Recently I met with a man who wished he had some way of reaching an unknown abortion protester. The protester, a woman, was with a small group in Appleton, Wisconsin who had been holding up signs recently in front of a local clinic to protest against abortion. Here is my paraphrasing of the message he wishes he could pass on to the protester who talked with his daughter as she was on her way for her scheduled abortion:

“Thank you! Thank you with all my heart for being there for my teenage daughter in her darkest hour. Thank you for saving the life of my grandchild. By simply being there with tactful signs about abortion, you gave my daughter a chance to wonder about her decision, to wonder if there might be some other way to deal with the fear she was facing. She was so scared and had been deceived into thinking that abortion was the only way. I wish she would have come to me first, but thank God you were there. Something about you, your sincerity and goodness, perhaps, and the peaceful, civil behavior of your group, made her dare to approach you and ask. And you were so kind to her. You knew she was scared and above all just needed someone to tell her the truth, to free her from the misinformation of the abortion industry and let her know that her life would not be ruined forever if she let the baby live. You gave her hope and helped her to see what everyone should see: abortion is wrong. It slaughters an innocent child. In this case, it would have been my grandchild. Her child – an innocent victim. Thank you so much for taking her aside and listening and helping and giving hope. I wish I could meet you – I want to hug and tell you thank you, thank you, thank you! We don’t yet know if his baby will be adopted or kept, but I do know this: the baby will live, and my daughter was rescued. You rescued at least two people by being there.”