“Choice” tactics: Scraping shovels without snow

It has been a winter with the smallest amount of snow that I can recall in recent years, and yet a strange thing has been happening recently at the corner of the Red River Valley where abortions happen each Wednesday. The snow shovels have been out and working hard.

When I first saw it happening, it seemed surreal. But then it continued the next week, and the week after that as well. The facility’s escorts have been pulling out snow shovels and scraping them, upside-down, against the dry pavement of their parking lot as clients arrive, preventing our words of hope from reaching abortion-minded clients before they make an irreversible decision. It makes a bit of a racket, as you might imagine.
You can’t make this stuff up, and that’s not the end of it. A few weeks ago, I saw what looked to be a black charcoal grill cover near one of the escorts’ vehicles, which is usually parked strategically to be a barrier between the sidewalk and the facility entryway, preventing an easy view of clients entering. Though I missed the clashing moment, a friend sent me a photo the next week of an escort using the grill lid to block the voice of a sidewalk advocate trying to reach the women with pro-life resources over a nearby fence.

These “helpers” of the facility now wear rainbow vests with “CLINIC ESCORT” emblazoned across the front, though previous vests had “PRO-CHOICE ESCORT” written on them. I’ve always been confused by that designation, since the word “choice” strongly implies that they want the women, and men, to have choices. We are presenting options that don’t involve taking a life to those who arrive there each week, scared or angry and broken. It might be the last chance they have to reverse course, preventing further wounds. But from appearances, the escorts seem intent on the opposite: making sure clients are prevented from learning about these alternatives.

Additionally, the escorts, rain or shine, typically don large, rainbow-colored umbrellas. Of course, there’s no rain this time of year, so why the rain-catching devices? The only association with rain I can come up with is that tears will soon be falling because of this decision, if not that day, then someday. The umbrellas also create another handy barrier between us and the clients.

And why rainbows? After I shared on Facebook some videos and photos showing these tactics and props, one friend called the escorts’ actions “bizarre.” Another questioned the rainbows, wondering if they were making a political statement. It certainly seems so, but why would a facility claiming to provide a specific service—abortion—employ symbols that seem to have nothing to do with their stated cause? If they care about the clients as they claim, shouldn’t they focus on the task at hand and leave other controversial topics at home?

I ask these questions because it’s important to think about what those in the abortion industry state as their mission (helping women, providing healthcare, etc.) and what their actions show. Do the two coincide?
I just don’t see it and would have to agree with my friend who deemed their actions “bizarre.” They don’t seem to be gestures of individuals confident in what they are doing, or who have as their highest aim honoring those who seek them out for help. Rather, they are actions of women and men who are confused themselves and have lost their True North. It appears, by their actions, that they have lost sight of God.
It might seem like my words are unfair. After all, I’m talking about people who were, at one time, “a thought in the mind of God,” just as you and I were. While that is very true, introducing incongruency into a suffering situation is wrong and needs to be called out.

I don’t wish ill on these escorts. Rather, I want them to not miss the very point of their lives. They are just as worth saving as the babies who likely will perish with their “help.” These sorely misguided souls need our prayers just as much, and I urge you to join me and the other advocates in doing just that, with earnestness and hope.

“I, the Lord, have called you for justice, I have grasped you by the hand; I formed you, and set you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring prisoners from confinement, and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness” (Isa. 42:6-7).