“I was nearly aborted, but I escaped, I must give my baby the freedom to live.”

The night before her abortion, ‘Jackie’ stayed up all night, and kept asking herself if she could go through the abortion. "My boyfriend has lived with someone else for three years, and has been seeing me on the side. I can’t have a baby whose father lives with another woman." In the early morning, she looked at the dawn and thought "I must go through the abortion, it would be very inconvenient for my boyfriend if I have this baby. His girlfriend will hate me for having his baby..."

For the millionth time ‘Jackie’ studied the abortion forms that her doctor had given her. She asked herself: "What if my mother had got these forms and aborted me?"

Going to the clinic, she saw some people standing outside, and thought that the clinic was busy; lots of women were coming out... As she got closer, she saw that they were praying, and thought: "This is my sign. People are praying that I won’t have the abortion. They are praying for my baby..."

Jackie came to our centre for detailed counselling and to make plans for the help she would need to keep the baby. At the start of our time together, she said, ‘I might still have the abortion. It doesn’t feel right having five kids on my own, with no father around.’ We talked about her own family background, and how her father had been a very mercurial figure, coming home for times but living with other women when he felt like it. Jackie’s mother had still had ten children by him – “twice as many as I’ll have if I keep this one” – said Jackie. Jackie had been her mother’s tenth pregnancy, conceived before her father left them for good.

“My mother was really desperate when she was having me, she had nine small boys at home, and my father had beaten her. She was bringing us up on her own with so little money. She nearly aborted me when she was heavily pregnant with me, but she trusted in God and asked God that I would be the child that would look after her. When she was dying, I was the only one with her.” This was very painful for Jackie to talk about, but she conceded, “I can go to the clinic, and get someone else to get rid of the baby, but if I don’t walk in there, the baby will live. You can pretend it’s not you that’s doing the abortion because the doctor signs the forms and the nurse knocks you out, because you’re still the mother who is handing over your baby. I was nearly aborted, but I escaped, I must give my baby the freedom to live.”

May we ask your continued prayers for ‘Jackie’.

Mary O'Regan

I'm Keeping My Baby Because I Am Getting the Help I Need

‘Annabelle’ had phoned marie stopes' abortuary on Whitfield Street, and made an appointment for an abortion. 'It’s a week from Christmas…everyone else is getting their mince pies and getting their Christmas tree ready and here I am preparing for an abortion', thought Annabelle.
Walking along the roads that led to the abortuary, Annabelle felt a profound, dark foreboding, she had that strong gut feeling that said, Don’t do this. An old friend walked alongside her, her friend had said nothing when Annabelle asked her to come with her to the abortuary. But now she turned to Annabelle and asked, ‘what’s wrong? You’re meant to be going to the clinic.’
Annabelle felt herself go leaden and heavy and almost crying, she said to her friend, ‘but I wish that I didn’t have to do it. If I just got some help instead of an abortion, I wouldn’t think of the abortion again.’
Her friend looked confused. ‘I know, but the place that we are going to only does abortions. It’s not like you can go in there and ask them to give you help with rent instead of an abortion. But I suppose we don’t have to go there…’ Annabelle imagined lying down on the cold operating table while outside people were bustling down the street with bags of Christmas presents for their children at home.
Annabelle turned the corner and as she approached the building, someone tried to speak to her and handed her a blue help leaflet. Annabelle didn’t really hear what they were saying; she was lost in her own thoughts. Her friend, who was now perplexed at bringing Annabelle to the abortuary, spoke to someone who was praying outside the clinic and said sadly, ‘If she got the help she needs, she wouldn’t have the abortion.’ Annabelle read the blue help leaflet given to her by the pray-er, and walked out of the ‘clinic’ with relief washing over her.
Annabelle has come to speak to us about her needs, and she says that her friend felt wrong that she wasn’t able to give her practical advice or financial help when raising the baby on her own. In many ways this is all too typical of the friend or family member who accompanies a girl to an abortion, the friend or family member may never have been taught the evil of abortion, and may feel powerless to help the pregnant mother. Monsignor Reilly corroborates this after spending years outside many abortion clinics all over the world, from Russia to New York to Ealing. The friend or family member is still doing something entirely immoral, but like Monsignor Reilly advises, they often know not what they do, and we must meet them with the same compassion that we meet the pregnant mother.
Like so many of the women who come after getting the blue help leaflet, Annabelle keeps the leaflet safely in her handbag and when she is describing how she left the clinic, she holds up the blue help leaflet and says, ‘I got this and I left marie stopes.’

Mary O' Regan

When Everyone Thinks Its Their Right To Tell You To Abort

‘My grandmother asked me when I had my third child, if I had used contraception and said that, to her, I seemed kind of slow for getting pregnant a third time. It’s not as if I was a single mother – my husband earned good money and here I was – being lectured on why I didn’t prevent my baby girl coming into my belly in the first place!’ exhaled ‘Michaela’.

