Why pray outside an abortion centre?

What disturbs me at the vigil is how diverse reactions are to the gesture of praying outside an abortion centre. Some bless us some curse us, but no one is exactly the same. ´That they all may be one, as thou, Father, in me, and I in thee’ (John 17:21). Perhaps this is what disturbs me, the human race is far from being one. 

Is there a right way to see it and a wrong way to see it? Yes, because there is the Truth. If society views praying outside an abortion centre as a violent action, a criminal offence, then no doubt our society is far from the Truth. 

My experience with the Good Counsel Network has been one of clawing my way out of my own spiritual blindness. The first time I made my way to a vigil I was bracing myself, anticipating conflict, that it would simply be a matter of suffering and offering it up. I was pleasantly surprised by the peace that was there, the greatest peace I had ever felt, I was closer to Heaven than I had ever felt, I felt like I was at Mass. 

Going to the vigil is like going to Mass because you are going to the Foot of the Cross. It is to go to where the greatest of all evils is happening, to stand with the innocent victims of our sins, to offer oneself for them.

Not just once have I been standing there when the countenance of someone who is looking at us changes, as though they have seen the Truth or something beautiful. Praying there, we are creating a milieu of grace that hearts are changed by, a wall of light defending the unborn. 

But how to see the Truth? To see through the eyes of Our Lady. At the Foot of the Cross, she was the only one who could see the Truth in all it's fullness, that this man on the cross, her son, was not a criminal. He was innocent, He was God Incarnate. 

Why pray outside an abortion centre? The first time I went I didn’t understand. Sometimes I still don’t understand. Why not just pray at home? And how to be there? Give out leaflets? That didn’t feel right to me, but to other people it did. So it would appear, the vigilants are not ´one´ either. 

´It’s really hard to know how to be here’ I said.

‘All you’ve got to do is show up’ said Trish (another volunteer). 

I found myself asking, would Our Lady really do this? More and more I realise that she would. It is exactly where she is, it’s where to find her. Our Lady went to the Foot of the Cross, she didn’t stay at home and pray. She was just one person, she couldn’t stop what was happening, but she knew that He was in control.                              Anna Maria

With your continued prayers and financial support – however dark things get - we can ensure that women are able to turn away from abortion because we can offer them real alternatives.

Donate To Support Our Work

Bank Details

Name: The Guild of Our Lady of Good Counsel

Sort Code: 40-06-30

Account Number: 13994678

By Credit Card over the phone:

Call 0207-723-1740 Monday to Friday, 10.30-6pm

Paypal.me/SaveLivesGCN

Abortion Death Toll Reaches 10 million

At some point in early autumn this year, the total number of abortions carried out in Great Britain reached 10 million. It is hard to imagine 10 million people. I’ve never seen 10 million people in one place at one time. I live in London which has a population of nine and a half million and I come from Wales which has a population of a little over 3 million. So, when I consider the 10 million people who have lost their lives to abortion since the passing of the Abortion Act in October 1967, to be honest, such a number of deaths is incomprehensible. So many people who could have achieved so many things that we will never know of.

Saint Teresa of Calcutta was once asked, why God had not sent someone to cure AIDS, she replied instantly, that God had sent someone to cure AIDS, but that they had been aborted.

We all know people that we find inspiring, someone we think it is worth looking up to, great saints or religious leaders, an author, an honest politician, a good teacher from our school days or maybe even some good athlete or a pop or film star. I’m sure that a number of people have come to mind as you read this, I myself think of the great author GK Chesterton whose writings helped me to join the Catholic Church. Now imagine that the person whom you have thought of had, for whatever reason, been aborted. There can be little doubt that without these people our lives would not have been as fulfilled as they have been. Imagine this loss 10 million times over.

When we are confronted with the scale of abortion we can despair, but we should not, as we must remember that in the end, God wins. His win won’t trample down those who have been wounded by abortion but will liberate them from their pain and will end abortion forever.

I cannot stop all of the abortions that will take place this year and neither can you, but God can. The incredible overturning of Roe vs Wade is a sign of what God can do, and yet, even in the US the move towards ending abortion has only begun, there is still much work to do.

