An Inspirational Pro-lfe Story: Giving the Child A Chance At Life

BY DOMENIC D. NICASSIO

The Catholic Register

TORONTO

Ann Wilson says as director of Toronto's Aid to Women, she has the most exciting job in the world. Aid to Women provides counseling and support to women who feel compelled to have an abortion.

"I do it for love, not for money. What can be more beautiful than saving a life? And not just one life, but many, because the mother, father and grandparents suffer deep psychological wounding by the death of a child," Wilson said.

Aid to Women is located in the Cabbagetown district of downtown Toronto only a few doors away from a condom-distribution centre for prostitutes. But its location has a lot to do with the business of its neighbours.

"We are next door to an abortion clinic," Wilson said.

Aid to Women occupies 300 Gerrard St. E., while the Cabbagetown Women's Clinic is next door at number 302. This proximity means that women on their way to have an abortion get a chance to talk to someone about the meaning of abortion.

"God brings people here, not by mistake but to give them a chance for life," Wilson said.

A sign is posted outside and the centre is listed in the phone book under abortion alternatives.

She said hundreds have walked through the doors in the past year, if not a thousand.

"On average we save about one baby a week," she said.

In the past year she knows of about 40 women who decided to keep their babies. A bulletin board of mother and baby photos is posted in her office.

While she is happy about these success stories, Wilson admits this outcome is not guaranteed. Women might walk in, receive information about prenatal life and then walk out never to be seen again. She said it is possible that some choose abortion despite her efforts, but in her conversations, she tries to impart the message that God will provide for those who do the right thing.

Her involvement in this pro-life ministry is a recent affair. Wilson graduated from the theology program of Toronto's St. Augustine's Seminary in 2001. While attending daily Mass at St. Michael's Cathedral two years ago, she was inspired to pray at a statue of Mary and ask if there was something she could do for the pro-life movement.

"I believed in the Gospel of life but didn't feel I was doing enough," she said.

After a short trial period she became the director of Aid to Women in August 2004. There are several dozen volunteers who give to the ministry in their own way. A team of sympathetic doctors has agreed to receive patients on short notice to provide ultrasounds or to provide free medical advice.

When a woman walks in the door, Wilson guides her through the risk factors associated with abortion. A fetal development model is on display and Wilson invites women to hold it and look at it. For women who do not believe they are carrying a baby, Wilson shows images of a 3D ultrasound.

"Often this is what makes the difference," Wilson said.

While visiting the house a woman is always free to walk out the door, "and occasionally they do," Wilson said. She said many women explain their decision on the basis of pragmatism.

"But I tell the women I will help as much as God provides abundantly," she said.

As an example, pregnant women who ask for a place to live are given what Wilson calls "shepherding homes." Two families in the Toronto area make space available for this purpose upon demand."

The expense of providing mothers with money and diapers is offset through private donations. Aid to Women is a registered charity. Fund-raising occurs at select schools during Right to Life Week. A speaker talks on a pro-life theme and invites students to donate a toonie each to the work".

"Since I've been here God has provided abundantly, although there have been times when I was anxious," Wilson said.

Aid to Women makes a promise to protect the confidentiality of all women who seek help.

One young woman who made contact with Wilson talked to The Catholic Register on condition that her name not be publicized. "Rania" immigrated to Canada from southeast Asia and was pregnant for the first time. She and her husband were trying to save money for relatives abroad. At the 11th week of her pregnancy she decided to get an abortion. "But I was double-minded," she said.

She scheduled an appointment at the Cabbagetown clinic. Despite her ambivalence she went as far as lying on the operating table. As the doctor prepared to insert a needle she changed her mind. "I said I didn't want to do it, but the doctor got mad. He was yelling, and I was yelling back. There was just something that came to my mind, that I shouldn't be doing that," she said.

Rania ran out of the clinic. She was vomiting and a volunteer from Aid to Women had seen her. "He told me if I meet Ann that she would help me," Rania recalls.

After seeing a video on prenatal life, she decided to keep her baby. "That's when I realized it's not like killing a cockroach, it's killing your own child."

Rania received financial help and diapers on request. It was a difficult pregnancy but she said, "I'm very happy because I have a baby boy, and he is so adorable."

Once young mothers give birth to their baby, Wilson is available to make further referrals or to talk about options to birth control. Sometimes she is involved in helping a family make the transition to the new arrival.

Wilson recalls that while taking care of a baby during her lunch hour, she recognized an abortion-clinic worker sitting in the same pizza parlour.

"I wanted to cry out and say, see you didn't get her." But it was a strange sense of joy Wilson decided to keep to herself.

"I was in awe of holding this baby. Tears were coming down because my heart and mind aren't big enough to grasp this reality."

The reality she refers to is "that God put me in the place where I was the key instrument that this child is now on earth happily in her mother's arms. I can't grasp it," she said.

An angel led me to this beautiful story, which melted my heart. It reminds me of the many times that I have prayed outside of abortion mills and a mother-to-be came back out saying, "I changed my mind."

Hearing a story like this is enough to make us all want to become actively involved in the pro-life movement. While we all can't be directors of a crisis pregnancy center like Ann Wilson (What a super lady!), just going out to the abortion clinic and praying the rosary for 15 -- 20 minutes for those inside or spending some time in Perpetual Adoration praying the pro-life rosary can make a tremendous difference.

We can also volunteer our time and talents to women's pregnancy clinics. Their offices are almost always manned by volunteer staff.

We can make tax-deductible monetary donations to these clinics, which help women like "Rania" keep their babies and care for their needs. This is the time of year when we can provide the gift that is most needed in this world -- a gift that will provide life for a child. (Ultrasound machines are not inexpensive -- unless, of course, you're Tom Cruise.)

I have known so many men and women who were out praying and counseling women at abortion mills, helping to save babies' lives just by their presence in obedience to the will of God. It's all about love -- something the pro-death people don't understand. To be present and available for those who are in most in need of our help -- the "poorest of the poor" (those in spiritual darkness), to open your spiritual eyes and see others as Christ sees them and to see Him in each one of them is a special grace God gives to those who surrender their hearts and wills to Him. It is not always easy, as sometimes people yell obscenities at you or give you the finger, or treat you rudely, (which you learn to expect and just ignore) but more often than not, God blesses you in a special way, and in a big way, when someone decides to choose life, and a life is permitted to enter the world -- what a glorious occasion that is!

May God continue to bless Ann Wilson and others like her abundantly and provide for all the needs of Toronto's Aid to Women and all the other crisis pregnancy clinics throughout the world.