In recent years, Michaela and her husband have separated. Michaela cites a key reason being that she is from a Christian background while he was brought up in a Muslim home. ‘Sahid’ has not practised as a Muslim since leaving Iraq, and Michaela has never really practised her Christian faith – she said that they just used to write the word on forms. Michaela is from a post-communist country. She and her husband had a civil wedding when she was heavily pregnant with their first child.

Michaela was very upfront that her husband had put her under strenuous pressure to abort her first child. ‘If you were a Muslim wife, you would do what I say and abort it. How can I stay in a marriage with you if you won’t even act like a Muslim wife?!’ was the line that her husband used with her.

Michaela suspects that her husband ‘Sahid’ saw his own father put his mother under pressure to have abortions when Sahid was a child. But Sahid gets cross and defensive if she asks him whether this really happened and says something like, ‘Why should I tell anyone whether my mother had an abortion?’ This is rather contradictory in that Sahid put his wife under pressure for months to have an abortion, but is very hush-hush as to whether or not his mother had an abortion.

Michaela found life very lonely and friendless when her husband moved out and went to another part of London. She knew it wasn’t advisable to get involved with anyone else but she became friendly with a man nearby and the relationship became sporadically sexual. ‘But we weren’t together a lot, so I thought that I wouldn’t get pregnant. And each time I was with him, I said that it wouldn’t happen again.’

We met Michaela when she was very set on aborting the child that she had conceived with this "friend". Her appointments for abortions have come and gone, and she has not made any new appointments for an abortion. When I met her she felt very compelled to tell Sahid, who she calls ‘my ex-husband’, about the baby, but has now decided that for the time being, she won’t tell him that she’s pregnant with a fourth child; ‘He would still think it his right to tell me to abort this baby, and there’s no way that I can spend whole months being told to abort. Maybe I will wait till I’m 24 weeks before telling him.’

I’ve known Michaela for nearly three months now, and while she knows very little Christian doctrine, she still sometimes thinks and speaks as someone of Christian heritage. She wasn’t going to dabble in Islam; ‘I can’t just pretend to be a Muslim wife, and have an abortion because his faith might want that of me.’ And lately her conversation has been peppered with Christian symbols, ‘Every newborn is like a piece of heaven. There’s a time when you feel the angels surround you and mind the baby.’

Mary O'Regan

Prayer to Our Lady of Guadelupe Softens the Hardened Heart

One Saturday recently, I went to our Centre to speak with a woman who had come to us looking for abortion. She had come back to us a second time still asking us to help her get an abortion and it was my job to speak to us on her 3rd visit. A fairly unpleasant job I thought.

This lady, let's call her Monica, knew she could go elsewhere and get an abortion, but she had a certain trust in us. We had talked through all the risks of abortion with her. The dangers, possible side effects, the reality of what would happen to her baby in an abortion. We discussed why we thought it was wrong. All these things let her know we really cared about her health and wellbeing.

But they didn't "move" her in her resolve to abort one tiny bit.

If we got an abortion for her, she felt, it would be at least as safe as it could be. So she came to see us for the third time in the hope that, maybe, she could persuade us to arrange her abortion.

Monica had a toddler already and her husband has serious psychological problems. They have not been together for many months. She has separated from him for her child's welfare as much as her own. He has used physical violence against them before. His family think she is crazy for ever being with him. Her own family think so too. They say to her "It's lucky you only have the one child with him!"

On her previous visits she had told us "I never wanted children - I don't want his child - I don't want this child. Get it out of me!"

This is the language women often use about their baby when they are victims of abuse, rape, violence, or other issues where they are left to feel - as Monica did - stupid, guilty, shamed, hurt and used.

The problem is with the father, not with the baby. But the problem of the father gets reflected onto the baby by the poor woman who carries the child of man who has wounded her.

Can I in the short time we have together diffuse all that hurt and anger and suffering? - I asked myself this as she sat before me. She was very hardened into her choice to abort. Had the doctor been standing in the room ready to abort the child she would have said "yes". I whispered a quick prayer and set about trying to crack the hardened heart. I hadn't spoken for long when suddenly something happened. I hadn't said anything striking but I felt the weight of a huge burden lift in the room. Suddenly she began to say "I think I should keep the baby, What do you think?" She watched a video showing the abortion process at her stage and she said "You know, I have seen this before but it made no impact. I have heard about what abortion does when I came here before, but while I heard the words it didn't affect me. But now, something has changed. All of it has just now become clear to me. It is all affecting me now."

We sat together for 2 hours talking about the help she would need making a plan together. It was light and joyful and suddenly - though she still knew raising this second child - alone - would be hard, she embraced the child as hers - a sibling of her beloved toddler and - she could admit it now - the second child she had always wanted!

