When Sidewalk Advocate Bobby first started praying outside A Woman’s Choice in Greensboro, NC, it was quiet out on the sidewalk. “There were very few other people there. No escorts,” he recalls.
This was about 20 years ago. From that point, things evolved. Bobby launched Triad Pregnancy Care and grew a team of Sidewalk Advocates who provided daily coverage of the facility – a couple dozen people who committed to weekly shifts on the sidewalk, in addition to a sidewalk leader who was there daily.
And after a while, there were escorts on the property – a couple on weekdays, and a dozen or more on Saturdays. “They were pretty nasty,” Bobby says. “Escorts have lunged at, attacked, pushed us – all kinds of things.”
It was a lot to deal with at a very depressing site. Located in a lower-economic area of town, it was directly behind a used tire store. Patients had to go along a driveway, past the tire store, to the small facility with a garish mural painted on the side.
When Bobby learned that the facility had posted on their website that they were only going to be open one more month, he was somewhat skeptical. After all, the facility had been in business close to 50 years, and had only closed once before, temporarily, when it was undergoing a change in ownership.
But miracles do happen, as all Sidewalk Advocates know – and today Bobby can thankfully share that A Woman’s Choice has closed permanently in Greensboro.
His team had already started occasional outreach at a nearby abortion facility, where they will be shifting their full-time presence – and another team of Advocates has been shadowing his, so they can maintain a presence at yet another facility.
Wherever they serve – and however depressing the abortion facility – Bobby and his Advocates persist in maintaining their loving, positive outreach to the women and families they encounter.
He recalls one, a 30-something woman who had come to A Woman’s Choice accompanied by her mom. The Advocates reached out to them and the women listened – but then proceeded along the driveway to part at the facility. They stayed in the car for about 20 minutes, then returned to the Advocates.
“They said, ‘There is no bigger difference – the lightness you have in your eyes and your heart, and the darkness we see in this place. We’re leaving. Thank you for being here and showing us how beautiful you guys are,’” Bobby says.
Submitted by Sidewalk Advocates for Life – Greensboro, NC