Harmonizing Mother Earth & Baby in the Womb

Last week, for the 5th consecutive year, I  joined over 30 Survivors from all over southern California to stand for the sanctity of human life in the womb at Earth Fair in San Diego.  This fair is the largest environmental fair in the world, which takes place on the Sunday before Earth Day, on April 20th, where more than 50,000 attendees from all over come together to celebrate mother earth.  Groups stood to protect whales, walruses, and a variety of endangered species where they had their usual booths informing society of their causes.  Exotic hand made items, plants, and organic materials were sold; and in the middle of the mix Planned Parenthood had their usual pink booth set up where they “educated” about reproductive issues and counseled women.  

This year, Survivors returned with two booths: one booth was surrounded by the beautiful “Watch me Grow” fetal development signs with the theme “A Person’s a person, no matter how small.” from Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who.  The goal of this booth was to teach young children the beauty of life and of the developing child in the womb.  Children learned about life in the womb and participated in numerous arts and crafts, from beading to coloring in their own t-shirts with the outline of a pro-life cartoon.  
On the opposite side of the fair a “Life Booth” was set up with educational information about abortion and contraception, and the crowds were challenged to the reality of abortion with the use of graphic images.  

I find this is the perfect opportunity to use abortion images to challenge people with the reality that abortion is the destruction of human life.  We challenged them to see that abortion is not a lesser issue than the abuse of animals and nature.  To help Earth Fair attendees see the wrong of abortion, graphic images of an abused monkey with nails in its head were set next to an image of an aborted baby’s skeleton with fingers, legs, and toes.  There was a caption above the two pictures asking if abusing monkeys is wrong, why isn’t aborting a child wrong as well? While for some, seeing the graphic images was painful, for others the images of an abused monkey next to an aborted child was shocking because they never thought of it that way.  On lookers were challenged to consider, if abusing a monkey is wrong, look at the picture of a brutally aborted 12 week old child and say that the abortion of the the child is not wrong as well.  When faced with that truth people just stopped and stared.  Some cried and others were speechless.  This opened up a conversation on the issue where countless people either changed their position, or now have a position when it comes to abortion. 

Throughout the day our group encountered some struggles from those who did not agree with the pro-life message or who loathed being told abortion hurts women and children and would try to cover or stand in front of the signs exposing that truth.  At one point two Survivors were assaulted by a young man who proceeded to kick a hole through one of the graphic signs (the man was chased down and arrested by the San Diego Police Department).  I was proud of the two young men, about 16 years old, who instead of doting on the incident and becoming angered by the assault, stepped back into the crowd and continued to have peaceful conversations where they educated the crowds about about abortion and changed the hearts of many to stand with us in protecting the right to life.

Something that was very difficult for me throughout the day was the support Planned Parenthood received all day long.  At their booth there were at least 20 people waiting at any given time to talk to Planned Parenthood representatives or to write a message that was posted on a bulletin board saying why they support Planned Parenthood (see picture below).  It made me sad to see hundreds of people voicing their support of Planned Parenthood, and hundreds of people walking around with the bright pink “I support Planned Parenthood” button attached to their shirts.  Pro-lifers had to take a bold stance, hold their ground, and reach out to people while Planned Parenthood staff sat in their booth eating up the support.  What made me even more upset was that more than I saw women wearing the pink Planned Parenthood buttons, I saw men everywhere with these buttons.  It’s not only women who love Planned Parenthood.  Men love them too because they don’t have to be responsible for their actions as long as Planned Parenthood is there to abort their children.  I know it’s not just the man involved, but it breaks my heart when I recall some of the women whom I’ve counseled outside the clinic with the common response saying that their man didn’t want the child, he was making them have the abortion, or she was terrified to even tell him she was pregnant.

I found it ironic when some of the Earth Fair participants become angered over the pro-life message because they say “there are animals being abused” or “without abortion, more children will hurt the earth because it’s already over populated”.  My response: “If we cannot even respect ourselves and what lives within us, how can we respect animals, nature, or anything else for that matter?”  Some continued to fight without any thought of abortion as being wrong, and others stopped to listen.  Some people become angered at the horror that was shown on the signs, but as some in the group will say “If it’s hard to look at, that means it’s wrong.”  The abortion images were a true aid that drew people in and caused them to contemplate whether or not abortion is right.

One of the things I love most about the Earth Fair event is that it attracts people of every age, and there are many large groups of teens and young adults.  When I call out to my generation asking them what they think of the signs or about abortion they’re open to talking.  Throughout the day I spoke to at least 20 groups of 3-6 teens, and we had pleasant conversation sharing our thoughts on the issue.  When one or two in the group said they’re impartial or pro-abortion I asked them to look at the literature and signs in front of them and I taught about fetal development, abortion procedures, and how abortion damages both the mother and child.  99% of the time all in the group walk away with a 100% pro-life stance and sincerely thankful for the shared information.

Standing for the sanctity of human life in the womb was a success at Earth Fair, thousands of people were talked to and many hearts were changed.  Seeds were planted that made people think about the issue and recognize the importance of the issue on a global scale.  It was wonderful to be surrounded by many others who support life and who were’t afraid to talk to people who disagreed with them and share why life is so precious.

Happy Easter!

Standing In Defence of the Voiceless,

Timmerie Millington