It was the last day of the semester in May as I parked my car in an out-of-the-way lot in the rear of the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA in Sacramento. As I was about to place a packet under the windshield wiper of the car next to me, I came eye to eye with a good looking young man napping in the driver’s seat of his car. He was almost in a prone position. After I had excused myself for disturbing his nap, he accepted the literature and began asking me questions in a soft-spoken voice. He didn’t move from his position during our lengthy conversation - almost 20 minutes.

     He wanted to know whether or not you could be forgiven for an abortion - after I had told him it is against God’s law. "Yes," I answered, "but you’ve got to really mean it. God is completely sincere with us and He wants our sincerity.. You’ve got to mentally take yourself back to the time you had the abortion and promise never to do it again if the same circumstances were repeated in your life. This isn’t easy." He asked me if it was still wrong when the baby’s life is just beginning - in the early months. I told him, "Yes, it is."

     When I questioned him on whether or not he went to church, he said he used to, but stopped going when he wasn’t getting anything out of it. I told him that he had to have a relationship with Jesus Christ, telling him how much my life had changed when this had happened to me "How did it change?" he asked. "Jesus brought JOY! into my life. That’s why I’m doing what I’m doing today. It’s better than watching TV," I said. We talked about the family situation in the U.S. I told him that women are responsible for the bad things that are now happening. It all started in the sixties with the birth control pill and women wanting careers more than they wanted to be mothers. "Being a mother is the most important job in the world," I said. "You can bring your children to Heaven with you, not your car," I said. I asked him if he was married. He said he was. He asked me what you do when you don’t have enough money to have children. "You depend on God," I said. I told him I had six children and couldn’t afford any of them at the time, but the Lord always came through.

     At the end of our conversation, I gave him a booklet, "HAPPY ST VALENTINE’S DAY!", giving the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As I handed it to him, he promised, "I’ll read it." I was really surprised when he said to me as I was leaving, "God bless you!" (I was about to say it to him.) I had the feeling that this young man had been involved in an abortion and that I had given him HOPE that God would forgive him..

On a beautiful spring morning in May, I drove the one-hour drive from Modesto to Sacramento. My first stop was AMERICAN LEGION HIGH, a school for kids with problems - drugs, pregnancy, etc. Two friendly custodians standing in front of the school asked whether they could help me as I stood on the sidewalk waiting for the kids to come out. I walked toward them onto the campus and told them I was there to distribute literature to the students and handed them packets. They both said they were against abortion. Another man walked out from the school and asked to see the literature. As he looked through it, he told me it was a shame that the pro-life people were so belligerant. "This is a lie put out by the news media" I immediately told him. "The people who demonstrate are all peaceful and nonviolent." When I said "news media", the light seemed to dawn in his face and he believed me. AMERICAN LEGION is a school with under 200 students. After passing out as many as I could reach, I drove to my next destination, SUTTER MID SCHOOL, a few miles away.

     The SUTTER kids were all receptive to the literature with one exception, a girl about thirteen with an intense, almost hateful expression on her face. She challenged my right to be there and walked off with the words, "I’m going to do something about this." I assumed she was going into the school to complain, but nothing happened.

     My next stop was SACRAMENTO HIGH. Again, there were the usual looks of surprise at the colored pictures of abortions. One young man asked me whether abortion was legal?? It is amazing how much ignorance there is on this subject. Our literature is bringing the light of truth to kids who are really unaware of what is going on and what an abortion does to the baby.

     My last stop was the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. I was surprised that the parking lots were full at 4:00 PM when I got there. Two verbal encounters took place with two male college students. Both were sitting in their cars as I approached. The first young man rolled down his car window and accepted the literature. In a minute he was out of the car walking toward me as I was busy leafleting cars. "You know abortion is a political issue and according to the Bible, Christians are not supposed to engage in politics," he said. He then proceeded to quote the Bible to "prove" his point.
"That’s really a stretch," I answered, responding to his vague Biblical quotations. I then told him that the religious leaders who refuse to speak out against abortion (I mentioned Billy Graham, in particular) will have God to answer to some day on this. I also mentioned that it was "Christians" who were more concerned about their pocketbooks than moral issues who elected Clinton. "They knew he was taking a public stand for HOMOSEXUALITY AND ABORTION." I said with intensity. As we parted company, I asked him what he would do if there were a pregnant woman standing in front of him who was about to plunge a knife into her unborn baby. "Would you call it a political issue and do nothing?" I challenged him. He didn’t answer, and I could see I had made my point. His parting words to me were an innocuous, "Have a nice day."

