Published: October 14, 2011
“Blood money”
Family Planning Associates, Miramar Road, San Diego, Saturday, Sept. 24, 2011 – Feast of Our Lady of Mercy
News from the Trenches
“I have to do this” said the young woman with a black eye to the female counselor. They were standing a few feet from the elevator leading up to the second floor of the building where FPA, the busiest abortion clinic in San Diego, is located.
The young woman detailed the last few weeks of her life to the counselor. She told her that she had been on crack and massive amounts of alcohol when she conceived. She had been told in rehab that her baby would have both alcohol and fetal syndrome and that she should have an abortion. The man whose baby she was carrying had given her the black eye and was in jail. But she was not married to him. She was married to another man who had just dropped her off at the abortuary.
The counselor asked the young woman (we’ll call her “C”) if she was still using. She said she wasn’t. The counselor told her that she should get the opinion of a competent doctor and that she could call right now and make an appointment with a doctor with whom she would feel safe and not be pressured into doing something that she would regret forever.
The young woman began to weep as she gave the counselor more details of her tragic life. She asked the counselor if she could borrow her cell phone to call her mother. The young woman’s mother was at a Catholic conference. She tried unsuccessfully to reach her. Suddenly “C’s” husband drove up hurriedly, jumped out of the car and ran toward “C.” Simultaneously the owner of one of the furniture stores that is located in the building that houses the abortion mill came running out yelling: “This is a three ring circus! You are driving away my customers!”
“C’s” husband got between the counselor and “C.” He said, “Don’t listen to her, just do it.” Feeling oppressed from all sides, the counselor prayed to St. Michael the archangel so that she could continue to talk with the young mother. During her conversations with “C” the counselor had found out that this baby was not her husband’s. That is why he was pushing for this abortion.
“C” finally relented under the pressure of her husband’s insistence. She said to the counselor, “I killed one baby for him at eighteen; I am going to kill this one for him as well.” The counselor kept trying to dissuade the young mother. But now the husband began yelling at the counselor. Before the young mother and her angry husband stepped into the elevator, the counselor managed to get a picture of a dismembered aborted baby, a fetal model of a 12-week-old pre-born baby, and a Rosary into her hand. As the elevator doors slid shut the counselor asked “C” to think about her own mother who she knew didn’t want her to do this and would be there for her.
A short time later the counselor answered a cell phone call from “C’s” mother. The counselor explained who she was and why “C” used her phone to call her. The mother began to cry and said, “I had just lifted her up to the Lord just moments before.” The mother asked the counselor to pray intently for her daughter no matter what she does. The counselor agreed to do this and to pray for her as well.
Earlier that morning a Spanish-speaking male counselor ran across the parking lot when another counselor waved him over to speak with a Mexican teenaged girl and her mother. When he got there the teen was walking ahead of her mother. The mother listened to the counselor and took the brochure he gave her. The brochure outlined the clinic’s abortionist’s history of malpractice and negligence. She took it but kept going, saying they were late. A man who was driving the car that brought the mother and the girl stepped out of his car. The counselor assumed that he was the father of the abortion-intent teen girl. But it turned out he was an off duty taxi driver who had agreed to drive the girl and her mother from Mexicali for a reasonable fee. He was shocked when the counselor informed him that this is an abortion mill. “I had no idea,” he said. “They didn’t tell me they were coming for that. Is that legal? Can I get in trouble? I’m a Christian and on the way here I was evangelizing to them about Jesus. Abortion is a sin.”
The counselor assured the driver that he was not breaking any man made laws, but that in God’s eyes the money he was receiving for driving the girl to an abortuary was blood money, cursed money. And now that he was aware of what they are doing, the counselor told him, he was participating in their sin. The counselor encouraged the driver to go into the abortuary and speak with the mother and daughter, that he should tell them that if they did not leave, he would drive back to Mexicali without them. That way he would not participate in the sin of abortion.
The driver went in to the mill with a couple of the counselor's pro-life brochures in hand. He came down a few minutes later and informed the counselor that he spoke with them and gave them more information, but they seemed set on having the abortion. The counselor told the driver that he should just give them back their money and leave so that he would not be liable for this on judgment day. The driver said that he had promised to drive, so he felt he could not do that. The conflicted driver got into his car and the counselor saw him drive out of the parking lot a few minutes later.
Later the Mexican teen’s mother came down from the mill and informed the counselor that her daughter had changed her mind. The abortionist’s horrific malpractice history outlined in the brochure had scared them. But the teen’s mother said that she had to call her husband because he was insisting on this abortion. So she went back into the mill to see if they would allow her to place a phone call to her husband. A few minutes later the teen daughter and her mother came out of the mill. The mother told the counselor she was not able to contact her husband, but she would definitely not risk her daughter’s health by having an abortion.
They then began looking for their driver. The counselor informed them that he had seen him leave. They were afraid perhaps he had driven off because he disapproved of abortion. It was cold and it began to drizzle. Neither the mother nor her teen daughter was dressed warmly. To get them away from the abortuary, the counselor suggested they go to one of the fast food restaurants nearby. Being cold and hungry, they agreed. The daughter of one of the counselors said she would drive them and they left with her.
Later the taxi driver from Mexicali returned and he was greatly relieved when the counselor informed him that the girl had decided not to abort. The other counselor’s daughter drove up with the mother and teen. The counselor’s daughter gave them Rosaries and they exchanged contact information. The counselor gave the teen girl a brochure that showed an aborted baby and a fetal model of a 12-week-old pre-born baby. The driver wept as he told the teen that God would bless her for making the right decision.
The devout prayers and hymns of 15 the prayer warriors in front of the abortion mill as well as the prayers and sacrifices of many of the readers of our reports made this save possible on the Feast Day of Our Lady of Mercy. We thank you.
-- The Counselors of Helpers of God’s Precious Infants
