I went, mostly to counteract their damage. I wasn’t planning on engaging them in conversation at all, as I generally find that it only ends up making me upset, and nothing changes. But when I showed up and walked over a woman came up to me and asked if I was there for 40 days of life.

I guess I felt like…she asked for it. So I looked at her puzzled and said “What? Of course not.” She seemed obviously bothered by my response and she walked over to the rest of the protesters. I felt kind of bad for giving her a terse response without an explanation so I walked over and offered an apology, and then asked if I could talk to her.

So we sat on the curb and I just calmly told her that I couldn’t help but wonder why she feels like she’s doing something good. So she first brought up god and the bible. I didn’t really feel like arguing specifics in the bible would help, so I just suggested that she accept the fact that since the bible reflects only one of many different religious viewpoints in the world and could potentially be wrong. She reluctantly agreed that there is a smallpossibility. So then I asked, without the Christian belief set, do you still think you’re doing something helpful?

She was quiet for a bit, and then mentioned suicide rates- suggesting that abortion is ruining women’s lives. So I asked her, how many women she saw this morning walk into Planned Parenthood with a boyfriend or a partner, or a friend or a parent. The answer was small, maybe one. I explained that many times, women come here because it’s the only place offering them support and information without bias, and many times their families or friends will have similar viewpoints to yours and disapprove. So they come to the one place that will offer them support and they first have to walk by a group of strangers calling them murderers. I said that after all that hatred being thrown at me, I’d be a suicide risk too.

So she calmly agreed that when I put it that way it definitely sounds like a terrible experience. But that she couldn’t help feel that god would want her to keep objecting. So I suggested she try to help out, and encourage her church to help out in ways that would actually contribute, explaining that if the adoption system were better, if support for single moms was better, if sexual education were more thorough, and if birth control was more available, then overall need for abortion would go down - which we both agreed would be a fantastic thing. So I suggested they find ways to lend help to those causes instead. Anyway, she got a little upset but she said she’d do some more research and pitch some ideas to her church, and she left!

I’ve counter-protested so many times, I’ve debated and discussed with fundies and born-agains and anything, but I don’t think I’ve ever come close to changing someone’s mind before. I feel fucking high right now. I know it’s a tiny drop in the bucket, but one less person yelling at emotionally compromised women seems pretty good to me.

Just wanted to share with you guys <3

This story is not mine. View the original/comments here.