What Can I Do?

Here in the UK, we need to do what we can practically do to reach out to pregnant women and assure them that the help and support they need is really here. That we can help them with their basic needs so that they can keep their babies. In every life that is spared from being aborted, God has sent gifts and solutions to the world’s problems.  Helping one life to be spared is helping to change the world!

©      You could come and join us in this work, praying outside one of the abortion centres in London or around the country (contact us for details of your local vigil). The women going into the abortion centres really need grace from God to continue their pregnancies and it may be that it is your prayers that will provide them with this grace. A trained counsellor there at the doorstep of an abortion centre, offering practical help and support to the women is also of the utmost importance.

©      Does your place of work or student residence etc have any posters or leaflets offering help and support with the phone number of a pro-life pregnancy centre? If not, contact our office and we will post you a fridge magnet today with a helpline number where women can find support today.

©      Does your parish have a Good Counsel Network poster on its noticeboard? Ask us to send them one today if not.

©      Have you joined our Rotary Rota where we ask you to say a Rosary just once a month on a specific day to help support the mothers that we see?

©      Saint Teresa of Calcutta said that abortion would end if we all spent one hour a week in Eucharistic Adoration. Is this something you could offer for the end of abortion? You can join our Adoration Rota and offer an hour of Adoration in your parish for the end of abortion.

God will ask us to account for our time when we stand before Him. We are all busy, we all have lots of commitments, but we can all do our bit.

Over the years in my work in the Pro-life Movement I’ve heard many women speak, after they've had an abortion, about how things may have been different, “if only someone had been there to offer me an alternative.” Then I look at the number of young people whom I now know, whose mothers, upon arriving at an abortion centre did find somebody there and that someone made all the difference, allowing them to choose life for their children! We are all called to be that someone in whatever ways we can, we are all called to do something.

Volunteering & Financial Support

Many of the mothers that we help have serious practical and financial needs and so supporting our work with a donation or better still with a monthly standing order also makes a huge contribution towards saving the lives of unborn babies. Please donate what you can today.

©      Join our Lifesaver’s Circle by donating £350 pounds, which you can also do by taking out a standing order for £30 each month or

©      Join our St Margaret Clitherow Guild by donating £1000 which you can do by donating £84 a month by standing order.

Whatever you do, do something, and God bless you for your support of His little ones.

Stuart

London Abortion Centre Closes After Nearly 11 Years of Daily Prayer Vigils

Marie Stopes Flagship, central London abortion centre closed down yesterday, Friday 28^th May. The 5 storey building in the heart of London’s Fitzrovia, named Marie Stopes House closed it’s doors on abortion just after noon, and sent its - now redundant - staff home with doughnuts and flowers.

Regular pro-life vigils began at this site in 2010. The first '40 Days for Life' Campaign in the UK began at Marie Stopes, Whitfield Street. The Good Counsel Network (GCN) had been working with Robert Colquhoun to get this off the ground. We had suggested this particular location to 40 Days because it was the Marie Stopes ‘flagship’ building. The building is the 'first descendant' of her first 'Birth Control Centre' in Holloway, London, which moved to Whitfield Street in 1925.

We also suggested Whitfield Street as the site for the first UK 40 Days Campaign because unlike the other abortion centres in London (there were 7 major abortion centres back then as opposed to a few dozen small ones now) this one had never had a regular pro-life vigil.

There was a large Helpers of God’s Precious Infants/Youth 2000 Vigil at the site on 28 December 2000 and over the years a few caring souls stopped there to pray a Rosary for mums of babies when they could.  The aim now was to establish a regular presence offering women alternatives to abortion.

The 40 Days Vigil, managed spectacularly by the wonderful Poppy, whose job it was to fill the schedule, went extremely well.  Several women changed their minds and kept their babies.

At the end of the 40 Days Campaign, GCN decided that in order to serve other women in need, we needed to have a presence there every day if possible and the daily vigil was born. This meant we would be there all year round offering women help and support.

