PLW: City of Madison Will Not Enforce Buffer Zone Ordinance

In an email memo sent yesterday to Madison Mayor Paul Soglin and members of the Madison Common Council, City Attorney Michael May questioned the constitutionality of the City's recently enacted buffer zone ordinance and announced that the City of Madison and Madison Police Chief Mike Koval will not enforce it. May's decision follows last Thursday's U.S. Supreme Court decision in McCullen v. Coakley striking down a Massachusetts law requiring pro-life witnesses and sidewalk counselors in the public way to remain 35 feet from the entrance to an abortion clinic.

May writes in the email that "the reasoning of the Supreme Court raises significant concerns, in my opinion, about the continued validity of the Madison ordinance. Because of those concerns, the City will not, as of the date of the McCullen decision, enforce the provisions of [the ordinance] that contain the buffer zone restrictions. Police Chief Koval concurs in this determination."

"With the City of Madison backing off enforcement, it's becoming increasingly clear their buffer zone ordinance is unconstitutional," said Matt Sande, Pro-Life Wisconsin's Legislative Director. "In January Pro-Life Wisconsin cautioned the Common Council to slow down and refrain from enacting any buffer zone restriction in light of the pending McCullen decision. They didn't listen, and the United States Supreme Court has now spoken, saying that buffer zones attack free speech rights in the public way. The City of Madison must act quickly to repeal this offensive ordinance before they lose in court, face substantial attorneys' fees, and suffer a complete loss of confidence in their ability to uphold basic civil liberties."

continue at PLW

HT AC

Milwaukee Miracles

You may know Milwaukee’s Dan Miller from the 40 Days for Life book. And if you’ve ever been to the vigil site in Milwaukee, you’ve seen Dan because you can’t miss him! He’s around 6 feet 7 … with a heart to match his size.

He’s the local 40 Days for Life leader ... and he's been used by God to witness many miracles on the sidewalk in Milwaukee. Here’s an account of just a few … which include at least four babies saved from abortion! We're also including some photos from the Milwaukee vigil.

As you’ll be able to see, Dan keeps very accurate records.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin 

“At 11:47 am, God showed us our first save,” Dan said. “The first thing about this couple that I noticed was their happy demeanor. We talked back and forth in Spanish – and the next thing you know they are telling me that they are keeping the baby. They looked so good with their decision to parent their child – they were absolutely glowing.”

At 12:24 pm, another couple walked out – and they also looked happy. “I noticed was her lipstick, which was like a sea-blue,” he said. “I used that as an ice-breaker – and the next thing you know, they are taking one of our gifts – and I’m blessing them and their baby.”

40 Days for Life

The First Shift

“For the first time...I have come to love the darkness--for I believe now that it is a part, a very, very small part of Jesus' darkness and pain on earth. --Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta

I narrowly made it to Planned Parenthood in time for my 8:00 a.m. shift on the sidewalk today. My partner this morning was Julie*, one of our best and most prolific sidewalk counselors, and we agreed that she would counsel while I covered her in prayer. As Julie took her position--just a few feet  from a used condom somebody has discarded on the sidewalk, I found a place to kneel and begin my Rosary.

As the clock struck 8, a Planned Parenthood employee smiling brightly came to unlock the door and welcome the morning's clients. In unison, women emerged from their cars to line up and enter the abortion facility. They scurried in as quickly as they could, hoping to avoid any interaction with Julie and me. The empty look in their glazed-over eyes stood in sharp contrast with the cheery Planned Parenthood employee who welcomed them in.

We could tell by their loose fitting sweatpants and wind pants that they were abortion clients. There were around eight or ten of them in all, depending on how many of them were there to be the "support person."

The Antagonist

I hadn't even started my first decade of the Rosary when a man parked in the parking lot began heckling me. "Go pray for your own sins!" he shouted. I assured him that I would.

He continued to hassle me, insisting that life is about choices. He then quoted Scripture and said nobody came to save Jesus from the Cross and that we're not going to change anyone's mind either. I acknowledged him and explained that we were there to offer a better alternative and told him how we've been averaging one changed mind a week and that maybe today was our day.