After she left, I went to the chapel and afterwards I asked the other staff and volunteers "Who was praying here about half an hour after I went in to see Monica?" no-one they thought. I was mystified. I really felt the power of prayer at work.

I pottered round to Westminster Cathedral that afternoon to see the relic replica image of Our Lady of Guadelupe. It struck me when I arrived that the service of prayer before this image had been led by Archbishop Nichols exactly half an hour after my meeting with Monica started and I couldn't help but feel that it was very much connected. Thank you our Blessed Lady. Monica is now awaiting the birth of her child in April.

Clare McCullough

Divine Interference: Phone Problems Lead to A Heaven Sent Christmas Present

We must give thanks for the baby saved from abortion who is to be born this Christmas. One mother will get a beautiful Christmas gift this year – she will give birth either on Christmas day or the days after.
But some months ago, ‘Maria’ had been adamant that abortion was her ‘only option’ and that she had to abort ‘as soon as possible.’ She had been with a man much younger than her, and when she told him she was pregnant he vamoosed, saying that she had to give him proof that he was the father. ‘Maria’ was having difficulty getting an appointment at an abortuary, because sometimes her phone wouldn’t connect her and she didn’t understand the "clinic’s"abortion-bookers when she rang. Maybe it was the angels intervening. She had no trouble getting through to us, and said that she wanted to talk it over, but was going to get the abortion anyway.
Maria said that she didn’t feel at all ‘ready’ to be a mother, and that the pregnancy put her ‘under pressure’. We discussed the abortion complications, and Maria was seemingly okay with everything: ‘I knew already that there was a risk of infertility, my sister couldn’t have a child after her late-term abortion, but it’s a chance that I’m willing to take.’
One thing was really playing on her mind – according to her own calculations the baby would be born on Christmas day.
‘I’m not ready to be a mother, but here...in here...there...is creating a new one...that will come on Christmas day.’ I told her that this was accurate based on the conception date that she gave us. Hearing this, she burst into tears, and while coughing back sobs she managed to utter,
‘every Christmas, I will remember the baby, the baby that I aborted. I don’t think that I can face Christmas anymore.’
‘Well, you’ve done nothing, you haven’t aborted the baby and you needn’t abort the baby. You don’t have to. We’re here to support you. We’ll help you have the baby at Christmas time. You don't have to spend every Christmas of your life regretting the death of your baby’ I said. Maria didn’t change her mind that day, but she accepted a Miraculous Medal and said, ‘Oh Jesus’ mother, this [motioning to her womb] would come at the same time as Jesus.’
A month later, Maria decided to forget all about having the abortion. From this year on, and every Christmas for the rest of her life, Maria will celebrate the baby’s birth and Our Lord’s birth at the same time.

Mary O'Regan

£80 to be Prodded and Ignored at Marie Stopes

‘The Marie Stopes staff made me feel like such a guinea pig’ said ‘Irene’ who came to us after a young man gave her a blue leaflet with Good Counsel's phone number on it during 40 Days for Life.

‘I paid at least 80 pounds for a consultation, and all they did was scribble some notes on a sheet, and tell me to lie down for a scan. Two people stood over me – a man and a woman – I don’t know who they were or what their jobs really were. The woman was new and didn’t know what to do. She kept prodding me with the ultrasound stick thing. Going back and forth with the stick and not picking up anything. The man would try to instruct her, and she would move the stick or the rod thing over me again. She never asked me if I minded that she pressed me with the scanning rod....The man and the woman talked to each other as if I wasn’t there...The man said to the woman that I was gone past a certain number of weeks. I felt so nervous at this stage that I felt that I couldn’t speak. The woman gave me a stare and said, ‘So it will be...surgical...for you.' The second that I heard the word ‘surgical’ my head swam with anxiety. I tried to point at the rod and ask if, please, they would show me the scan. I was completely ignored. I got down from the table, and they said a few things to me that didn’t really register. I just said that I was going home...Later I read the blue leaflet over and over again. Then I plucked up the courage to come here for an appointment.’

Irene stayed for many hours talking about why she has been considering abortion. She is living with her boyfriend and as he’s from a strict Muslim family, he keeps it a secret that he lives with her. When she told him that she is pregnant he turned to her and said, ‘you shouldn’t even be living with me. You led me into sin by sleeping with me. Now you’re in sin because you’re pregnant. I can’t help you now.’ Her boyfriend has told her flatly that he won’t promise any money. And now she has even less money after giving Marie Stopes a whopping 80 quid for them to prod her.

Irene has been assured of the help that we offer, and has said that now she wants to keep the baby. We ask for your continued prayers for her.

