CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA (Nettavisen): «We have resources available at your fingertips. The innocent child does not deserve death”says Lisa Metzger loudly to the car pulling into the parking lot of the clinic.
It is Saturday morning in the big city of Charlotte in North Carolina. We meet the organization Love Life at the property they have purchased, which is located right next to the women’s health clinic A Preferred Women’s Health Center. The group is here to protest against the abortions that the clinic performs.
– This is an expression of what true Christianity looks like. This is a terrible place, says Brian Ottinger to Nettavisen as he looks towards the clinic.
Amazing Grace plays loudly in the background.
At the entrance, everyone is given mini-dolls made of silicon fetuses.
– They will represent the baby in week 12, says Ottinger. Love Life defines both embryos and fetuses as babies.
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– As Christians, we believe that innocent children die in this place. If we sit inside our buildings and hide, we won’t get out, says Ottinger.
– Wait until marriage
From the stage we hear abortion opponent Johnathan DeVore. He says that he himself once asked a woman to have an abortion.
– I had just as much responsibility. I gave her the credit card and told her to take care of the problem. But it wasn’t actually a problem. It was actually my son or daughter. I was in mourning afterwards, DeVore tells Nettavisen.
In 2006 he found God. Now he is active in Love Life and is director of the organization in the big city of Charlotte.
– Why should women have to carry out a pregnancy when they do not want to or when it was not planned?
– It takes two to dance the tango. Sometimes it’s a “one night stand”, a situation or it happens together with a girlfriend. We want to see a shift. We want men and women to save for marriage. Don’t put yourself in a difficult situation. Wait until marriage, DeVore urges.
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The organization sings biblical songs. The birds are tweeting. Children run around on the gravel. Brian Ottinger often brings his own children here.
– They grow up and learn that this is a normal thing. Even though it’s terrible, it’s common to talk about. We teach them that if they or someone they know is in a difficult situation, they can come and talk to us, says Ottinger.
“Walk of Prayer” in 40 weeks
During the demonstration, members walk a silent prayer walk towards the abortion clinic A Preferred Women’s Health Center of Charlotte. The clinic accepts women from several states in the USA who live in states where abortion is prohibited or restricted.
Before May 2023, women could have an abortion up to week 20 in North Carolina. Now it is prohibited after week 12, but the law in the state has
The clinics are also expecting increased traffic after Florida’s new abortion law comes into force on 1 May. North Carolina is the closest state to Florida that women seeking abortions after week 6 can travel to.
Every time a car – with a possible woman on her way to the clinic – drives past, several in the group extend their arms with posters, brochures and mini-dolls quickly into the air.
The organization will go on a “Walk of Prayer” 40 of the weeks of the year every Saturday from 10 February to 9 November this year. The number of weeks is no coincidence. It should represent an entire pregnancy. The participants have been told not to talk to the volunteers.
Love Life has dedicated “pavement counsellors” who try to persuade the women not to have an abortion. Abortion opponent Caitlyn Ottinger (20), the daughter-in-law of Brian Ottinger, is a “pavement counsellor” on Tuesdays.
– It is heartbreaking that they have bought the lie that abortion solves their problems, says Caitlyn to Nettavisen.
– I must not be pro-choice as a young woman
She is not the “typical” abortion opponent we imagine where she stands with long blond hair, a white t-shirt and blue ola shorts. She is aware of that herself.
– You can be a strong woman and still stand against abortion. I can have just as many rights without having that right. I don’t have to be pro-choice to feel empowered as a young woman in the US, she says.
Only 11 percent of younger people in the 18 to 29 age group were in favor of a total ban on abortion in 2023, according to Gallup’s poll.
– I think it is more empowering to be a young woman who stands up for life from conception. Women’s rights start in the womb. Women in the womb deserve protection and rights, she believes.
Caitlyn Ottinger believes that there is life in the mother’s womb from fertilization. That is why she is against abortion. The aim of standing on the pavement next to the clinic is to create hope and help the women.
– These women are desperate. The circumstances are tough for many, she points out.
As a “pavement counsellor”, there are days when none of the women who drive into the clinic want to talk to them.
– But even if not a single woman stops and talks to us, we can still say that there was not a single child who was aborted who did not have someone speak on their behalf, she adds.