The next Whitfield Street '40 Days' was a 24 hour vigil. One of GCN’s volunteers, Annabel, was working 25 hours a day to fill the schedule, and managed to against tremendous odds. We wrote here about this 40 Days Campaign and its stories, which involved reciting the Litany for Life at 7am surrounded by medical students from the building opposite the Marie Stopes Centre (Student Halls of Residence) who were sent out into the cold in their pyjamas by the fire alarm drill in their building.

The students had plenty of fun mocking our vigil too.

But we had the last laugh; the students were first years who arrived mid-September to find a 24 hour 40 Days vigil on their doorstep. When the vigil finished at midnight on the last day, the students opened their windows and blared “Bye bye baby” by the Bay City Rollers out at us. They cheered as we packed up and went home, glad to see the back of us. When they woke up the next morning our normal daily vigil was up and running. They stared at us crestfallen! 

Another thing we have never blogged about is how during one of several 40 Days at Whitfield Street Marie Stopes were doing internal building work. The builders often arrived very early, so Marie Stopes staff started leaving the clinic front door key in the flowerpot on the doorstep for the builders to let themselves in.

I kid you not - an abortion provider was leaving its front door key in a flowerpot on the doorstep overnight. And they were doing this during a 40 Days for Life Vigil, you know, with those allegedly violent, harassing pro-lifers standing opposite, observing.

It became a running joke between ourselves and the builders that the key was being left. And yet no pro-lifer ever interfered in any way with the abortion centre.

Many people witnessed this practise of leaving the key there. And we do have some photos. I will share one here of the key in the flowerpot. I’m sorry to report that yes, this is genuine, and yes the keyring is appropriately tasteless.

During our 11 years of praying at this site, we have been able to offer help to tens of thousands of women and provide ongoing support to many including Alina and Aurelia, who have shared their stories publicly. 

We have had to assist some women to seek hospital treatment for a variety of problems after their treatment here, including at least one case of missed ectopic pregnancy which ruptured after the woman left the centre.  We have also met many women who regretted taking the first abortion pill and were desperately hoping they could still carry their baby to term.

In recent years some Marie Stopes Staff have come to us seeking help to find alternative jobs. They told us they thought the job with MS would involve helping vulnerable pregnant women who were aborting because of difficult situations but found that they were often facing abusive clients with aggressive partners, and that there was a big focus on money rather than on client health or staff wellbeing.

Thankfully these staff were able to get out and get work.

They told us this branch may close soon. That was the beginning of the hopeful whisper ‘This branch may close soon!’ It echoed around our heads for probably 3 long years before it became a positive statement.

For a few years now we have been praying to GK Chesterton for the closure of this and other clinics.

In October 2017, the relics of Jacinta and Francisco were brought to the vigil.

In 2018 we held a 9 day novena of prayer and witness outside Marie Stopes, including a Eucharistic Procession to the abortion centre. We were joined over the 9 days by 29 priests and 1 deacon, and on the final day, the Feast of Our Lady, Mother of Good Counsel with Fr Stephen Boyle offering Mass in thanksgiving for the closure of this abortion centre (although it was not yet closed…)

There are some who will point to new MSI centres springing up like weeds as a reason why we should not rejoice at the closure of this centre. But we do rejoice, for the Mothers and children who have been hurt and killed there. And because we see the rush to open as many little centres as they can as what it is; a desperate attempt to increase the number of abortions and to reduce costs in an "industry" that has trouble recruiting and retaining staff at every level.

But for those who doubt God's hand in the closure of this centre, this is how we heard the news that the centre would close on Friday:

On Tuesday the following conversation appeared on our staff message group.  

Staff member Marco “Photographer is here at Marie Stopes taking photos of the building. It’s for an estate agents. I decided to stand aside in case they thought I came with the building”

Me: Lol! I really hope that is why he’s taking photos.

Marco: It is definitely no doubt. He is here on behalf of Chestertons Estate Agents. And the locals are all saying the staff have been made redundant Friday is their last day.

Me: Wow! Please God that’s all true. Chestertons Estate agents is that for real? You know they were actually owned by his GK Chesterton’s family (though they aren’t now).

Marco: Gosh I hadn’t even thought of what I was saying.

J: Google says its permanently closed.

