Why I’ve spent ten of the last 20 years in prison for defending the unborn

LifeSiteNews ^ | 9/30/14 | Linda Gibbons

[wagglebee]

Linda Gibbons awaits arrest outside a Toronto abortion facility.

Editor’s note: Linda Gibbons has been in prison since an August 7 arrest in Toronto while she witnessed to life outside an abortion facility protected by an injunction. Her case goes to trial November 12. She wrote the following letter this month to explain her ongoing mission.

This article is a reflection on my ten years of bearing witness for life in front of Toronto's several abortuaries.

My intention is not an apology for the reason, cause or purpose I engage in civil disobedience against injunctions in place at these death mills; I've written on that previously. My presence is more than a challenge to unjust laws. My presence is a response to a distinctive human cry: the cry of Canada's aborted unborn.

The courts have not responded to that silent cry. Currently, the killing of one in four children continues unabated.

Neither has the majority of Canadian parliamentarians shed tears over lives lost to abortion. Instead, they have unequivocally condoned the killing and compelled a tranquilized populace into paying for it. 

When the social messaging regarding inconvenient or complicated pregnancies is "try again next time" or "better off dead," it's not a statement of the human condition but rather of cultural conditioning that implies some lives are unworthy of living. It begs the question: How much is a life worth? Unborn lives then become commodified and put on a sliding scale of values; ignored are the deliberate crimes against Canada's own children.

What then should be a human response to the senseless attacks against babes in the womb? Essentially, the answer for me is simply to be there as one human being recognizes the endangered life of another, and to act in his or her defense. My presence is a plea for each child in jeopardy of being killed and the pamphlets I carry bear witness to the incontrovertible evidence of a child's earliest existence, evidence denied them in the mill.

My presence is to plead for the living and to pray for the dying. I am witness to a holocaust: vis a vis over four decades of bloodshed.

Given the status quo of abortion on demand, with no legal redress throughout the entire gestation and delivery period, some would question the point of insisting that life is a sacred trust from conception until natural death and a God-given right worthy of defending.

My actions publicly demonstrate my commitment to resist the abortuary's campaign of disinformation and to dissuade women from entering the killing centre. 

For Christians, the failure to resist the practice of abortion makes a travesty of our faith. An empty sidewalk at the death centres and silence from the pulpits is scandalous when we are called to deliver those being dragged to death and those ready to be slain.

Not to take action contradicts God's will and purpose for life. With abortion mills scarring the land from one coast to another and a death count in the millions, it calls for serious searching of heart. Have I done all I could in the face of such human carnage?

Should cares and commitments to family hold me back? What is the price of loving God's unborn and not relinquishing the fight? I've weighed all of these. If the cost of loving and remaining with my family is the price of unborn blood, then the "cost of living" with family is too high. At what time, then, may I divest myself of the charge to defend life?

Imagine for a moment, in our world plagued with political unrest, the enemy coming to our towns and taking our children from us (as is happening in Iraq and Syria). Could we beg deliverance from God for our own when we were so reluctant to deliver His own babes in the womb threatened with death? When cares of the world distract and disturb, I'm reminded of the words of the Talmudic sage that Elie Wiesel, a holocaust survivor, quoted in his book, Open Heart:

"It is incumbent on you to love as if you were to die the next day.”

The love of God constrains me to love the unborn as if there were no tomorrow. I only have today and in it I am called according to His purpose to answer the unborn's long and unending cry for life.

I remain present in their service.

In the Lord, Giver of Life,

Linda

[C. Edmund Wright]

The Bible says a lot about results, and being “wise as serpents” and being prudent - as well as doing the right thing.

If it results in more death, it isn’t the right thing.

[C. Edmund Wright]

Bible is a long book - I can match you scripture for scripture proving my point.
But I won’t waste my time.

[C. Edmund Wright]

Of course the Founding Fathers made a difference and most of them were lucky enough to see it.

