Two pro-life advocates who violated their probation order on June 1 by going to a Michigan abortion facility said they helped save a baby from abortion while they were there.
Monica Miller, director of Citizens for a Pro-Life Society, said she and Will Goodman with Red Rose Rescue were arrested outside of the Women’s Center abortion facility in Orchard Lake, Michigan in violation of a judge’s orders.
In March, they and several pro-life advocates were convicted of trespassing and obstructing an officer at the abortion facility during a previous attempt to save unborn babies in December, The Oakland Press reports. As part of their sentence, Judge Marc Barron prohibited them from coming within 500 feet of an abortion facility and from having any contact with each other. Miller said they are appealing the ruling.
“Will Goodman and I decided it was time to go back to the Women’s Center and simply exercise our rights, civil and certainly God-given to witness to the sanctity of life and reach out to the mothers going into the clinic and turn them away from abortion,” Miller said in an email to supporters. “Consequently we were both arrested, accused of violating the conditions of the probation.”
Miller said Goodman still is in jail, but she decided to post bail so that she could be available to help the woman and baby who they talked with outside of the abortion facility.
The woman was crying when she turned to them in the abortion facility parking lot, Miller recalled. The woman told Miller that her boyfriend wanted her to abort their baby because they already have two children. When Miller asked what the woman would do if her boyfriend did want the baby, she replied, “I would have the baby.”
“Thus I encouraged her to call him to responsibility, that she could not allow herself to be coerced into an abortion and that it was obvious that she did not want to abort the baby,” Miller said.
She said the woman did not go into the abortion facility; she also accepted Miller’s phone number and information about a local pregnancy center. She asked pro-lifers to pray for the woman, her boyfriend and their unborn baby.
Miller told the local news that their goal was not to defy authorities but to save babies from brutal abortion deaths.
“Our goal isn’t ‘let’s be defiant’ or to go to jail. And we’re not throwing ourselves off a cliff,” Miller said. “Our focus is saving babies from abortion. If we have to be at a clinic to do that, I believe we have that right.”
Miller and Goodman were part of a larger Red Rose Rescue movement in December that encouraged small teams of pro-lifers to enter abortion facilities to talk with women scheduled for abortions.
Once inside the clinics, organizers said they peacefully approached mothers seated in the waiting rooms and offered them red roses as a symbol of life. Attached to each rose was a card which read:”You were made to love and to be loved … Your goodness is greater than the difficulties of your situation. Circumstances in life change. A new life, however tiny, brings the promise of unrepeatable joy.” The card also contained phone numbers of local pregnancy help centers.
These rescues did not involve the blockading of abortion center entrances or procedure rooms. When police officers arrived on the scene, pro-lifers attempted to continue their conversations with women or sat on the floor praying quietly or singing hymns until they were placed under arrest, organizers said.
However, even peaceful illegal activity is controversial among pro-life advocates. Many pro-life organizations oppose all forms of illegal activities, arguing that the best strategy to save unborn lives and change hearts is to work within the law while working to save lives and change the law. Others contend that, while abortion remains legal, violating the law by peaceful means sometimes is necessary to save babies’ lives.