Marco: I’m even flying the flag today (*attaches picture of his jacket*, see below)

Badge of Frances Chesterton, wife of G.K. Chesterton.

This is how we heard the news of the closing of the Whitfield St Abortion Centre.

By the way did I mention that Friday 28 May is the ‘Vigil’ of Chesterton’s Birthday? Meaning Whitfield Street will wake to an abortion free day, today - on GK’s Birthday.

A huge thank you to all the faithful staff, volunteers, vigil leaders, especially Siobhán the current Vigil leader, and all the Priests, religious, sisters and faithful pray-ers who have prayed and worked for the closure of this centre.

Gilbert & Frances Chesterton, pray for England, for the end of abortion and pray for us! Amen.

Clare McCullough

9 Million Babies Lives Lost to abortion since 27th October 1967

The UK Abortion Act was passed in Parliament 53 years ago next Tuesday. Over nine million Babies have been aborted here since then. What will you do next Tuesday? 

You could join in our National Day of Prayer and Fasting for Life on this terrible anniversary. Invite your friends and Family to join us via this Facebook event.

Fast from all food except bread and water for the day

Or

Fast from a particular food or luxury, e.g. chocolate, alcohol, cigarettes, TV.

Fast from whatever you can given your state of health etc, but make sure it is something that involves a sacrifice to yourself.

We are asking people to say a Rosary (or an extra Rosary if you say it daily already).

You could also offer an extra effort such as going to Mass (or an extra Mass) on the day, or going to Adoration. You can even pray before a closed tabernacle if Adoration is not available near you

There are two Good Counsel Peaceful Pro-Life Prayer Vigils outside abortion centres in London that day, one in Ealing and one in Central London, telephone 02077231740 or email info@goodcounselnetwork.com for details and to book to attend. For vigils outside of London see; https://www.40daysforlife.com/vigil-search.aspx 

Wear something Pro-Life on the day and change your profile picture to something Pro-Life for the day, you could use one of these photos;

[You can buy the Blue badge here and the Pink one here]

Ban On Silent Prayer, Upheld By The Court Of Appeal

The Good Counsel Network is deeply concerned for the many women who are coerced into abortions by partners, family or by circumstances. Over the last 7 years we have had the opportunity outside Marie Stopes to assist over 500 women to keep their babies through offering financial help, housing, practical help, baby goods, childcare and moral support. Ealing Council's PSPO prevents many women from accessing this help.

We are deeply saddened that the Appeal Court Judges have not taken into account the testimonies of these women and that they have ruled that even silent prayer and an offer of help should be banned outside the abortion centre. We understand that Alina will challenge this ruling further.

Hear from some of the mothers that the Pro-Life vigils have helped over the years, https://www.goodcounselnet.co.uk

Then join us in prayer, at a Vigil or on our Monthly Days of Prayer and Fasting for Life

Clare's Speech to Thousands of Pro-Lifers at Parliament Square

“Over 9 Million abortions! What a travesty. What a total assault on children, on their Mothers and on their fathers too. A total assault on our society. How do I begin to speak in the face of 9 million abortions? I cannot even comprehend that number. I cannot begin to comprehend it.

What are we to do? We stand here today as a tiny witness to this awful assault on life and we look around the broken society we live in. We look to the future and we see the threat of nationwide Buffer Zones, of women being sent home to take their abortion pills alone in their bedrooms crying into their pillows so that society is not troubled by their cry. We see the total decriminalisation of abortion – which really means the total deregulation of abortion, where even the shards of the laws designed to protect Mothers and babies are smashed out of the frame to allow the abortion industry a free reign. We see Nurses and Doctors’ freedom of conscience to refuse to participate in abortion being eroded, just like the children that are screened out by abortion.

I work for a group that has the dubious honour of having the first Buffer Zone imposed on our vigil. And I can tell you that standing away from the abortion centre, knowing that some women are entering because they have no other choice – knowing this not because it suits us to think so, but because hundreds and hundreds of women have told us this in the last 20 years - but being forced to not offer them any alternative at all is a particular form of suffering that our staff and volunteers are having to endure.

