"Do I have a choice?" she asked

October 3, 2011

The mother turned around and her daughter was no longer there.
 
As sidewalk counselors at the vigil site were preparing to leave, a young girl approached and went directly to one of the men with the remaining group who were still praying.
 
She was petite, young (a sidewalk counselor later learned 14 years old), wearing boxer shorts and an oversized clean white t-shirt, and house slippers.  She was wondering... sitting inside that abortion center...
 
"Do I... um... I was wondering..." barely audible, expression void, big beautiful eyes briefly looked up and then back down at the sidewalk, "I was just wondering... if I have a choice."
 
Some short minutes later a woman (the girl's mother who had driven this daughter of hers to the abortion facility) walked toward the group on the sidewalk.  The sidewalk counselor was firmly explaining to the girl that she does indeed have a choice and that it is against the law to coerce someone into having an abortion, i.e., no one can "make you" have an abortion.
 
The counselor urged the young girl, "You need to tell everyone that you do not want to have an abortion..." And as she was saying that, the mother (who later confessed to another sidewalk counselor, that years before she, herself, had an abortion) stopped in front of the group.
 
The counselor turned towards the woman, and the mother eyes squinted with hardness towards her daughter, "What have you been saying to them...."
 
The counselor interrupted her, moving between mother and daughter, "Ma'am, she didn't say anything... nothing that was disrespectful...." The mother relaxed a little (not much), "oh,"  registering little emotion other than hard, tired impatience, glared at her daughter and with a sharp snap, "Git. back 'n ther...."
 
The girl quickly moved past the counselor and towards her mother. The mother turned, annoyed, sighed and walked toward the facility.
 
The girl continued to dutifully follow her mother. She shuffled slowly behind her mother as the distance widened several yards between them both. Only the sound of the tiny young girl's slippers could be heard dragging on the pavement.
 
Blessed Mother please intercede for this young mother, her mother, and the precious child held in the balance between them.

Tags: Sidewalk Counseling