For five years, pro-life advocate William Haag has been praying outside an abortion facility in Spain and greeting its abortionist with hopes that he will quit and become a Christian.
Now, Haag said the abortionist appears to be slowly changing his mind. The man recently started showing pregnant mothers the ultrasounds of their unborn babies and encouraging women who are uncertain to seek help from the local pro-lifers.
He is “less of an atheist than before we met,” Haag told Aleteia in a new interview.
According to the Catholic news outlet, Haag and the abortionist slowly have become friends over the years; they even go to dinner together to discuss God and abortion.
Haag, who participates in the 40 Days for Life campaign in Spain, said his pro-life outreach is not about winning or finding a sense of personal accomplishment; it’s about showing love to others.
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“Loving abortionists is a spiritual checkmate,” he told Aleteia. “We give up any personal or collective success just to seek the good of those people, even though later it will in fact bring much more good in the form of babies who will be saved from abortion.”
Years ago, Haag said he began by simply smiling and greeting the abortionist outside the abortion facility. And, of course, he prayed.
“It’s difficult to understand the mentality of abortionists, so we must go little by little without judging them and only with the guidance of the Holy Spirit,” he explained.
The abortionist has aborted about 30,000 unborn babies in his 30-year career, Haag said. But as their friendship has progressed, Haag said he has reasons to hope that the man may convert and quit his life-destroying practice.
Recently, he said the abortionist agreed to begin showing the ultrasound of the unborn baby to the pregnant mother – even though “he says that for him it means losing clients.”
After seeing the ultrasound, “many of them change their mind, and he even calls us to help women with problems when they are doubting between having an abortion or going ahead with the pregnancy,” Haag told Aleteia. “And the number of weeks at which he says life begins is getting lower and lower!”
The pro-life advocate expressed hope for his friend, pointing out how hundreds of others also have quit the abortion industry in the past decade.
“Some are even leading our local campaigns today – and your local abortionist could be the next abortionist to convert!” he said.
Haag said pro-life advocates often are wrongly portrayed as aggressive and crazy – all the more reason to strive to be loving and compassionate. His desire is to show families in need that pro-lifers are sincere and willing to help them through life’s difficulties.
“Feeling rejection towards those who commit abortions and treat us badly is natural, but the super-natural thing to do is to look at them with love,” he continued. “That’s what we’re called to do, and for that we need all the spiritual help we can get. Loving abortionists is the decisive step, and the one we often lack, in the pro-life struggle.”
Haag encouraged pro-lifers to begin by saying a friendly “Hello” on the sidewalk, be willing to have open conversations and maybe even invite an abortion worker for a drink or dinner.
“If you want to close an abortion center somewhere, the conversion of the abortionists is necessary,” he said. “… Ending abortion and loving abortionists are actions that can only come from the Holy Spirit, and that is why we must ask him to help us choose to love the abortionist. That is when the Lord will grant us the fruits of our labor.”