And yet through the other vigils we are at and through the work of our Counselling Centre, we see many, many women seeking help to avoid abortions they feel coerced into having.

This isn’t every woman’s story. There are plenty of women who choose abortion themselves. We pray for them. But their story does not negate the story of those with little or no choice.

In Ealing today it is illegal for me to stand within 100 metres of the abortion centre and offer a woman a leaflet even if it only provided a list of help that was available to the woman if she kept the baby and nothing else.

There on Mattock Lane, outside Marie Stopes, where a woman bled to death in a taxi after being sent away with a bleeding torn womb, we cannot even say a prayer.

I have spoken repeatedly about those who are not entitled to state benefits or housing – large numbers of these women are brought to the abortion centre by circumstances beyond their control and the abortion centre has nothing to offer them but abortion. We are there for them, with housing and financial help and moral and practical support. But there are others too, large numbers of women having abortions for someone else – usually a partner who is not ready, or who is not interested, sometimes mum and dad who just won’t understand. There are women having an abortion today because their contraception let them down and it just seems the worst of times to have a child.

For these women, love and support, real help that allows them to continue with their plans and yet not have to have an abortion, is a totally pro-choice – in the truest sense of the word – offer.

And yet this is now seen as the most offensive thing we can do.

Abortion advocates claim that abortion has few, minor health risks, but the same people claim that being approached politely and offered a leaflet or even just knowing that someone is praying for you outside an abortion centre can cause you post-traumatic stress disorder.

Several years ago we were contacted by a young woman who had been raped. She came to us really conflicted about what to do and she was in so much pressure to have an abortion. So many women we have seen who have been raped have been told by those around them to have an abortion and told, ‘if you keep this baby, I don’t believe you were raped’, and even the police have told them on a number of occasions "If you keep this baby were not going to prosecute the rapist" That’s actual testimony from many women we have seen. This young woman was really, really confused. She had a husband back home in her own country. She wasn’t sure that he would accept this child. She just felt she just couldn’t possibly go ahead. She had a couple of daughters and she always wanted a little boy and she wanted to call him Martin. She had never had her little boy and now she was in this situation. With lots of support and prayer and real help and a place to hide and all kinds of support to give her different options as to what to do when the baby was born she decided to go ahead with her decision to continue the pregnancy. When the baby was born she decided to she was going to give him up for adoption. Her little boy was born on the Feast of Saint Martin and she called him Martin. She struggled for a few weeks about what to do and finally she went to an adoption agency signed all the papers to hand Martin over for adoption, and went home. Except she didn’t go home, the adoption agency had closed and she sat on the steps of the adoption agency until the morning when she could take back the papers and take back her son. With God's Grace her husband had accepted what had happened and accepted her decision to keep her baby and she returned home and brought her baby back to her family. This is what can happen when a woman has love, unconditional support, a place to hide, practical help, all the support you would give to your sister, you know like sister supporters do if you could. That is exactly what we are all called to do. It’s not just something for Good Counsel or 40 Days or any of the groups who pray and witness for Life. You know it’s something all of us are called to do to offer that love and support to those in need.

In 20 years, I have not yet met a woman who had from her early childhood wanted or planned an abortion. No-one wants to have to have an abortion. When women speak of wanting to have an abortion they are of course really meaning that they desperately DON’T want to have the baby. If they could be suddenly “unpregnant”, this would seem to be the solution. Unfortunately, the only way to make a pregnant woman “unpregnant” is to deliver her baby, dead or alive. Either one of those choices is going to have consequences for the woman.

If you understand what science clearly shows – that a little unborn human at 3 weeks of pregnancy has a beating heart. That at 7 weeks, brainwaves can be clearly picked up showing what we would call thought. That by 7 weeks, the enlarged ultrasound scan can show a tiny baby clearly moving in the womb. By 8 weeks, the baby has the foundations of all its organs laid down and by 12 weeks the baby has every organ developed and growing. Once you know that, you know that ending the pregnancy means ending a human life. Of course, what ending a pregnancy by abortion does is to make a woman the Mother of a dead baby.

