I've been listening to the recent "bubble zone" debate in Chicago, related to restricting the movement of pro-life counselors and prayer teams around area abortion clinics, and I think what's been missed in all this debate is that the pro-life agenda in my experience isn't really about yelling at or harassing people at or outside abortion clinics. Unfortunately a few bad apples have ruined the perception of what ACTUALLY happens outside the clinics on behalf of the unborn.
People show up at these clinics to pray, sing, and council women because they love life, they love God, and they love babies. This isn't about hate and harassment. That is the frame that Planned Parenthood (and now the Chicago City Council) has put around the debate, but it's not true. Has anyone who's commented on this debate actually gone to an abortion clinic to observe what happens outside?
We live in a country unfortunately where fear tactics work. It worked during the Cold War, it worked after 911 and it works now as part of the abortion and free speech debate. Planned Parenthood is afraid of losing business, they are afraid of violence, and they are afraid of any inroads that the pro-life movement makes - - but the pro-life movement doesn't want to harm or kill anybody - - that's the whole paradox here. Pro-life means pro-life. The goal is to save lives. A couple of wackos shoot a doctor in Kansas or bomb an abortion clinic and now we have to assume that EVERY pro-life counselor or person holding a Rosary outside a clinic is some kind of terrorist.
The facts are that no one in Chicago has been physically assaulted or harmed outside an abortion clinic. Words have been exchanged, emotions have flared, by no one has been harmed. The facts are also that police regularly observe pro-lifers outside clinics in Chicago but have arrested or cited no one. So why do we need an ordinance to legally restrict behavior that the Chicago police have not even found to be problematic? No arrests have been made. No citations or warnings have been issued.
The reality is that it's a about fear and using the fear to move a legislative agenda that Planned Parenthood has talked the Mayor and the City Council into before it ever came to a vote (e.g. "Wouldn't it just be safer for all of us if we just passed this ordinance? The last thing we want is violence right? You know how unruly those pro-lifers are? Mr. Mayor of course your remember how embarassing the 1968 convention was for your father. The last thing we want is for that to happen to you, right?")
So yes, there will be a debate and legal challenge to this ordinance, and yes, that's important - - but the fact of the matter is that this ordinance cannot break the spirit of pro-life counselors and prayer groups. As Jesus said, "Perfect love casts out all fear." We still love babies, we still love the people who work at Planned Parenthood, we still love women who are struggling with an unwanted pregnancies, and we still love Eric Zorn, the Mayor, and the City Council.
Fear and fearful ordinances cannot break our spirit. We're going to keep on working on behalf of life because it's about building up the Kingdom of God not the kingdom of Chicago or Planned Parenthood. So you can call us yahoos, but we'll love you anyway. And our greatest hope is that someday people will see babies as the gift they are from God, not an inconvenience that should be squashed and swept under a rug at an abortion clinic. We are made by God to be creational beings, why does our society want to deny this gift?
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