I moved down the sidewalk closer to his vehicle so I could hear him better. He poured out his heart, explaining that he wasn't the baby's father. He had driven his friend, who wanted to sever all ties with the baby's father and felt that abortion was necessary for that to happen. He said he didn't like abortion. Several times, Julie and I told him he needed to encourage his friend to see a healthy alternative at the Women's Care Center across the street. Every time, he replied that there was no way she'd change her mind; he'd already tried.

As he kept talking, I suppose there were a million things I could have--perhaps should have--said. But I just kept kneeling and listening. Before he'd listen to what I had to say, he needed me to listen to him.

Listening

Some time ago, I realized that Western Civilization won't be saved through politics or the courts or a mass shift in public opinion. Western Civilization will be saved the same way it was built--through evangelization. Through serving people as men and women created in the image and likeness of God one at a time.

And so I served this man by listening to him.

I listened to him for 45 minutes. Sometimes I'd chime in. Sometimes I'd answer his questions or correct him when he said something that was flat-out wrong. But mostly I listened.

I listened to him tell me about growing up black in a segregated part of Dallas. I listened to him tell me about growing up in a broken home. "If I hadn't come from a broken family, I'd be in the NBA, NFL--I could have been something!"

I listened to him talk about the children he's lost to abortion--children he didn't even know about until after the abortions happened. I listened to him talk about saving a child from drowning and seeing a person shot to death right in front of him. I listened to him tell me that he's homeless, but he works and he loves his job.

I couldn't do much out on the sidewalk but I focused on what I could do and validated this man as a person by acknowledging him and his concerns and simply hearing him out.

The Phone Call

As we spoke, you could see my new friend's heart soften. He praised Julie and me for being there. He asked if I had kids and said he appreciates me being out because I could be spending my time with my family or at my job. And when a passerby shouted "Quit harassing people!" at me, he supported me.

After a pause in our conversation, the man looked at me and said, "I'm gonna pray with you."

Imagine that! The guy who started our conversation by yelling, "Go pray for your own sins" had now bowed his head and prayed with me for his abortion-bound friend inside Planned Parenthood.

Not only that, but he also told me, "I'll call her and try to change her mind." A few feet away, Julie got down on her knees and prayed, tears streaming down her face.

I didn't listen to the conversation, but twice I heard him say, "I will raise this baby. I will!" He had answered his call as a man to protect women and children. 

It wasn't enough; she didn't change her mind. Julie's tears continued to fall.

"Are you crying?!" the man asked.

"Well, yes. I had thought this might work out," she responded.

"I know; I'm crying a little bit too," he said.

Sidewalk Counseling in the Parking Lot

At this point, he developed a sense of purpose. He walked around the parking lot, speaking to other Planned Parenthood clients--trying to talk them out of abortion. I noted one of the patrons who ignored him was wearing blue jeans--an encouraging sign that she wasn't there for abortion.

As my new friend continued to talk to Planned Parenthood clients, I realized that we basically had a sidewalk counselor roaming the parking lot of the abortion facility! He even approached the security guard and questioned his line of work. "He's confused," he told me. "Keep praying. Maybe God will shut the power off for these motherf*****s."

Meanwhile, the sister of an abortion client came out to smoke. She lectured us about how children are better off aborted than raised in abusive homes. While she wasn't there for an abortion herself, she said she'd absolutely get one because, "My daughter has seen some sh**" and it isn't fair to put kids through that."

Another heckler drove by.

The woman in blue jeans exited Planned Parenthood and sat at a picnic table across the parking lot. She buried her head in her hands and sat there talking with her boyfriend for some time. There's no way to know exactly what happened, but it seemed likely that she had just received a positive pregnancy test and was trying to decide what to do about it.

We had hoped to speak with her, but after about 20 minutes, she went back into the abortion center. At least, we imagined, she wouldn't have the abortion that day in her blue jeans. We'd have the opportunity to counsel her when she left--and could maybe reach her when she came back for the procedure next week.

Those aspirations washed away when her boyfriend met her at the abortion center door to hand her a pair of pink sweatpants.

"God Be with You"

I was now two hours into my one hour shift, and I figured I better get home. I asked my new friend if I could give him some information. He came over, and I handed him a Rachel's Vineyard brochure for his friend and some general information on both Planned Parenthood and abortion.

I shook his hand and thanked him for trying to save his friend's baby. "God be with you," he told me.