If we believe this, we have to have a different approach to the topic of abortion than those who don’t know or are in denial about the humanity of their children. I once wanted to work to campaign for a change in the law on abortion. Somehow I ended up in the side of the pro-life movement which cares for and supports Mothers instead. But I begin to see that in many ways caring for Mothers who are considering abortion and giving them real alternatives does change minds and hearts. It is a very important part of changing the culture.

We need to show our commitment to this work. If we know what abortion really does, it is our job to witness this to our society in a loving way. We must put our hands in our pockets, our time on offer, our resources at the disposal of those offering help to women in unplanned pregnancies and then we can honestly say to women, “We think you are better than this. You deserve better than this. And your baby also deserves better than this.”

Today we are opposed by groups of people that seem to have a total hatred for us and what we are doing.  Why is that hatred there? Here we are in a country on the brink of legalising abortion for all or any reasons – at each and every stage in pregnancy. Why do these groups even care what we do? Why, when we have approaching 200,000 abortions each year do they care about our little March and our movement? Ask yourself that question and think about it long and hard.

They care because they sense something that we don’t even imagine. That there can come a time when abortion will be exposed for the attack on women that it really is, when no amount of marching or blocking the way will hide the reality of the poverty that abortion is. They sense that a time is coming when abortion won’t be seen as a choice, but will be recognised for what it really is – the wholesale killing of children and wounding of their Mothers.

When they stack the decks against us in debates, when they cover our posters, when they lie about the work we do, when they accuse us of harassment, when they shake their heads and say “Shame on you”, rejoice, because whether they are acting in good faith or bad, they can feel that something is changing.

It makes no sense for them to come out to protest our presence here. Here we stand – with the media not on our side, with our Parliament largely not on our side, with our laws totally not on our side. It makes no sense to protest us unless they fear that the abortion tide is already turning.

And I think they are right.

Don’t expect an overnight change, and don’t expect that there will be no setbacks, but with prayer and commitment and more prayer, we are beginning to change the culture. The persecution of those who try involved in this work will probably get hotter.

But do take note that abortions are dropping. That the number of women having abortions in England and Wales has dropped. That the number of women having abortions in London has dropped – while the population of London has risen by about a million in the same time abortions have dropped from 51,000 abortions per year in 2006 to 42,000 abortions in 2016. (9,000 drop)

Eleven years ago, in 2007, there were over 205,000 abortions in England and Wales. In 2016, there were just over 190,000 abortions which is a drop of over 15,000.

The number of women coming to the England from Ireland has also dropped from 6337 in 2006 to 3989 in 2016, a drop of 2,348.

We have also seen that where there is a regular peaceful, prayerful vigil offering help and covering large numbers of the hours that the centre is open, abortions drop there.

I have been told time and time again – even by Members of Parliament - that this is not true, that we scare women away with our tiny peaceful vigil, and that they go elsewhere to have their abortions. But it is in fact true. The number of abortions at the Ealing and Twickenham abortion centres has dropped by 13.5% and 17% respectively in the last years we have figures for.

And no, these women did not all just go elsewhere. I know because large numbers of them have come to us for a chat or a buggy or some vouchers or a bit of advice. And they have come back to show us their babies! Praise God!

This is happening. People are slowly moving away from abortion.

What must we do?

The first thing is to give your time, and if you are a believer your prayers. We need to have people involved in this peaceful witness to our society that this is wrong and that there are much better ways to help women. We really need large numbers of committed people to be out in all weathers praying and offering support to women while we still legally can! There is little use complaining about buffer zones if we don’t go and help at vigils anyway.

Commit to fighting these changes in the law. The new home secretary Sajid Javid needs letters from everyone here asking him not to bring in National Buffer Zones. And we need to be ready to oppose the decriminalisation of abortion to our own MPs.

In closing, it is great to see you all here today, witnessing to the fact that EVERY LIFE DESERVES LOVE. The Buffer Zones are a frighteningly totalitarian response to a peaceful witness. I regret bitterly each woman who misses the offer of help outside an abortion centre because of the Buffer Zone. But the even greater danger to the future of mums and babies, as well as to the elderly and disabled and to all those who are vulnerable is pro-life apathy. That is the Buffer Zone we have to fight hardest and for the sake of the unborn, the most important one to win.”

