Writing publicly on controversial topics can evoke disagreement, so I was prepared to let the Feb. 26 letter to the editor by Hilary Ray dangle. But I’m concerned about the public being misled.
It seems important to note that Ray and I spend time in a similar space, sometimes just feet from each other, on a regular basis; she, as an escort who brings women seeking abortion into our local abortion facility, and I, as a sidewalk advocate attempting to offer life-giving help to the clients.
And here’s how I’d put the resulting tension between us: One of us believes in the rights of two unique individuals; the other believes in the rights of only one.
With this now fully in the light, hopefully it’s more understandable why Ray would feel compelled to take pen to paper to complain about me. Motives are important to understand.
I think it’s fair also to challenge a few specifics in her letter. Ray seems to be especially concerned about my Christian faith, pulling out stats about society’s waning adherence to religion, conjecturing what explanations for that I might give. She then counters those assumed positions, noting that if anyone wants to learn about religion, they can just go to the phone book to look up churches and find Scripture in most hotels or for free online.
Ray has established her contempt for my writing. Fair enough. As she noted herself, it’s an opinion. Next, she complains that I’ve dedicated much space to “railing against abortion” and base this “almost exclusively” on my religion.
Again, that’s Ray’s opinion. The truth, however, is that my stance against abortion was developed in large part from hearing stories from post-abortive women. These stories prompted an urgency in my heart to help women in unplanned pregnancies much more than any Sunday homily has.
My appeal comes from grasping that though abortion unequivocally results in a dead human being with unique DNA, that child’s mother, father and countless others are also adversely harmed, even if just psychologically. On this point, my recent interview with Jody Clemens on my podcast, “Matters of Soul Importance,” is worth hearing.
I also need to pointedly counter Ray’s misinformed contention regarding abortion-pill reversal safety and success. To find the truth and information on how lives are saved from this procedure, please read https://www.heartbeatinternational.org/abortion-pill-reversal-works .
Despite Ray’s final contention that my goal is to “foist” my opinion on disinterested people, I can assure her that not everyone is disinterested in knowing the truth. Additionally, hearing a woman proudly telling me, “I kept the baby,” just minutes after leaving the Red River Women’s Clinic—as one woman did recently, with a beautiful smile on her face—makes any amount of criticism I might receive from folks like Ray worth it.
Nevertheless, I keep her and the other escorts in my sincere prayers. There is freedom beyond the abortion industry, and I would rejoice to see Ray and pals someday discover the profound joy of life in Christ.
[For the sake of having a repository for my newspaper columns and articles, I reprint them here, with permission, a week after their run date. The preceding ran in The Forum newspaper on May 10, 2024.]
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