Abortion is hardly a speck on most people’s radar. It’s no big deal and not my business, right? But abortion is constantly surrounding us in our every day life: through our conversations, where we are at a given moment, and who we are with. So here is an example of two consecutive days where my life was surrounded by abortion that was outside of my work and blog.
Sunday night I sat in the car with my mom on our way to El Torito for dinner when I looked to my right and saw Family Planning Associates (FPA) abortion clinic. As we drove by I thought about times when I’ve sidewalk counseled there and once saw a police officer bring an inmate from the local jail to the clinic for an abortion.
As we continued down this beautiful street with pretty green trees covered in lights, I commented to my mom about how sad it is to be so close in proximity to where we live our daily lives and there’s an abortion clinic right next to us. Just a block down the way from FPA my mom mentioned that there’s a Planned Parenthood on the corner next door to a strip club, and she recalled a time when she prayed outside of that Planned Parenthood with Father Pavone when one of my siblings was just a baby in a pack on her back... Moments later we pulled up to El Torito and walked in to have dinner.
As I looked at this beautiful little area that was masked by pretty trees, clean cut buildings, and bright lights I felt uncomfortable knowing what takes place in those buildings within eye site. I could have sat there during my entire dinner heartbroken just thinking about it all, but if I did what good would that have done?
Southern California Surrounded by abortion clinics.
The next morning I was hurrying to finish some work before going to Disneyland with my family when it was brought to my attention that a friend on Facebook had checked in at Planned Parenthood and said “accidents happen”. I was so angry but continued to read the comment where people said things like “You’re not keeping it!” or called the baby “cheese”. Oh, I was so upset I didn’t know if I should scream or cry. After a moment I understood it was a joke. For the next couple hours I was highly disturbed by the “joke” and recalled all those times over the years when I would walk up on a group of friends who quickly quieted when spotting me. Later when I inquired I’m told someone made an abortion joke and didn't want to offend me ‘cause I’m pro-life'.
Hours later I was in the car on my way to Disneyland and heard a song called
Lucy by SKILLET and some of the main words of the song were "hey Lucy I remember your name". When the song ended the radio host said the song was about a young man and his girlfriend in high school who got pregnant and made a choice to abort. In the song the vocalist sings about how he would do things differently if he had the chance. My heart ached for this couple and their regret in the name of ‘choice’. Moments later I looked to my left and there was a Planned Parenthood clinic off the freeway where in 2009, within ten days of each other,
two women were taken from the clinic by ambulance after an abortion.
Abortion surrounds our every day life whether we know it or not. There are abortions within our own families that we are surprised to find out about or will never know of, friends you never thought would have abortions. All of us are missing people from our lives in the name of ‘choice’.
Now I ask you, what kind of impact does abortion have on you and your every day life?
Standing In Defence of the Voiceless,
Timmerie Millington
