What do you say when you are on the sidewalk, the abortionist has arrived, and the women exiting are all leaving a dead baby behind? The ministry to the newly post-abortive women is not an easy one. It is certainly a sad ministry. However, it is a vital ministry. Some sources report that a third of abortions are repeat abortions. Not only does every abortion impact women in serious ways, but multiple abortions create even more devastation. Most importantly, by properly dealing with post-abortive women, it is possible to reduce the likelihood and incidence of future abortions.
As part of our sidewalk ministry, Cities4Life, we have teams who come in the afternoons whose specific mission is to reach the post-abortive women. At our city’s abortion facility, the abortionist arrives around noon, so we know no abortions happen in the morning. We have a training program to help prepare our afternoon volunteers for the unique issues of the aftermath of abortion. The bullet points of this training are listed below to help guide anyone interested in reaching post-abortive women in front of abortion centers.
1. General:
- The major tone of the afternoons should be prayerful. The message should be a Gospel-centered conviction of the severity of the sin of abortion with the healing compassion/forgiveness in surrendering one’s life to Christ.
- In the mornings when most women have not yet aborted, forgiveness for sin is not usually mentioned with reference to abortion. It is too often used incorrectly as an excuse to abort.
- In the afternoons, when we deal mostly with post-abortive women, true repentance and forgiveness are important themes.
- Men should reach out to men, women to women in general.
2. Critical things to ask:
- Pill or surgical? If pill, be sure to mention abortionpillreversal.com
- Did you change your mind?
- What are you feeling right now? (It is Important to gauge the emotional state of women following an abortion. If they are already broken, we need to handle them with gentle compassion while being truthful about abortion being a sin against God.)
- Can we pray with you?
- Can we tell you about our healing resources? (It is good to mention any Mentorship programs in your area, Pregnancy resource centers, or churches that have post-abortive healing programs, as well as on-line post-abortion resources.)
3. How to offer tangible help:
If a woman chose life:
- Ask what changed her mind?
- Give a ‘blessing bag’ or some tangible gift to remind the woman of the sacred nature of the unborn child.
- Be sure they have any literature with the contact name of a counselor they can contact.
- Find out obstacles that brought them there.
- Go over any resources you may have that can help with those obstacles. We have a resource guide we hand out that has general resources already available in the community in one handy form.
- Get their phone number, and text or call the next day or two at least once a day to keep them firm in the choice for life till a mentor/local church connects with them.
If a woman chose abortion:
- Ask if they took the pill or was it a surgical abortion?
- If they took the pill, explain pill reversal. Know what it is yourself and in general how it works. Tell them to call immediately as it is most effective the sooner they do a reversal and tell them not to take the second pill. (Abortionpillreversal.com)
- If the abortion was surgical, immediately offer prayer and let them know we can help with healing.
- Share post-abortive programs/resources.
- Ask if they have faith.
- Ask questions to understand what their faith entails.
- Share the Gospel (Ray Comfort, Way of the Master, is a great resource in how to do this.)
- Be sure they are given any literature you may have with resources for post-abortive women.
- If possible, tactfully find out what you can about what happened in the clinic to determine any potential issues of violations/infractions that should be reported to the health department.
4. How to share the Gospel:
- The Ray Comfort framework is really effective. www.livingwaters.com
- Do not gloss over the sin of the abortion, but tailor how you present it with their emotional state. Don’t heap sorrow upon sorrow if they are truly broken, but healing will not happen if they do not understand the severity of what they did. The balance of truth and mercy is not always easy, for sure.
- Share any personal testimony of how God rescued you from any grievous sin in your life. How you found the burden lifted and forgiveness is always valuable to others.
5. If they don’t stop their car and time is limited to speak:
- As they reach the end of the driveway or within earshot, call out “did you change your mind?” and then “abortionpillreversal.com”.
- Be aware that they may be looking in the rearview mirror. Be in an obvious prayerful attitude/stance as they drive away. The sight of strangers praying for them can be very convicting.
6. What to call out when you see them drive or walk in:
- Please stop and take our information.
- We can help, even if you are just the driver or friend.
- It’s not too late, maybe you can still help your friend choose life. Please let us share some ideas on how you can do that and how we can help with whatever they face.
7. What to call out when you see them going back and forth to car or on the porch:
- Please come get our information. We can help
- If you are conflicted, you owe it to yourself to hear about options other than death to your child.
- What would God have you do?
- Share similar things we share in the morning before the abortionist arrives about the humanity of the baby, God’s clear teaching on the sanctity of the unborn, and any resources that can help.
8. Always be ready to videotape if anything even remotely aggressive occurs.
9. Never be there alone. Always have at least one other person with you.
We hope these suggestions will help you feel like you can approach a post-abortive woman with tangible offers of hope and help. Many report feeling relief immediately following an abortion, but as weeks and months follow the abortion, it is not uncommon for the grief and despair to set in. The contact you made in those first moments may be just the life-life to forgiveness and God that women will need and seek.
As part of our sidewalk ministry, Cities4Life, we have teams who come in the afternoons whose specific mission is to reach the post-abortive women. At our city’s abortion facility, the abortionist arrives around noon, so we know no abortions happen in the morning. We have a training program to help prepare our afternoon volunteers for the unique issues of the aftermath of abortion. The bullet points of this training are listed below to help guide anyone interested in reaching post-abortive women in front of abortion centers.
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