Mary O' Regan

Babies Saved From Abortion In The Midst Of Chaos

My typical day at the Good Counsel Network is anything but typical or predictable. I usually work one day a week and spend the rest of the week at home with my Mother and my son aged 3. I think being a stay at home Mum 6 days a week helps to keep me sane in the face of what happens in the Good Counsel Centre or perhaps it's the work at Good Counsel that keeps me sane when I am at home...I'm not sure!


My day in the Centre this week looked like this: Arrive to hear that an abortion-minded couple who turned away from abortion hoping that we could help them to return to their home country are panicking because they need to move out of their accomodation within 3 days. I start trying to book their tickets.


As various staff and volunteers start their day's work I am asked to respond to calls from several Mothers/Expectant Mothers about their needs. Some are still considering abortion. Others, continuing their pregnancies are arriving to be assessed or helped by our "Ongoing Assistance Co-ordinator" Ronni. Four girls need deliveries of baby goods, some things need to be ordered new for them, but we also have a lot of good quality second hand baby goods and baby clothes to pass on to them. I parcel these up for Conor our Fundraising Assistant to arrange with Patrick, our delivery man to deliver. Patrick often takes the smaller goods out in bundles and delivers them by tube.


In the background Gabrielle is setting up the Chapel for midday Mass and is trying to arrange Benediction. James is buying and posting vouchers to several expectant and new Mothers. These are women with no other means of support, who receive a small amount from us each week in food vouchers - just enough to keep body and soul going.


Lorraine is answering the Helpline and Mary is preparing for a client who is coming to see her.


I manage to round up 4 or 5 staff and volunteers for a bit of pavement counselling training, in honour of 40 Days for Life.


40 Days for Life has brought many pregnant women to our door. One of them rings to thank us for getting a scan done for her. She is keeping her baby now. Another girl rings to say that she is thinking about abortion again. She is put on our prayer list in the Chapel.


A volunteer, Gaelle, pops in to do a couple of hours of leaflet folding and of course gets dragged into everything from designing promotional materials for the forthcoming Credit Crunch Ball to serving tea and coffee to pregnant women some of whom are absolutely destitute.

Fr Timothy arrives and says Mass.

Afternoon brings a desperate call for Ronni from a Mother of 4 whose benefits have been stopped and will not be re-instated for 12 weeks. A call comes in from an organisation trying to house two ladies who are not entitled to any state help, one of whom is pregnant. We have nowhere available, but we advise them to come back to us if nowhere is found. We are very glad to have a record of never leaving a genuinely homeless person on the street and will always do our best to keep to it.

It has amazed me to find that the ONLY organisations that will generally house people without any access to public funds are Catholic groups, and only a very few Catholic groups at that - 3 to my knowledge - of which we are one. This is because most Charities, even many pro-life and Catholic charities rely heavily on state funding, which they won't get for people without access to public funds. One charity which helps refugees sent us an 8 month pregnant lady recently. She is very unwell and has to be monitored daily till the end of her pregnancy. The charity had no money to house her and so bought her a bus pass so she could sleep on the bus...

I have a brief meeting with Ronni about the girls needing help. It is interrupted about 23 times by phone calls and enquiries from various staff/volunteers under pressure. Various business and administration matters needing urgent attention are brought to me too. We have to terminate the meeting abruptly when 3 of our "clients" arrive.



The Divine Mercy Chaplet is said in the Chapel for all our clients and supporters.



A call comes in from one of the Charity Trustees to say that some accommodation we have been waiting for has become available.


4 girls who came to us considering abortion and still undecided need a call.


I get to sort through a few bags of baby clothes. I can't actually get into to my office today because of the baby goods in there that need sorting!


I manage to get over to 40 Days for life for a brief period and a short prayer. I get four calls from the travel agent about the ticket I booked this morning, but eventually it gets sorted out. On my return to the Centre, a girl is waiting with her 2 year old son. They are very stressed and harrassed looking. They don't fall within our remit for housing, not being pregnant, but I know of a sofabed they can stay on for a night or two and am able to put them on the bus to find it. We also find a warm winter coat and hat that fits her son perfectly. She puts him straight into it. We leave together at 8.30pm.


I have time for a quick word with Sr Mary Joseph of the Holy Family Sisters of the Needy who look after the Mothers that we accomodate. It's her birthday today so I wish her happy birthday.

There are plenty women continuing to come to us in crisis pregnancies and our Centre is a whirl of activity because of it, but it remains a blessing to me to work there.

