Attacks On Pro-Life Teens Escalate

An abortion clinic in Aurora, Illinois, is the site of regular sidewalk counseling for their prospective clients. Sidewalk counseling involves individuals who stand on the sidewalk outside the abortion clinic and peacefully offer girls/women assistance with their pregnancies if this would help them not have an abortion. This sidewalk counseling has changed the minds of many girls who go on to have their babies and keep them or place them with an adoptive couple.

Unfortunately, this sidewalk counseling is becoming more and more dangerous as people who object to their point of view and activities have become violent against them. The counselors view themselves as offering and providing alternatives to abortion while exercising their freedom of speech. Those who disagree with them view their activities as an infringement upon the rights of girls/women who are choosing abortion.

Recently, this objection has gone from verbal confrontations to outright physical attacks. For example, in Aurora, Illinois, a local high school student named Hannah was sidewalk counseling at the Planned Parenthood abortion clinic when a car suddenly swerved leaving the clinic and nearly hit her.

The driver, 25-year-old Michael Fabian, was charged by the DuPage County State Attorney with misdemeanor aggravated assault, which carries penalties of up to one year in jail. Fabian chose not to go to trial and pled guilty to the much lesser charge of improper lane use. He received three months of court supervision and paid $180 in court costs.

Hannah, the young counselor, is not at all deterred by this occurrence and is more determined than ever to continue her efforts to provide abortion alternatives to her peers.