As I said goodbye to Julie, the friend of the man in the parking lot emerged, now post-abortive. As they drove off, she glared at me out the window. "Y'all assholes. We pray too!"

In God's Hands

Now this would certainly be a much better, more enjoyable essay if I could wrap it up neatly with a dramatic story of a last-minute success before I packed it up. Maybe a saved baby or a post-abortive woman who came forward to seek healing. But God doesn't always affirm us like that--not on the timeline we'd like Him too at least.

I recognize that my tale of a heartbreaking day in which we saved no babies while getting cursed at is not a great advertisement for getting involved in pro-life sidewalk counseling. It's much more rewarding to be out and about when the good stuff happens.

Still, I have no regrets. I trust that God put Julie and me where he wanted us this morning. Maybe our Christian witness will help turn around a life some day down the line. It's not for us to know.

What is for me to know is this: this morning, in spite of everything, Julie and I gave God everything we had. We did so by affirming the dignity of the man in the car...by turning the other cheek when we were insulted...by loving the mothers who came to Planned Parenthood because they aren't receiving the love they need and deserve...by loving the babies who weren't loved by a single other person during the course of their all-too-short lives on this earth.

This was all we can do, and it's what we did. The rest is in God's Hands.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. --John 1:5

*Julie is a fictitious name.

Milwaukee's Dan Miller on the Guadalupe Radio Network today

40 Days for Life National Director David Bereit and Dan Miller at a pro-life vigil in 2012.

You might remember that last month I was Lauren Muzyka's guest on Culture Lifeline on the Guadalupe Radio Network.

Another Wisconsin Catholic will join her today as Milwaukee's Dan Miller will join her at 1:30 p.m. Dan is the leader of Milwaukee's 40 Days for Life campaign and one of the nation's best sidewalk counselors. Dan is also the president of Pro-Life Wisconsin Education Task Force.

Click here to listen.

Madison Vigil for Life sees turn-around numbers skyrocket

The following article is the first in a three-part series on Vigil for Life of Madison. Part two will appear tomorrow. Part three will appear next week.

Most, if not all of our readers will be familiar with 40 Days for Life--the worldwide coordinated 40 day prayer vigils in front of abortion facilities leading to thousands of saved lives and conversions of dozens of workers in the abortion industry.

Madison held its first 40 Days for Life campaign in 2007. (I was living in Chicago at the time and got involved for the 2008 campaign.) Between the 2007 and 2008 campaigns, the founder started Vigil for Life of Madison, an umbrella organization that hosts 40 Days for Life as well as other pro-life vigils, retreats, speaking events and more.

In 2009-10, Vigil for Life rose to prominence by helping to lead a successful effort to derail plans to perform late-term abortions through the University of Wisconsin Hospital.

Following the successful cancellation of the UW Hospital's abortion venture, Vigil for Life launched the 365 for Life initiative. Since then, prayer warriors have held vigil in from of the Madison Planned Parenthood every day it's been open. If memory serves me correctly, there might have been a blizzard or two that kept us off the streets for a day, but only in truly extreme circumstances have we let weather keep us off the streets.

Recently, Vigil for Life expanded its vigil schedule to include all business hours on Tuesdays and Wednesdays--the days on which abortions are usually performed--in addition to covering a number of hours on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays. The expansion takes place as Vigil for Life prayer warriors and sidewalk counselors report a dramatic number of saved babies and turnarounds.

Typically, we might only confirm one or two turnarounds each year. But recently, that number has jumped to about five turnarounds a month!

There's two main reasons for this:

1. A few years ago, Amy Lang (the founder of Vigil for Life), her husband, and two other couples purchased the building across the street from Planned Parenthood. After taking some time for prayerful discernment, they opened the Women's Care Center--a Catholic crisis pregnancy center. Having a pregnancy center director across the street has helped give women a convenient and feasible alternative to abortion.
2. In early 2011, Vigil for Life began training hundreds of sidewalk counselors to actively engage abortion-minded women. As a result, the counselors have found success presenting women with options beyond ending the life of a child.

The dramatic increase in the number of saved babies has been encouraging, but it has also strained Vigil for Life--which is a volunteer-led organization with no staff and a budget of less than $1,000 each year. Filling more than 50 one-hour shifts during the workweek 12 months a year has proven difficult. To get involved (or for more information), visit VigilforLife.org or email info@vigilforlife.org.