Clare McCullough

Counselling ‘Audrey’ in the Presence of An Abortionist

Continued from Yesterday

‘Audrey’ clapped her hands and gave me a huge hug.
‘I have never been so moved in all my life! Remember the way the baby’s beating heart appeared on the screen! Let’s celebrate with nice food.’
I let her tell me her new worries while eating bowls of berries in a trendy cafe. Behind Audrey a middle-aged woman came out of the Ladies and sat down with a gent. Was it...it couldn’t be...but it was her. I knew the middle-aged woman to be an abortionist who some time ago had tried to convince me that ‘Abortion helps lower the rates of certain undesirables in society. By encouraging so many unwanted children you are making my society worse!’

As Audrey merrily ate her berries and chatted brightly about how ‘My baby’s heart is a miracle’, I could see the abortionist sip tea. The abortionist and her friend were decorated in their religious symbolism.
Audrey stopped eating and a frown came over her face and she sighed,

‘But you know I’ve been reading on the internet that baby’s can die in the womb during pregnancy and I think it would be better if I had an abortion before the baby dies.’
‘There are always a lot of ifs and buts in life, and anyone of us could be taken by God any second. But we know for a fact that your baby is alive today, at this very moment.’
I pulled out a baby model from my bag and Audrey got her scan pictures and started holding them up to the light. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the abortionist's eyes examine us, and her mouth formed a silent scream.
Audrey was oblivious to the doctor’s stare and put the scan results next to the baby model. Like a lot of pregnant mothers Audrey found the baby model very calming, and put it next to her cheek. Audrey said to me that she would love to see the bigger ultrasound picture of a ten week old foetus. I handed it to her, and she turned around and held it up to the light in the dim cafe where she could see it better. The abortionist got a full view of it, she was only two and a half metres away from us, and I could barely hear her friend asking her what had suddenly caused her fright. Quite rudely, she pointed in our direction and kept pointing. The friend looked over in our directions, and gave us a look that would have melted Everest. Audrey was too fascinated by the baby model to notice the abortionist, or hear her and her friend talking about how much they hated ‘anti-abortionists’. The doctor’s friend smoothed his religious garment.
I said arrow prayers of ‘Jesus and Mary I love You save souls!’ Amazingly for me, I didn’t start to shake. Normally, I am a very nervous person and counselling a panick-prone Audrey is one thing, but to have an abortionist mocking us... I consider it an answer to a prayer said some time ago. A while ago, the abortionist had told me ‘You prefer foetuses to women!’ I remember praying at Our Lady’s altar that this abortion doctor would see that foetuses are human and as many are girls, they will grow up to be women. That prayer was being answered then and there as she saw Audrey lift up different pictures of little unborn babes. I made myself forget that the doctor was there.
Audrey and I discussed her baby’s future in detail, till Audrey said, ‘Oh I can’t wait to hold my baby in my arms and take his pulse!’
That evening Audrey said ‘That clinic would have just stopped my baby’s heart beating for their own financial gain’, and cancelled her abortion.

Mary O' Regan

“Look at his beautiful little heart"

‘I’m absolutely terrified’ shrieked ‘Audrey’ as we sped through central London on the way to her doctor’s appointment.
‘What if the baby is not growing in the womb? What if there’s something wrong with my hormones and my hormones are harming the baby? What if the baby’s implanted outside my womb? And what if the baby doesn’t have a heart? Most of all, I’m convinced that the baby’s dead!’ ‘Audrey’ felt very alone in her pregnancy and is very far from home. Audrey’s fears about the baby were crowding her mind and because she thought her hormones were negatively affecting the baby, she had booked an abortion for the coming days.
Audrey had asked me to attend her doctor’s appointment and scan with her. The doctor is a rugged Celtic type, and while occasionally a bit gruff, he patiently explained to her that her hormones were not damaging her baby. Audrey was still very agitated when she lay down for her scan, her fists were clenched and her face taut with stress. A shadow appeared on the scan, and then the beating silhouette came into focus, the doctor announced,

‘Look at that beating heart! You’re a bit further in the pregnancy than you had thought.’
‘Aw! Amazing! Look at his beautiful little heart! Beautiful heart!’ said Audrey and tears of joy sprang from her eyes. Audrey was mesmerised by the gently pounding heart, and asked if the baby was definitely in the right place.
‘The baby’s in the womb all right and at this stage looks like he’s doing very well. Your risk of miscarriage is getting lower all the time.’
Audrey was ecstatic leaving the doctor’s office but still wanted to discuss if she should cancel her abortion. To be continued tomorrow...

