Family Planning Associates
The following comes from a Jan. 10 email sent by Helpers of God’s Precious Infants who counsel and pray in front of Family Planning Associates, Miramar Rd.

Business was as usual today at FPA.  Many of the couples going into FPA were not honest with the counselors about where they were going, some were very vague, and so it was hard to have an open dialogue.  One of the counselors was able to address a young man who was on the balcony with his girlfriend.  The young man came down the steps to talk with the counselor.  The counselor warned him about FPA and the medical history of the doctor.  He told the counselor he was not happy his ex-girlfriend was here and that he was opposed to abortion.  He said he and his ex-girlfriend have a baby together who is now one year of age.  However, now, the woman is pregnant from another man and she did not want to have the baby.

The man went up the steps to talk with her and get her out.  Several minutes later, they both came down, and the young woman was in tears.  The counselor approached them and was told that her insurance would not cover the abortion.  The counselor told her this was a sign that she should not be at FPA or have an abortion.  She told the counselor she was 12 weeks and the counselor showed her a model of what her baby would look like.  The man told the counselor that her mother was also opposed to the abortion.  The counselor urged them to go to COLFS [Culture of Life Family Services] and talked to them both about adoption.  The counselor gave the woman a copy of the film Sidewalk Chronicles and told her to watch this before she decided on anything.  By the time the couple left, the woman was smiling.  Please pray for this woman who is very scared about all that she is faced with.

Planned Parenthood
The following comes from a Jan. 11 email sent by another Helpers counselor who works in front of Planning Parenthood, First and Grape streets.

Unfortunately, yesterday morning was pretty busy at PP.  Very few people would accept information or stop to talk.  One person, however, came out and talked to us, and told us that we were “scaring people”.  Apparently this is because someone inside was very upset and decided to leave.  We were not aware that this happened, but if so, please pray for this person that she is able to stay strong in her decision.

The person who came out and talked to us, instead of just yelling at us and walking off, politely explained her point of view. She made the familiar argument about all the orphanages where children get raped, etc., saying that is more merciful to abort children so they don’t end up in that kind of situation, and not every woman is meant to be a mother.  She then listened to us explain our point of view.  We agreed with her that we are not able to prevent all suffering, and not every woman is meant to be a mother, and we talked about the Lamb of God maternity home [Escondido], and gave her a brochure, She seemed to be favorably impressed that we weren’t just there to condemn but were there to offer solutions.   However, she still maintained that sometimes abortion is the right solution, at which we countered that the taking of an innocent life is never the right solution, and we don’t know the future for any child.

What was interesting with her is that she never disputed that an unborn child is a human life. She just thought abortion was the correct choice to prevent suffering, We asked why would it not be OK to kill hungry and sick people to end their suffering ? To which she responded “we don’t know what the future will be for them, maybe we can make their lives better”.  She was not able to see the irony of her response.