About six years ago I started sidewalk counseling.  On Saturday mornings I stand in front of Family Planning Associates abortion mill at 659 West Washington Street in Chicago.  When I am not counseling mothers arriving for abortions I am praying the Rosary or reciting the Chaplet of Divine Mercy with a group of prayer warriors.  I am affiliated with The Helpers of God’s Precious Infants.

In 1989, Msgr. Philip Reilly founded the Helpers of God’s Precious Infants as an international ministry committed to maintaining a loving and prayerful presence outside of abortion mills where God’s children are put to death.

We PRAY to obtain God’s mercy for the conversion of abortionists and their staff. Our witness outside the death centers tells abortionists and their neighbors that we refuse to accept abortion as a legitimate profession.

Our presence disturbs the consciences of the abortion mill’s staff. It should not be pleasant to get up in the morning with the intent to destroy children. They should have to confront God each time they start their day. The message of the Helpers of God’s Precious Infants to abortionists and all who help kill God’s children is that though we love them, we will never accept what they do.

We WITNESS to those who pass by, praying that they are inspired to object to the killing in their neighborhoods. Many resign themselves to the fact that the evil is there and cannot be prevented. When they see that something is being done, that it is not necessary to tolerate death camps in their midst, they often join us.

We PLEAD for the lives of the babies. We ask each mother to change her mind. We reach out to her with the love of Christ; we do not judge or condemn her for what she is planning to do. We simply promise support and assistance if she should change her mind, and prayers for healing and conversion if she should proceed with the killing of her child.

Most of all, we LOVE the unborn children who are brought there that day. Through the love, prayers and the efforts of the sidewalk counselors, many mothers are converted and give life to their babies. But for those babies who will die, we offer the only human love they may ever encounter in their short lives.

No one wants to face death alone. Even Jesus, in His agony, asked His apostles to watch with Him in prayer. Our loving presence for the children at the hour of their death comforts the Heart of God because they belong to Him.

In my six years in front of the clinic I have witnessed many miracles.  My husband and I are godparents of 3 1/2 year old Kamryn.  Kamryn’s mother had an appointment to abort her on Saturday, September 12, 1998.  By the grace of God we were able to touch her heart with the truth and she chose LIFE.   We have many other similar stories and photo albums filled with photographs of beautiful babies whose mothers were abortion bound.

A few months ago as we stood praying the Rosary, two women approached the abortion mill.  We all mistakenly assumed the other would counsel them and somehow they entered the mill without anybody having spoken to them.  We continued to pray.  A short time later they came out and one of them came up and stood in front of me.  She tearfully told me that she had seen us praying and had decided to keep her baby.  

Being such an unworthy sinner I am in awe that God works through me as I do my sidewalk counseling.  But I suppose if God only chose perfect individuals to work through he would have quite a tiny army.  We are not blessed with a “turnaway” every Saturday and sometimes I admit I go home with a heavy heart.  The words of Pro-Life Congressman Henry Hyde come back to me when I get discouraged:

“When the time comes, as it surely will, when we face that awesome moment, the Final Judgment, I’ve often thought, as Bishop Fulton Sheen wrote, that it is a terrible moment of loneliness. You have no advocates. You are there standing alone before God, and the terror will grip your soul like nothing you can imagine. But I really think that those in the Pro-Life movement will not be alone. I think there will be a chorus of voices that have never been heard in this world, but are heard beautifully and clearly in the next world. They will plead for everyone who has ever been in this movement. They will say to God, ‘Spare him because he loved us.’ And God will look at you and not say, ‘Did you succeed?’ Rather, He will say, ‘Did you try?’”

Tina Mahar