Mary O' Regan

Teenage Pregnancy

Most people would think that teenagers are stroppier to talk to about their unborn babies.
Surprisingly, it is sometimes teenagers who are more pleasant and interested. Recently, ‘Beth’ a young teenager came looking for advice. She had got pregnant at the start of the summer, and was scared about going back to school pregnant. No one knew but her teenage boyfriend. She had told him she was pregnant, and he had instantly disappeared. She lives near him, and this makes things very uncomfortable.
She was quite heartbroken about this. “He sees me in the street and runs away. When I called his home, he got his mother to say that he didn’t know me.”
Beth had been told by teachers at school that if she ever got a positive test that she could have an abortion. “But I’ve no clue what that means. I’m really confused. For starters they tell me that I should have an abortion because I shouldn’t have a baby. But if I didn’t have a baby, why would I need an abortion?”
She saw pictures of unborn babies in the womb, and was amazed: “yeah, I knew that’s what the baby had to look like! He’s eight weeks, and see his lovely rib cage!” Beth was very open to seeing the pictures of the unborn baby and held the baby model close to her face. In my experience a ‘mature’ adult may react more harshly to seeing the unborn baby pictures. The worst reaction that I ever got was when a twenty five year old threw the baby model and the pictures at me.
During my time with Beth, we discussed what help we could give her, and what practical arrangements could be made for her to have the baby and stay on at school. She still felt threatened by her boyfriend's avoidance of her and by the mere idea of telling her parents. But she said, “I know that I’ll have to face World War Three, but I’m going to fight for my child.”

Mary O' Regan

Prayer Can Move Mountains

In a previous job I had, a work colleague came into the room where I was working. Quite out of the blue, she asked me what I thought about abortion. Surprised by the direct question. I replied by saying "It's totally out of the question. It's wrong". Not knowing why she had asked the question, I was careful with my response to her. Not long afterwards, she explained to me that she was pregnant, and that her boyfriend was wanting her to have an abortion. She was worried that when she told her parents, they would pressure her to have an abortion also. She wanted to keep her baby, but was feeling very alone. The pressure of her boyfriend's cold response and the assumption in her mind that her parents would equally be dismissive of her desire for motherhood, was clearly confusing and distressing her greatly.

I spoke with her at some length, feeling rather out of my depth to say the least.
Fortunately, I had met people working for the Good Counsel Network at a Youth 2000 retreat, so I asked them to send me pro-life literature for her, and asked them to pray. I gave her their number, and then asked as many people as possible to pray for her. Quite a few of us prayed a novena of Memorares for her. Mother Theresa was a great advocate of praying for things through Our Lady's intercession by praying a novena of Memorares.

When I came into work the next week, she turned to me in the company of work colleagues and told me she no longer needed the phone number I gave her. Later on, she explained to me that her boyfriend had apologised to her and told her he had been scared. He was now very happy she was pregnant and that they would be parents. She told her parents, who were very happy.

A lot of women we counsel here at the Good Counsel Network, want to keep their babies, but are being pressured by boyfriends, family and financial situations into having an abortion. The slogan " a woman's right to choose" is so incorrect as the majority of women are being pressured into making the "choice of abortion". The right to life of the unborn child is not considered in the equation of pro-abortion activists.

Prayer and fasting are essential if we are to destroy the "Goliath of abortion". Even though David had only a pebble, his faith enabled him to slay the Philistine. Let's take our pebbles of prayer and fasting, and with deep humility and trust in God; through Our Lady's maternal intercession, God will end abortion.

James Coulborn

July, A Month of Grace outside London Abortuaries

July was a very special month at the prayer vigil outside the abortion mill where a few of us pray and do some pavement counselling on Saturdays. Thanks be to God for His intercession and Graces, there were three Christian couples who turned around because they believed there was a sign from God when they saw the prayer vigil. They then spoke to some of the pavement counsellors who advised them properly that abortion was wrong and to put their trust in God instead. One Christian couple had come a long distance and they noticed the picture of the 12 week old baby developing in the womb and stood talking about the baby and God to my colleague Mary for a good half hour.

They booked an appointment with our Centre the next day but then phoned to say they did not need to come for help and that they had definitely decided to keep their baby and that they had realised that it was a sin to abort their baby.

When I was on holiday one following Saturday my friend Gabi texted me to say that another Christian couple had changed their minds. She had spoken to them outside the abortuary. They sent an e-mail to one of our friends afterwards, who had given them his e-mail address, to say that they had set off that day very unsure about what they were doing but decided to go along to the abortuary with abortion in mind, while trusting that when they got there, if it (the abortion)was the wrong thing to do, that there would be a sign from God. They realised that the prayer vigil outside was that sign from God not to go ahead with the abortion.

The third couple whom Mary spoke to had come all the way from Malta and had Catholic parents but were not married and were in difficult circumstances. They were very upset at the thought of abortion and really wanted to stay and talk about it for over an hour. The young lady took a prayer card from me which I offered her from Padre Pio because she was very fond of him and I told her to pray ‘The Sacred Heart Novena’ which was on the prayer card for help and told them that if they put their trust in God that He would help them through their difficulities. Somebody at the vigil also gave this lady a Rosary Prayer Card which she was happy to take. They told us they could not go ahead with the abortion and they went inside the abortuary to tell the staff who queried them why they had changed their minds. The evening before this Saturday we had had all night Adoration at our Centre and somebody told me there was a lot of Adoration going on in different areas around the UK at that time.