CMReport: There's a Special Place in Heaven for Sidewalk Counselors

via CMReport:

I've prayed in front of abortion clinics before. But I've never counseled the women walking in. I always think there's someone who's trained in it or better suited. But the truth is that someone needs to say something. And there are countless children out there whose life hung in the balance when someone on the sidewalk of a clinic said something to remind the mothers that they were carrying a baby.

I believe there's a special place in Heaven for sidewalk counselors who stand in front of abortion clinics. Watch this. To be honest, you have no idea what this couple is ultimately going to decide but at least they were thinking about their decision. You can see that when they first stop, they're treating the sidewalk counselor lady like she's a bit touched in the noggin'. But then they start listening to her.

WATCH IT!  This.is.fantastic.

Pro-Life Wisconsin hosts sidewalk counselor training workshop at UW-Green Bay today

Pro-Life Wisconsin will host a sidewalk counselor training workshop on Tuesday, October 23 at 6:00 p.m. on the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Campus. The event will be held at UW-GB’s Christie Theatre (on the first floor of the University Union) and is open to the public. For a campus map, click here. The workshop is scheduled to run until 8:30 p.m. and will also feature role-playing scenarios.

Lisa Sommers of Rachel’s Vineyard will provide the training. Lisa has held or assisted with PLW sidewalk counseling training sessions since early 2011. Each participant will receive a copy of Pro-Life Wisconsin’s new Sidewalk Counselor’s Handbook as well as a sample folder filled with literature that can be used on the sidewalks. These sample packs will include information on birth control, chemical abortion, surgical abortion, fetal development, post-abortion healing and more.

The workshop is being hosted in conjunction with the UW-GB Phoenix Students for Life.

Pro-Life Wisconsin

Pro-Life Wisconsin to host free sidewalk counselor training workshop in Racine

Sidewalk counselors in Milwaukee, Madison and abortion facilities across the state are making a difference every day. Just this past week in Milwaukee, sidewalk counselors were able to reach out to many women in need, including 4 women who are keeping their babies.

Unfortunately, we have found out that Affiliated Medical Services has resumed dispensing RU-486 (mifepristone), which is prescribed by abortionists for a drug-induced medical abortion. The average woman loses four times the amount of blood in a drug-induced medical abortion as compared to a standard surgical abortion. Several deaths have been attributed to mifepristone and therefore its prescription and use – from a medical standpoint alone – ought to be banned.

As part of our continuing efforts to reach out to abortion-bound women, Pro-Life Wisconsin will host a free Sidewalk Counselor Training Workshop on Wednesday, August 22 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. The workshop will be held at Lux Mundi Studio, 1405 16th Street, Racine, Wis. and is open to all.

Whether you're interested in actively sidewalk counseling or just learning what it's all about, these workshops are an effective way to learn how to talk with abortion-vulnerable men and women.

Serving on the panel will be:
• Steve Karlen (moderator)--Steve is the Director of Development at Pro-Life Wisconsin. He spearheaded the successful statewide effort to end late-term abortion plans on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus in 2009-2010.
• Dan Miller--Dan is the director of 40 Days for Life-Milwaukee. His extraordinary efforts as a full-time volunteer counselor have helped save more than 200 lives over the last two years.
• Laura Karlen--Laura Karlen is the Past President of Vigil for Life of Madison, where she helped lead Madison's 40 Days for Life campaign since 2008.
• Lisa Sommers--Lisa is the director and founder of Rachels Vineyard-Stevens Point, an apostolate dedicated to helping post-abortive men and women find peace and healing.

Participants will receive Pro-Life Wisconsin's Sidewalk Counselor's Handbook. Please call Steve Karlen at 262-796-1111 ext. 14 with questions or for additional information.

 Photo

Also a note to any students out there looking for an internship opportunity.

Pro-Life Wisconsin is looking to bring on an intern for the 2012-2013 academic year. Duties may include assisting with activities like sidewalk counseling, assisting with 40 Days for Life, and organizing on-campus pro-life efforts. Any pro-life student pursuing an undergraduate degree is encouraged to apply. The internship includes a $500/semester stipend. Applicants can send a resume and cover letter to steve@prolifewisconsin.org and can call 262-796-1111 ext. 14 with questions.