There’s an old adage in the pro-life movement: “If abortion is murder, act like it.” The pithy slogan is meant to provoke people of goodwill to do something to prevent the killing of the unborn.
Lauren Muzyka’s recent article published at The Federalist, “How To Sidewalk Counsel Abortion-Minded Moms Without Going To Prison,” provides a harsh and negative critique of pro-life rescues, comparing them to the counseling method promoted by Sidewalk Advocates for Life, a ministry I laud and support.
I am uniquely qualified to write a defense of pro-life rescues and rescuers. Since 1978, I have logged thousands of hours sidewalk counseling women out of abortions, and organized and participated in dozens of pro-life rescues, even serving a short jail term just last April for a Red Rose Rescue that took place at a Michigan abortion center in 2022. I understand from experience the value of both methods — sidewalk counseling and abortion rescues — at the places where the deaths of the unborn are scheduled.
What Is an Abortion Rescue?
Beginning in the mid-1970s, the pro-life rescue movement, pioneered by such leaders as John Kavanaugh-O’Keefe and Joan Andrews Bell, active in the anti-war movement, sought to provide a nonviolent defense of the unborn. These rescues involved sitting down or standing in front of the doors to abortion centers. Sometimes pro-lifers would chain themselves to heavy objects to prevent their being taken away.
Operation Rescue, founded in the late 1980s, resulted in the arrest of tens of thousands