All praise and thanks to God for His intercession.

Lorraine Coyne

My Heart Says No

‘I don’t want this abortion. My heart says no. I promised myself that my last abortion was the last one. I never wanted to be in this situation again’ said Amy, who was in her first trimester. Her cheeks sagged in misery, and her eyes bulged with sadness. I knew by the way she looked intently at the close-up picture of the unborn baby’s eyes that this was not her ‘choice’.
‘Did anyone urge you to have the last abortion?’
‘Well my Christian friends told me an abortion would be all wrong for me, and that Jesus will bless me if I continued the pregnancy. So during the last pregnancy, for a long time I decided to have the baby. But I ended up having the abortion because my boyfriend told me it was a sin to be pregnant.’
‘Really? What religion is your boyfriend?’ I asked.
‘Aalee is a Muslim, and he is very concerned that I become a Muslim too. He wants me to become a Muslim before we get married.’
‘And is that what you want?’
‘No. I’m a committed Gospel Christian, and Our Lord saved me. Our Lord wants me to have this baby’ Amy said and looked me right in the eye.
‘And yet, you’re planning an abortion...’ I said in a surprised voice.
‘I’m really confused, my friends in church tell me to keep the baby and that it’s a sin to abort. But my boyfriend tells me that the pregnancy is a sin, and that I won’t be in sin anymore if I abort...If I become a Muslim then the abortion won’t be a sin.’

We invited her boyfriend to accompany Amy for counselling.
Aalee became very concerned about the risks multiple abortions pose to Amy’s fertility, and has stopped pressurising her with the ‘pregnancy is a sin’ ruse.

I encouraged Amy to seek much support from her Christian friends who frequently quote the Ten Commandments when urging women not to have abortions. Amy is now beginning her second trimester, and we would be grateful for your sustained prayers for her pregnancy.

Mary O'Regan

Having Pro-Life Discussions...You Never Know...

Unexpectedly, I got a knock on my door last night and opened it to find a friend of a friend of mine. I hadn’t seen ‘Lauren’ in almost a year, and when I saw her mascara running down her face, I said, ‘what’s wrong, are you alright?’ She blurted,
‘I’m pregnant. I know you’re anti-abortion, and I really need to talk to you.’
‘Lauren’ is resolute that she will avoid abortion, even though the pressure has been mounting over the past months. Her ex-boyfriend has been very casual, ‘Look babe, we’re in Britain and I already have two kids. That’s the most anyone in this country should have. This baby will be baby number three, and it’s not on!’ Lauren’s employer asked her why she was not having an abortion.
Unbeknownst to me, friends that I and Lauren have in common have been repeating to Lauren the pro-life things that I said, even ‘discussions’ where we may not have seen eye to eye. Through our mutual friends, Lauren got to know me as someone who wouldn’t push her into an abortion. Lauren is a practising Catholic, and has asked a convent of nuns to pray for her, but she mustered the courage to visit me because she wanted to talk in detail about the unborn baby, and didn’t want to take the risk of talking to yet another person who would do a hard-sell on abortion.
Lauren is determined to go through the pregnancy, and we discussed baby names and baby clothes. She’s also going to avoid all those pro-abortion voices (including her ex-boyfriend’s) that are seeking to bully her. In an ideal world, she would talk to the baby’s father about her visits to the GP and her birth plan, but the father has stopped all contact with her.
Lauren also commented that many girls get manipulated into having abortions. And she’s right – bamboozling pregnant women into ‘getting rid’ is an acceptable form of coercion. In contrast to this, Lauren looks forward to getting further emotional support from The Good Counsel Network.

Mary O' Regan

A Day in My Life at the Good Counsel Centre

It's Monday. First things first. I greet Our Lord in the chapel, and sprinkle holy water on my forehead, asking the Holy Spirit to inspire all my actions and words this day,‘please give me the right thing to say at the right time to the pregnant ladies that I will meet’. Then, I check the messages and find out which client has
called; has anyone’s circumstances changed over the weekend? Is ‘Amanda’ still
intent on keeping the baby after finding out that her baby will be due on
Christmas day? Has the father of ‘Jane’s’ child (she had a one night stand with
him two months ago) decided he wants to help her? Did any girl deliver her baby
over the weekend? I add the girls’ intentions to the prayer list, and take
comfort that prayers will be offered for them during the day.

I get ready a pram for ‘Fran’ and a bag of baby clothes. While waiting for ‘Fran’, I look up a news story that could be the subject of a blog post; The Irish Daily Mail carried a story about Sarah Hewson who had an abortion at 19, but at 38 is still childless. In the Daily Mail article, they describe Sarah as having regretted her abortion because she aborted the only child she ever conceived. A bit of research later reveals that Sarah Hewson is reviewing legal action against The Mail, because she’s very resentful that The Mail presented her as feeling so guilty.

