Reflection by Sidewalk Advocates for Life Founder, President & CEO Lauren Muzyka:
Last Tuesday, a young woman named Lauren Handy — who participated in a blockade of a Washington DC abortion facility in 2020 using ropes, bike chains, and locks — was sentenced to nearly 5 years in federal prison under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. Several co-defendants also received time in prison.
This group’s professed objective is to stop abortions and save lives — something they call “rescue,” modern-day.
Contrast this with the case of Whitney Durant, a pro-abortion college student who was charged and sentenced last month under FACE for writing threatening graffiti on the side of a pro-life pregnancy resource center in Ohio and received only two years probation and a $2,000 fine. Or the more than 100 other pro-abortion vandals who have damaged or firebombed pro-life pregnancy centers over the past couple years that the FBI and Department of Justice can’t seem to find and charge under the FACE Act.
While it’s clear the Biden Administration seems to favor pro-abortion individuals and the treatment of these cases is unjust, it’s so important we acknowledge this, as well: the strategy employed by Lauren Handy and her co-defendants that day is rarely, if ever, saving lives.
Moreover, modern-day “rescue” gives the government unnecessary fodder to pass buffer/bubble zones, put peaceful pro-lifers in federal prison, or sue any complicit pro-life organization for millions of dollars — gradually eliminating access to clients outside abortion facilities, thereby devastating peaceful prayer and sidewalk advocacy, activities that are saving thousands of mothers and preborn children every year.
I was grateful for the opportunity to share these points in a recent Newsmax interview:
When I was analyzing modern-day “rescue” as it started again in 2017, I took a step back and asked a question — a question I pray we all ask in our quest to end abortion …
Knowing lives and souls are on the line every day, is this the most effective approach for saving lives and ending abortion?
Aren’t we always obligated to ask that question?
In that spirit, I looked at the Vitae Foundation’s “Right-Brain Research,” a series of decades-long research studies that look at the best messaging to a woman considering abortion. I had countless cups of coffee with former abortion workers or women who had faced an unexpected pregnancy, noting what helped someone in crisis choose life. And I studied what seemed to be saving the most lives on sidewalks across the United States.
What was clear after my intense examination was this: The most attractive message to a woman facing an unexpected pregnancy is one, initially, of a concrete offer of help and empowerment in a calm, supportive environment, resolving for her an emotional, not logical, issue of self-preservation amidst a multitude of worries and pressures concerning her situation.
This explains why a sudden invasion of an abortion facility where the scene quickly escalates and people are getting arrested — even if one could justify the ethics of it — is not helpful for a woman already in a world of chaos. It tends to break trust because she doesn’t know what you’re going to do next. Further, most abortion facilities are trained to go on “lockdown” and pull the women to the back room, permanently cutting off access to her — whereas on the sidewalk, we normally have a few opportunities to chat with her and a companion.
Thankfully, what we do at Sidewalk Advocates for Life — peaceful, prayerful sidewalk advocacy — carries little to no legal risk, and it’s saving thousands of lives every year.
I’m sad that Ms. Handy is in jail instead of an abortionist who is literally making a killing off of innocent children. But I also cannot turn a blind eye to this approach and say that, in the modern era, we don’t know better.
Knowing we’re called to “run as if to win” (1 Cor 9:24), I can’t see how law-breaking strategies at abortion facilities help us win on any front.
Yes, let’s speak out against a weaponized FBI and DOJ, but let’s also heed Our Lord’s admonition to be “as wise as serpents and as innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16). Countless souls are depending on you and me to stay the course!