     The other young man I encountered that day said he didn’t want the literature as he looked at me from the driver’s seat of his car. For some reason the motor in his car was running. He turned it off to tell me that the baby was really just a fetus. "Weren’t you and I once fetuses?" I asked. "I rest my case," I said as I began to walk away. "You’re not going to leave without giving me a chance, are you?" he asked. I stopped and listened to a few more unrealistic pro-abortion statements. I finally said to him, "If it’s not alive (which he was implying), why are we killing it?" The expression on his face revealed I had hit the mark. He couldn’t think of a reply, and I went on with my work.

As I began to distribute literature to the lunch-break students at ALAMEDA HIGH, I got the usual reactions. Turning around, I could see a handful of packets thrown on the ground, a few refusals - "I’m pro-choice," and the counter-balancing comment, "Glad you’re here - I’m pro-life." It wasn’t until I waited around to reach the students coming back from lunch-I had missed many of them-that it suddenly started to happen, like an outbreak of wildfire: There was the skinny young man who accepted the literature and then immediately came back to return it. He walked about 20 feet away, turned back to glare at me and then threw a plastic quart coke bottle he held in his hand down on the ground with all the force of his body. His actions were, of course, riddled with guilt!

     The students began making comments to me about the literature and asking questions: "What about crack babies? What about a girl who is living in a broken home, etc., etc.,"? I told them in no uncertain terms that ABORTION IS MURDER no matter what the circumstances. Even in the case of rape, the mother becomes worse than the rapist - a murderess. When we got on the subject of abortion being wrong because God says it is, the fire really got going. The mention of HELL for unrepentant women having abortions gets their attention. They don’t want to let it go. They keep standing there asking more questions and always getting back to the subject of HELL. (I asked myself, "Is it because they don’t hear any moral absolutes anymore - as far as they have been told, there are no real consequences to their actions?")

     At one point a student said, "You know I really don’t think you should be standing here talking to us. I don’t think it’s legal." I assured her that it was - in fact, a security man had just come up to me and okayed it, and that if they didn’t want to talk to me, why didn’t they walk away? They continued to stand there asking questions.

     A tall, handsome young man with a large, juicy hamburger in one hand came on the scene. He had, apparently, been discussing my being there with other students. As I offered him a packet, he announced to me: "I know you are making a big impression on everyone here, but as for me, I want to eat my lunch without being bothered." "You mean your stomach is more important to you than human life?" I asked boldly challenging him in semi-humor. "Hey," he said, "I’ve got to think about myself. I’m going to get a good job and I’m going to be rich." (I could scarcely believe he was serious but then came to the conclusion that he was.) "Money won’t buy happiness," I called after him as he began walking up the sidewalk.

     All the while I was there, about ten students looked on, some asking questions and making comments, others just listening. After running the gamut of the usual questions on abortion, one young girl came back after leaving and asked, "What about a miscarriage?" "A miscarriage is an act of God," I answered. "An abortion is different. You’re telling God that He made a mistake when He created this child and that you’re correcting it by the abortion. God doesn’t make mistakes,’ I said. Again, I could see the statement I had made about going to HELL was bothering this group of kids. One girl said I didn’t have any right to say this because there were a lot of girls at the school who had had abortions and they would feel bad about it. "It’s important that they face what they did," I said "so they can ask God’s forgiveness. Men feel guilty too," I added as I mentioned the incident of the plastic coke bottle.

     It was already past the time to go back into the school, and I decided to leave for the day. "God bless you kids!" I said as I walked away. One of the girls answered, "God bless you!" As I was about to get into my stationwagon, a new group of students crossed the street and approached me - three girls and a boy. "Can we interview you for our television class?" they asked. The boy was holding a small TV camera. "Why not?" I answered. Right after I said this, I realized this may have been a mistake. This way the school would have a permanent record of my being there which could be used for harassment purposes. Then the young man couldn’t get it started, and I was relieved. They began to talk to me, mostly asking questions. There was no outward hostility there because they were playing the role of interviewers. One blond girl in particular was the chief interviewer. She told me right away that she was "personally opposed to abortion, but she felt a woman had a right to choose.’ I couldn’t help laughing as I told her she sounded like a typical politician. Another girl said that she was a Catholic but commented, "It’s a woman’s body and she has the right to do what she wants." "You’re right," I answered, "God gave her a free will. We can choose HEAVEN or HELL. And if we don’t do it God’s way, we’re headed for HELL. Besides," I said, "if you’re a Catholic, you must know that your body is really not your own. Jesus Christ died on the cross for you, and you must choose whether to please Him or yourself." I told them that human life is more important than anything on earth. You can’t take your house with you or any material possession, but you can take your children."