That proves MY POINT. thanks...that's like the third or fourth time I've "game, set, matched" you. Haven't you had enough?

[wagglebee]

Bible is a long book - I can match you scripture for scripture proving my point.

Really? You found someplace in the Bible that suggests that standing up for what is right that some efforts are "wasted in good faith"?

[C. Edmund Wright]

But consider this: If we don't see anyone being faithful, very few of us would finally get up off our backsides to do something successful.

I don't disagree with that at all - and I certainly said she has to follow her calling. Perhaps I've seen Randall Terry up close and seen the pride he took in their protests....gave me just enough of a bad taste to question whether this is the best way. And no, I'm NOT assuming this woman is like that.

I think that the Cardinal Dolan approach - showing beyond a doubt that we are talking about babies and not fetuses here - is the better approach. I've written on his efforts in fact.

[wagglebee]

That proves MY POINT. thanks...that's like the third or fourth time I've "game, set, matched" you. Haven't you had enough?

Why? Because I acknowledged that sometimes people do get to see the results of doing the right thing? I wasn't aware that this was ever in contention.

If you recall, your original post questioned whether she (and I presume the thousands of other abortion protesters) have actually accomplished anything, because, in your words, results matter.

Do you believe there should be some sort of timetable by which results must be achieved?

[C. Edmund Wright]

In three seconds, I found a lot of entries that would counter your thoughts:

Proverbs 8:12 ESV / 35 helpful votes

“I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, and I find knowledge and discretion.

Proverbs 13:16 ESV / 30 helpful votes

In everything the prudent acts with knowledge, but a fool flaunts his folly.

Proverbs 27:12 ESV / 12 helpful votes

The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it.

Jeremiah 23:1-40 ESV /

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.

Proverbs 15:2 ESV /

The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouths of fools pour out folly.

1 Thessalonians 5:21 ESV /

But test everything; hold fast what is good.

[C. Edmund Wright]

You’re not making any sense with your circular reasoning. I can’t deal with illogical people, especially those who are self righteous a__holes.

[don-o]

I think that the Cardinal Dolan approach - showing beyond a doubt that we are talking about babies and not fetuses here - is the better approach. I've written on his efforts in fact.

Dolan did not originate that concept, of course.

[Mrs. Don-o]

C. Edmund and wags -—walk around the block, say a Hail Mary, and respond like you assume good intent. Sometimes it takes an act of faith, a little judicious overlooking of fault, squinting one eye, but please-—

[trisham]

If you are flummoxed by wagglebee’s posts, it appears that you are alone.

[FourtySeven]

I’m sensing tension on the thread.

But maybe it’s all for good. After all, I don’t think I would’ve seen this story if there weren’t the contentious posts bumping the thread. And it is both an inspirational story and one that convicts the lazy selfish masses such as myself.

So it’s a good thing (because it’s good to be reminded of our own selfishness from time to time even though such reminders sting)

A good brought forth by contention. A contention that had no such intention.

I doubt anyone could’ve foreseen that result.

[Mrs. Don-o]

I meant #50 for both of you’uns.

[trisham]

A gift from God. :)

[FourtySeven]

;)

[CatherineofAragon]

Thanks for the ping.

We can wonder, think, assume, etc. that this woman might be wasting her time, but that’s all supposition. What we know, as evidenced in Don-O’s post, and from many other accounts, is that hearts have been changed and babies saved.

[CatherineofAragon]

" I seem to be quite popular among blogger trolls lately, it's very entertaining."

HA! :D

[EternalVigilance]

“Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are people who want crops without ploughing the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning; they want the ocean without the roar of its many waters. The struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, or it may be both. But it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”

— Frederick Douglass

God bless Linda Gibbons.

[trisham]

What we know, as evidenced in Don-O’s post, and from many other accounts, is that hearts have been changed and babies saved.

***************************

I agree. Thanks, Catherine.

[CatherineofAragon]

Thank you, trisham!