They stand outside in the rain and wind, bitter cold and intense heat. They bear insults and taunts from abortion activists. Though unpaid and often unwelcome, pro-life sidewalk counselors are making a huge difference in the lives of mothers and babies across America.
This week, Sidewalk Advocates for Life, a Christian organization that trains pro-lifers to conduct peaceful, loving outreach outside abortion facilities, announced that its volunteers have helped 10,000 mothers choose life for their unborn babies.
And those are just the mothers and babies they know of. In the past six years, pro-lifers with the organization witnessed an additional 3,179 mothers leaving abortion facilities to think about their decision, often with information about local pregnancy and parenting resources.
“I remember when our first mother turned around at the abortion facility and accepted our life-affirming help – what’s amazing is that it was just days before our official April 1, 2014 kickoff,” said executive director Lauren Muzyka. “And now, here we are, just six years later, marveling at 10,000 mothers served and babies saved!”
Muzyka praised God and thanked all their volunteers and supporters for helping so many mothers and babies in need.
She remembered the first baby that they saved in 2014: “Some of our new leaders in the Northeast had just completed their training, and they decided to hit the sidewalk right away. They had never before witnessed a baby saved. Using their newfound skills, they encouraged the mother’s companion, a male friend, to go back into the abortion center and let her know about the help available at the local, life-affirming pregnancy center. He went in and two of them left the abortion facility, grateful for the assistance.”
At the time, Muzyka said she thought all their efforts were worth it if only because of that one baby’s life.
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Since she began the organization in 2014, it has trained thousands of volunteers to be peaceful, law-abiding pro-life advocates outside 200 abortion facilities across the world. Sidewalk Advocates for Life teaches pro-lifers to become experts about local community resources that help mothers and babies in need, both before and after the baby is born.
“While we provide crisis intervention on the sidewalk to women in unplanned pregnancies headed into the abortion center, we recognize that our outreach can only go so far: we must offer her real, ongoing help or crisis management,” it states on its website. “Our interaction never ends without offering her life-affirming alternatives such as help from the local pregnancy resource centers and other organizations in her local community.”
The organization also helps abortion workers leave the industry, connecting them to And Then There Were None, which provides emotional and financial support so that they can quit.
According to its mission, Sidewalk Advocates for Life seeks to be “the hands and feet of Christ and to ‘stand in the gap’ for those who, ironically, may feel they have no choice.”
