Naaman's story of his converstion from clinic escort to pro-life advocate is here. (Update: The post is currently missing. Read the bulk of Naaman's story in a reprint here.)
After re-reading it, I remember when I was Feminists for Life's Pennsylvania contact person. I got a call from a fledgeling prolifer in Philadelphia.
Up until recently, she had been a clinic escort. The volunteer coordinator at the clinic had instructed all the escorts to take away any pamplets that the prolifers gave the women. This woman wanted to know why. Weren't the women adults, able to take in information and make up their own minds? Isn't that what choice was all about?
The volunteer coordinator explained that the pamphlets were all full of lies, and that the vulnerable women needed to be protected from the lies.
So the escort dutifully collected the pamplets from the women. But instead of throwing them away, she took them home to do research so she could effectively counter the lies.
She learned, she told me, that everything in the pamplets was true.
She went to the volunteer coordinator and pointed out to her that there was nothing false at all in the pamplets. In fact, she said, much of what the clinic and prochoice activists were putting out were demonstrably false.
None of that mattered, the volunteer coordinator said. The important thing was to keep the pamplets out of the women's hands.
Instant convert.
Well, the now former escort still had the contact number from the reporter at the Philadelphia Enquirer that the clinic always contacted when they wanted to put out a story. The former escort made an appointment to meet with the reporter and his editor. She showed them the pamphlets the prolifers were putting out, and the pamphlets the abortion supporters were putting out. She brought in the independent source material that showed that the prolifers were telling the truth, and that the prochoicers were lying. The editor and reporter thanked her for her time, told her it was all very interesting, and kept her materials.
She was very angry, telling me about it. "They just keep on printing the lies!"
I was laughing. She wanted to know what was so funny.
"Did you really think anything was going to change," I asked her, "just because you, personally, caught on?"
She was silent for a moment, then gave little chuckle. "I guess you're pretty used to it."
I think of her once in a while, and I think of the scene in The Last Unicorn, when Schmendrick the Magician says that Mommy Fortuna should never have meddled with a real harpy, or a real unicorn, "because the truth melts her magic. Always."
We can only hope.
4 comments:
I recently came across Naaman's conversion story. It was very interesting. It made for a good read. Too bad that it has to be filed under Fiction. I coordinated the escorts at the Commonwealth Clinic in Falls Church, VA in the timeframe described by Naaman. There were a few obvious errors in the story. It was made up. My guess was to make Naaman look good and gain acceptability.
Then why don't you enlighten us?
How, praytell, do you want me to enlighten you?
Tell your side of the story.
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