Trying to persuade women
Caitlyn is only participating in the prayer walk this Saturday. Today, Lisa Metzger is one of the organisation’s advisors who will be close to the clinic and the women who drive into the car park. She has participated in “pavement counselling” since she was a child, she says.
– We are here out of love to help these mothers. It’s wonderful to see when the mothers change their minds, Metzer tells Nettavisen.
She stands right next to the clinic’s volunteers who are there to escort the women into the clinic.
– We try not to talk to them. They are doing their best to silence us and prevent the women from hearing the other choice that is available, says Lisa.
The anti-abortion movement is often accused of only caring about preventing abortions, and not the actual follow-up of women after birth. It claims Love Life is a false accusation.
– We have resources we can offer. We help them solve the challenge they have that made them come here today, says Metzer.
– Wants to control women
Talking to the clinic’s staff and volunteers proved difficult on Saturday. As Nettavisen has understood it, the clinic’s volunteers have had unpleasant experiences in the past. They are therefore cautious.
One of the clinic’s employees takes a photo of the undersigned’s press card. After about 20 minutes, Michael Roessler, volunteer at the clinic and board member for Charlotte for Choice, to be interviewed.
– This is a loud organization that believes women should not have control over their bodies. They want to control women, says Roessler to Nettavisen.
– They think it is a body in a body. What do you say about this argument?
– At the very early stage, it is not another body. They like to say it is, but it isn’t.
– If they are speaking metaphorically, it is a religious issue that is deeply personal. Everyone must be given room to answer this question on their own, he adds.
The “pro choice” activists emphasize that most Americans support the right to self-determined abortion. In 2023, 69 percent of Americans believed that abortion should be legal in the first trimester, according to the Gallup poll.
– There is a circus in front of the clinic
Roessler is also gay. That is one of the reasons why he is involved in this movement.
– The same people who want to prevent women from having an abortion, would like to push me into the closet too, he believes.
He explains that the volunteers therefore stand outside the clinic to show solidarity, support and keep the women safe.
– They come down this road and there is a circus in front of the clinic. It’s terrifying. Our job is to distract the anti-abortion activists and be a shield for the patients who need support. They are told that they are murderers and have blood on their hands. We are here to tell them that it is not true, he emphasizes.
– We want to create unrest
Nettavisen sees several of the women’s faces in the cars driving out of the clinic. They either look away or at the mobile phone in hand as they drive out of the parking lot and past the abortion opponents.
– Many will describe this as hateful and that you are causing unrest among the women going in and out of the clinic. What do you say to that?
– It is an opinion I do not discredit. But the bigger problem is that a child is going to die. We want to create unrest. Not to cause them emotional damage, but to make them think about what they are doing. Come talk to us, hear our songs. We don’t call people ugly things, says Brian Ottinger.
The group believes that the argument “my body, my choice” does not hold up.
– It is no longer their body. It is a baby being created. It’s biology. This is how it has been for a thousand years, says DeVore.
– Many will still say that you cause them shame and that your presence creates stress for them. Does that worry you?
– No, it doesn’t. We don’t base what we do out here on other people’s opinion or their feelings. This is our belief, DeVore replies.
– The truth can sometimes be offensive, says Liza Metzner when she is asked the same question.
– Donald Trump is willing to sacrifice innocent lives
The organization has tens of weeks left in its 40-week “Walk of Prayer”. At the same time as they stand outside the clinics, they work behind the scenes with legislative proposals in several states.
Lawyer Bradley Pierce, president of the organization Foundation to Abolish Abortion, is in the breach for the legislation. On behalf of 21 organizations, in 2022 he submitted an account of the groups’ arguments to the United States Supreme Court in the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
It was the case that overturned Roe v. Wade and removed the right to self-determined abortion at the national level in the United States.
The goal is to abolish abortion completely.
– We are writing bills to abolish percht. We will not regulate abortion, but treat it as a crime. We believe it is murder, says Pierce to Nettavisen.
– How will work change if Donald Trump becomes president?
– We don’t think that will change. Donald Trump is not in favor of abolishing abortion. He wants to regulate abortion. He supports exemptions and wants to protect fewer lives. He makes compromises and tries to get the independent votes. He is willing to sacrifice the lives of innocent children. It is shameful, he concludes.