     When I told them that sex before marriage is a sin, one of the girls commented, "That’s something you just can’t stop." "I don’t believe that’s true," I said.. "We are human beings made in the image of God. We are valuable. We are not animals. It is a matter of self-control. You should put a high price tag on yourself, not a low one. Besides," I said, "I’m not the only one saying this. There are abstinence groups starting all over the country." As I glanced at all of them, they stared back at me with no arguments. (Little did I know at the time that the abstinence movement had already started in ALAMEDA according to an article in the ALAMEDA TIMES the previous week.)

     I could see during this fifteen minute conversation (they had, apparently, come over during their TV class as it was now well over a half hour past the time to return from lunch) that I was making a good impression on these kids. The girl, the chief interviewer who said she was personally opposed to abortion, finally asked me: "If I say I wouldn’t have an abortion myself but that I thought it was okay for someone else to do it, would that send me to HELL?" "Yes, it would," I said. "You’re going against God and your attitude is wrong."

     One of the questions frequently asked by high school students and brought up by this group was, "Do you think it’s right for anti-abortion people to be so violent?" I quickly explained that this was a news media ploy to make peaceful non-violent pro-lifers look violent. I mentioned that the man who killed the abortionist was not really a "pro-lifer" but a mentally disturbed individual who just came upon the scene.

     We were interrupted by a female student who had crossed the street who said sarcastically, "Why don’t you stop talking to her? She’s just a kook." After she said "kook" a few more times, the group decided to leave. Then the young man, after the girls began crossing the street, who had been staring intently at me without saying anything, began a dialogue with me. He was friendly. He asked me what church I attended with a few other related questions. Reading between the lines, I could see he was on my side but didn’t have the nerve to speak up in front of the girls.

It was close to the end of the school year when I began leafleting cars along a side street in MANTECA where MANTECA HIGH SCHOOL students had parked their cars. It was about 20 minutes before dismissal time. An elderly black lady waved to me and wanted to know what I was doing as I approached her. I told her I was distributing pro-life materials and handed her a packet. "Oh," she said, "you’re so right! Abortion is terrible!" I told her to save the material for a pregnant girl and she said she would. Then she beamed from ear to ear as she mentioned that her granddaughter had just graduated and was about to embark on an overnight trip to DISNEYLAND.

     I then walked over to the corner crossing and stood there until the bell rang a few minutes later at 2:27. I started to distribute packets to the kids walking toward me and also in their cars waiting for the signal to change. After distributing a few hundred packets, I began walking down Yosemite Avenue, one of the main streets in MANTECA in front of the school, thinking I might reach a few more students on the opposite corner. As I walked, I passed out a few more packets and when I got to the corner, I saw about 150 students waiting for a tour bus. ("DISNEYLAND," I said to myself.) Feeling like I was "raining on their parade" because of the contrast between abortion and having fun at DISNEYLAND, I approached them feeling a little hesitant, but I knew that God must have sent me in that direction as they were sitting targets for me and my last chance to reach them at MANTECA HIGH. I sensed hostility as I began leafleting. Some of them refused the materials, and one girl collected a handful after I distributed it and returned the literature to me.

     As I approached four girls talking together, they said they didn’t want the material because they didn’t like looking at the pictures of abortion. "Don’t you care about the over 4,000 babies being killed every day by abortion?" I asked. "I wouldn’t have an abortion," one girl stated. "Well, you know I’ve talked to girls who just like you say they wouldn’t have an abortion and then when they get pregnant, they get scared and they have an abortion and they ruin their lives." I walked away and approached four boys talking together. One smart aleck said, "PRO CHOICE, PRO CHOICE," in a singsong manner. I picked up on his singsong tone of voice and said, "PRO DEATH, PRO DEATH," I could see one of the boys laughing who obviously agreed with me.

     After I had reached everyone standing there waiting to get on the bus, I started back to my car. I thought to myself, "With all that pro life literature on the bus, I wonder how many arguments about abortion will be going on, on the way to L. A.?" I also thought that the message of moral purity could save some girl from losing her head on the overnight trip to L. A.