will call her."
