Carla (67) paces back and forth outside Planned Parenthood’s abortion clinic in Cincinnati, Ohio, talking softly to herself.
We can’t hear what she says, but see her lips move.
It turns out that she is praying.
– I try to convert women and health workers through prayer. I pray for an end to abortion, Carla explains to VG.
She is Catholic, and part of a local church in town. For three years, she has wandered outside the abortion clinics in Cincinnati and prayed to God.
– As long as a woman can kill her own child, there is no peace, says Carla.
The divisive question
Should women in the United States have the right to self-determined abortion?
It is one of the most divisive issues in America today.
When Joe Biden meets Donald Trump in a presidential duel in November, this will be one of the major issues of the election campaign.
Since the US Supreme Court removed the federal right to abortion in the summer of 2022, there have been political and legal battles across the country.
Half of the US has banned it, or is in the process of doing so. While the other half have decided to protect the right to abortion, or legislated it.
This is where the “abortion tourists” come
Ohio was one of the states that made abortion illegal. But after three months the ban was blocked. Today, self-determined abortion is legal up to week 22 of pregnancy, when the fetus is considered viable.
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In the neighboring states of Kentucky, Indiana and West Virginia, abortion is completely prohibited. It has made Ohio a destination for “abortion tourists.”
Opponents of abortion like Carla strongly dislike it.
She wants to bring back the abortion ban in Ohio. And she wants to go further.
– A ban is not enough. We need to change people’s mindset. All abortions are done out of fear, she claims.
– Has your standing here yielded results?
– I don’t know if my prayers have converted anyone, replies Carla.
While we are talking to her, a couple of cars pull into the back of the abortion clinic. The women arrive by Uber or private car, and park as close to the front door as they can – well away from the anti-abortionists at the front, with their signs with pictures of babies.
– No one wants to talk to me, admits Carla.
– There is never a reason
Tom Lieser (70) also stands outside the clinic. He says he is a doctor, and that he has been involved in the “pro life” movement for 20 years.
– I pray that God will show the women that life is sacred. Abortion is murder. There is never any reason to kill a child.
– What about when the fetus is not viable? asks VG.
– There are operations that can be done inside the uterus. But in some cases the mother has to give birth to a dead child. And if the child is terminally ill, then give birth to the child and let it die a few days later.
– What about a twelve-year-old who becomes pregnant after rape?
– Then she will be a mother. Even if it is involuntary. The child should be allowed to live.
– So a child has to take care of a child himself?
– Yes. Possibly adoption is an option, Lieser replies.
– Do you think that pregnant girls and women should not be able to make a choice?
– Yes, they get a choice: The choice between evil and good. Death or life.
On the street next to it, several cars drive by. Some hoot encouragingly. Others are said to have shown Lieser the finger. Pro-life activists with baby signs are a familiar sight in the US, found outside abortion clinics in every state that still allows abortion.
Read Allie’s story: – They call me a baby killer
– I hear many people say that they are proud of abortion, that it is a woman’s right. But I know that many regret it afterwards, because they have killed their child.
– I think God has better things to offer these women than to come here and kill their children, says Lieser.
– We have become numb
Where does the strong commitment against abortion come from?
For many, it is about religion. They believe that abortion is a sin, even though the Bible does not specifically mention abortion. Catholics and evangelical Christians have fought against abortion in the United States for a number of years.
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But they are not in the majority.
National opinion polls show that the majority of Americans are against restrictive abortion bans. Most people think abortion should be allowed in the first trimester, according to Gallup.
Stacy Dunn heads the anti-abortion organization Tennessee Right to Life, in a state where abortion has effectively become illegal. She explains the opinion polls by saying that the people of the United States have been destroyed by the abortion access they had for 50 years.
– They forced legalized abortion on the American people. Since then, we have become numb to all kinds of violence against people, born and unborn, she says.
Dunn believes people will realize that “abortion is wrong”.
– The truth is written in the hearts of every American citizen, but for 50 years it has been distorted. Just as with slavery, the American people will one day shudder at the thought that abortion of unborn children was once not only legal, but promoted in our country.