You can watch a video of Clare’s speech here

[Photos, Bishop Alan Hopes, formerly of Westminster leading the Helpers of God’s Precious Infants monthly prayer vigil at the abortion centre in Twickenham, where The Good Counsel Network now have a daily vigil. Clare speaking in Parliament Square]

Another Courageous Mother Speaks Up In Support Of Pro-Life Vigils Outside Abortion Centres

“When I found out that I was pregnant, I was worried about having a baby because first of all I was here, in a foreign country and I just came here as a student and the father of the baby was not here. When I found out I was pregnant it was very scary.

When I went to the abortion centre, I was so confused and crying and then I said to myself, I need to think about this some more.

So when I went there I saw that on the other side of the street, there was a woman praying. The lady walked towards me and she said "Are you going for the abortion? I can help you if you don’t want to do it?". Then I said "What? You can help me?"  and then it just took me a second to say, "Ok I will go with you".

That lady was Alina – who you just heard speak [See below].  She was offered help and kept her baby and years later she came there to Marie Stopes to be there for me and my baby, and for other women like me.

That day she took me to the Good Counsel Network’s Centre' and when they told me about the help they could offer me I knew I wanted to keep my baby. And they did give me that help.

The day I was having my baby as well my Counsellor from Good Counsel Network, Iulia, came to the hospital with me. She was with me because I had a caesarean and she was with me in the operating theatre. She held my baby for the first time and I was so grateful for all the help. I’m so grateful first of all for them, if not for them it would have been very difficult for me. It’s so expensive to have a baby, a buggy is expensive and everything but when I needed these things Good Counsel have been there for me.

My daughter was born with congenital rubella infection. It has been quite a difficult journey with my baby, because after she was born I found out that she was blind deaf and she had so many problems. She had to stay in the hospital for 7 months before she came home. and she has many disabilities, but despite all I am so, so in love with my baby – I love her very much. She is everything to me. She holds my heart, she is the best thing that has happened to me. She is very charming and very lovely and I am so grateful that she is here.”                                                Aurelia

[You can see a video of Aurelia's speech here]

Pro-Life Speech at this year’s March for Life, in Parliament Square by brave Mother who challenged Ealing Council in the High Court

“I’m not a stranger to the emotional intimidation of just being pregnant.

I’m not a stranger to being made to feel ashamed and embarrassed by the person I least expected, just because I became pregnant by him.

I am not a stranger to facing a choice between my job and my unborn baby.

I’m not a stranger to walking into an abortion facility because I did not have support or the help I most needed at that time.

Alina outside the High Court with her daughter at the start of the legal challenge to Ealing Council’s Censorship Zone

I’m not a stranger to the pain, stress, the sleepless nights of being faced with an unwanted pregnancy, but still my heart cried at the thought of going to end the life of the one who was my child, my first child.

I had exhausted every option, searching the internet, asking for help from friends, asking for help from Marie Stopes but the only option I was offered by them was abortion.

I felt that this was the end of the world for me and yet from all that darkness, I met a counsellor outside the abortion centre who was offering me light. At last I felt hope, I felt for the first time that my child was wanted, not only by me, but also by complete strangers. For the first time I felt that I was not walking alone on the day I was meant to end the life within me - my child.

I found help right at the gates of “hell” – Marie Stopes abortion centre.

I cannot express the joy and how fulfilled I felt as a woman, as a Mother, to be given the chance to have my child, to hold her tiny hands, hear her voice, to watch her grow and turn into such a fine young lady.

It wasn’t easy, but with help and support given by The Good Counsel Network, I made it, my little young lady made it too!

And I am here to say that no woman should ever feel she is alone and without hope. Expectant Mothers should have all of the information, resources and emotional support that they need during their pregnancy – especially an unexpected pregnancy.

A just and caring society doesn’t criminalise people for offering help to vulnerable Mothers.

Women are smart. Women should have all the information that they need when making life changing decisions, including the information that Marie Stopes doesn’t want them to have.”        Alina

[You can watch a video of Alina's speech here]