Berkley Center

They stand along the sidewalk, in the blistering Texas heat, and in the cruel winter cold. They stand in rain or shine, donning ponchos or sunhats… They are always there.

In my experience they don’t look, and more importantly they don’t act, like the protesters depicted on TV and in movies. Many stand in silence, a few quietly mumble the rosary. They are peaceful. They are prayerful. When a car pulls up the steep hill and into the clinic parking lot, one or two designated volunteers will call out to whoever is in it. They make sure not to allow a cacophony of chaos to come from the sidewalk. They want the woman to know that they’re here to offer alternatives, not judgment or condemnation.

“Ma’am, you don’t have to do this,” an older gentleman says. His wife then chimes in, “You have other options, and we can help you!” She continues, her voice loud but gentle, “What do you need? A place to stay? Medical care? Help with the baby? We can assist you in all of those things!”

More times than not the woman and whoever is there to give her a ride home after the procedure walk into the clinic without even a glance toward those on the sidewalk, and are not to be seen for another hour or two.

Volunteering in this capacity is hard. Everything about it has always felt so unnatural to me. You’re standing there witnessing a woman making such an incredibly personal and often very difficult decision. And rather than walking up to her and offering support quietly, like you would with a friend or loved one, your only option is to yell your support from beyond the abortion clinic’s property line.

I would go when I could, over the course of a few years. But even when I wasn’t out there, I’d often drive past the sidewalk counselors on my way home from work. I was always amazed at how willing they were to face whatever elements Texas decided to throw at them that day in order to offer women life-affirming choices. These were not protesters; they were people. They truly cared about these women and their unborn children.

I’ve often wondered how those same kindred bleeding hearts could then get wrapped up in the inconsistencies of our current political system. I mean, I understand that we’re told because we oppose violence in the womb, we must vote Republican. I bought into that fallacy for a while myself. However, doing so often threatens the very tools we were using to reach out to these women in the first place.

While there are some Catholic charities that are able to cover maternity care and labor and delivery costs, many sidewalk counselors depend on the state of Texas’ Medicaid benefit to cover those expenses.

Could you imagine being a 16-year-old woman, facing a crisis pregnancy, working a $6.50-an-hour job and hearing that the cost to give birth to this child could be upwards of $9,000?

I can. Luckily, I was still living at home and on my parents' insurance, so I was able to earn my $2,500 deductible at my summer job. As my belly grew, so did my savings, because I didn’t have a mortgage or bills to pay beyond that. But I know better than to think this is a luxury all women have. Take for instance the single mother of three, working two part-time jobs just to keep a roof over her family’s head. Before her husband abandoned her, he left her with one final gift—an unplanned pregnancy.

Or how about the handful of peers I had in high school who also became pregnant, but chose to terminate because, if they kept their child, they would be kicked out of their home. Not only would they not have had a support system for this child, they’d have lost their current support for themselves.

I want to make something very clear: when a woman feels like she has no other choice but abortion, that’s not pro-choice. Likewise, when we stand out on the sidewalks offering government assistance to women, only to go home and elect politicians who will fight to rip that safety net out from under pregnant women in need, that is not pro-life.

Consistency matters. What we offer to women in need on the sidewalks we must also support in the voting booth. The most dangerous thing we ever did as a nation was make abortion a partisan issue, because it’s allowed anyone with an “R” behind their name to activate a powerhouse base of voters simply by applying the label “Pro-Life.” Now it is time that we demand they earn that label.