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Creativity, Kindness Pay Off At Abortion Mills

When Jeanne Nollen went to pray for the first time in front of an abortion mill in Falls Church, Va., four years ago, she found the whole experience appalling.

As she walked up and down in front of the mill, “I looked up at the window of that dirty old building and at those poor women going in there,” she told pro-lifers at the Baltimore Archdiocese’s Respect Life Conference November 13.

“It tore my heart out to think they were doing abortions in there.  I didn’t think I could go back.”

Reflecting afterwards on the dismal experience, Jeanne decided to “think outside the box.”

Before going to the abortion mill the next time, she headed for a Hallmark card shop and bought “a few” helium balloons – well, 25, to be exact.

When she got them all in her car, they were bouncing around so much, she could hardly see to drive.

“When I opened up the door at the mill, all the balloons floated out of the car,” she recalled.  “I got the attention of everyone, including the ‘deathscorts.’”

She anchored the bright balloons, which said, “It’s a boy!” or “It’s a girl!” along the sidewalk, from one end of the building to the other.

“It looked like a baby shower!” she said.

That was the beginning of Jeanne’s two-year stint at the Falls Church facility, with a group called Life Guard.

“I didn’t miss a week, even if it was snowing,” she said.

She also learned the ropes of frontline witnessing.

“If you are cautious and timid, the deathscorts will sense this and focus on you, try to keep you from coming back,” she cautioned.

“They always threaten to arrest you.  But in all the years I’ve been doing this, they have never had anyone arrested.

“They called the police once to arrest this man, but I linked my arm with his and said, ‘I’m going with him.’  They liked me, so they backed off.”

Jeanne has an uncanny ability to make friends with the deathscorts, even though they are from opposite ideological poles, based on simple human kindness and a shrewd ability to size up character.

But they are still dead set against her goal of turning around abortion-minded women and will try to block her from handing pro-life literature or anything else to the women.

Since Jeanne moved to Baltimore two years ago, she has been praying in front of the Seneca abortion mill on Northern Parkway, and more recently, at Planned Parenthood headquarters in downtown Baltimore.

Her creative juices are still flowing.  

“You need to have something to get these women’s attention,” she explained.

Lately, she has been handing the women baby booties with Gabriel Project’s phone number and information printed on the box.

“The deathscorts try to take away whatever we give the women, but the women won’t give up the booties, and a tug of war ensues,” she said.

Jeanne’s favorite “visuals” are very lifelike baby dolls, the size and weight of a newborn, which she carries or places in baby carriers at the site.

“The woman sees the baby, she is focused.  The deathscorts come up and try to block her view, but the woman is peering around them, trying to see if it’s a real baby,” she said.

“We have to seize every opportunity to get these women’s attention, make them have doubts about what they’re about to do.”

Jeanne’s latest project is a new “Life” poster that she plans to make and market nationally.

Little Miguel, the baby whose face will appear on the poster, came to Jeanne’s talk, accompanied by his mom, Endya Rice.

Endya told the pro-lifers that because she suffered from high blood pressure and pre-eclampsia during her pregnancy, Miguel was only 26 weeks’ gestation when he was born in June of last year.

Miguel weighed 1 lb., 14 oz.  He was intubated for 24 hours, then kept in an Isolette for about 60 days.

“At 26 weeks, you have a 96 percent survival rate,” said Endya.  “Every organ was developed; they were simply immature.

“He had everything against him, but one thing for him – that was God.”

Endya, a medical technician at Sinai Hospital, where Jeanne works as a cytotechnologist, said that she had finished graduate school, “but I had no spiritual grounding.

“From this experience I learned, I don’t care what age a child is, it is still life.”

When Jeanne explained how the poster will say, “One Choice:  Life,” she elicited a round of applause from the pro-lifers.

Miguel, a lively and alert toddler, stole the show when he joined in, applauding wildly.

For more information on pro-life activities at Seneca and Planned Parenthood, contact Jeanne Nollen at onlyjean@comcast.net or 410-435-1576.