‘Fran’ comes and we have a chat, she’s only one month from the due date, and getting
very excited about the forthcoming arrival of her baby boy, if only she didn’t
have heartburn! Fran learns to use her pram and is delighted with it, and
leaves the centre, walking into the May sunshine more prepared for the baby,
than she ever imagined she would be, all those months ago when she first
came.

I grab a bit of lunch and enjoy a coffee before the next client comes. Rosie is
twenty-five and twenty-one weeks pregnant; she wants some advice. Rosie pours
her heart and uses wads of tissues; in the past week she has been crying so
much that her voice is low from hyperventilating. Rosie is ‘having a holiday in
London for the sake of getting a late abortion’, because in her native African
country, abortion is illegal, except if you ‘if you pay someone to use the
straw for early abortions’. Previous to coming to us, Rosie went to a private 'clinic', but didn’t like the sound of the late-term abortion methods, and that she would have to be induced to start the process. She asks many times ‘is there an easy way to do it?’ She is shaken to know that at this stage of the pregnancy, the baby could live outside the womb. Looking at a picture of a twenty-one week baby, she says, ‘you know, I could deliver a premature baby…’

Two and a half hours later, Rosie leaves but would like to come back soon to get
more matters off her chest, we are the first people she has told anything to,
and the pregnancy is semi-hidden.

I’m scheduled to do Eucharistic Adoration, and as I walk into the chapel I feel
bathed in love. During Eucharistic Adoration, there is the distinctive
atmosphere (for me) of Christmas day. I offer a Rosary for Rosie, and ask God
to heal her hurts. I’m never so grateful for Eucharistic Adoration as when I
leave a very emotionally involved counselling session. We have Benediction
promptly at 5PM, and I ask Our Lady to intercede for those of us, working in
the country that is her dowry.

Afterwards, I answer the phone, and speak to girls who have phoned to say that they have received their financial help for this week, and find out how they are sorted for other matters. Then it’s
time to get the counselling rooms ready for tomorrow, and before I forget,
replenish the tissue box.

Mary O'Regan

Louisa Staunton, A Saintly Deceased Pro-Lifer

Today we had our annual Mass for Louisa Staunton, RIP, our supporter and benefactor, who died on 5th July 2004. Louisa originally came to The Good Counsel Network to attend the Counsellor Training Course we run. One day when attending one of the sessions, she overheard Stuart phoning around trying to find accommodation for a woman who was turned around outside an abortion clinic and who wanted to keep her baby, but could not go home as her boyfriend had threatened both her and her baby. Louisa immediately said "She can stay with me!". Without regard for her own safety or comfort, Louisa took this lady home with her and there began her new work of looking after vulnerable expectant mums. Louisa turned her whole house over to us, having as many as 3 members of our staff/volunteers living with her at any time as well as up to 4 mothers-to-be. She hated to accept any money from the mothers who stayed with her and was regarded as a grandmotherly figure by them all. The Friday before she died, I brought another girl to stay with Louisa. We had tried to find her a place wherever we could and Louisa was the first to say yes, even though there were already 4 other women staying with her. When we arrived she made "Mary" very welcome and cheered her up no end by her friendliness. "Its Our Lady's house" she told us as we thanked her for taking Mary in. Louisa went to bed that night but could not be woken in the morning. She was taken to hospital where she remained unconscious until Monday. Doctors found she had had bleeding around the brain during Friday night. On Monday a Priest came to the hospital to say Mass in her room. Louisa died after the Mass, having never regained consciousness.
During her life Louisa worked as a nurse, later a psychiatric nurse and also an assistant to the blind. She was involved in many, many Catholic organisations, especially The Legion of Mary. Even aged 75, she did the shopping for many ill and housebound neighbours and was known very well by all who lived near her. She gave away anything that was asked of her to others, including on one occasion where she gave her car to a family she had just met whose car had broken down! She was a particular friend to the lonely and depressed. She loved Our Lord and had a strong devotion to Our Lady, particularly Our Lady of Good Counsel and Our Lady of All Nations.
May God rest your soul Louisa, our great pro-life friend and sister in Christ.

Why I Am Pro-Life

Padre Pio allegedly told one Woman in Confession that she had aborted a Pope.

I am pro-Life because all life is created by God, and only God knows what his plan is for the life of this little one in time, and God's plan for him or her may be far beyond our wildest dreams.

Imagine how you would feel, if in later life we discovered that we had blocked a great good to humanity.

I work for Good Counsel because they help all expectant mothers, no matter what their situation may be.

Angela Murphy.