Prayers Answered: Saying Goodbye to Prevention Park

A message from Clare Calcote, a longtime member of our HCL family whose journey with our ministry began when she was just a child.

For me, it was bittersweet hearing the news that Planned Parenthood Prevention Park was closing their doors. Of course I was overjoyed but I was also sad that I could not be there for the celebration of a moment I had prayed for, for twenty years.

The first time I prayed outside the Houston Planned Parenthood facility, it was located on Fannin Street. I was around 11 years old and – as with all children – when I learned what abortion was, I was horrified. I knew that these women were scared and being lied to or pressured to have an abortion. I believed that if the women really knew what an abortion was they would never go through with it. So when I was 12, I asked Christine (the Executive Director of Houston Coalition for Life) if I could be trained to become a sidewalk counselor. I completed the training, shadowing, and went on to spend many hours outside that facility.

At the Fannin location, women had to park across the street from the facility, which gave sidewalk counselors a greater opportunity to peacefully approach women. There was no yelling or heckling from the sidewalk counselors. I was taught to always act in charity, and if a woman asked to be left alone, we would respect her wishes. It was so much easier to offer assistance at that location, even with the Planned Parenthood "escorts" who were there solely to keep the women from hearing the truth about abortion and the real help available.

One day, more women than ever were accepting my brochures and stopping to talk to me. As time went on, the Planned Parenthood escort got more and more irritated. Then, as I was speaking to a woman waiting to cross Fannin, he blurted out, "Don't talk to her! She bites people!" The woman looked at the escort like he was crazy and took a step back from him.

On several occasions, we offered dethorned roses to the women. One of the escorts would take any flowers he confiscated and smash them under his foot. Grinding them into the concrete for us to watch.

At the Fannin location the evil was visible. Not just in the behavior of the escorts, but also in the fact that we could clearly see the women's expressions when they went in and when they came out. We saw arguments and difficult phone calls. And we were only yards away when women were carried out on a stretcher and taken away in an ambulance.

Eventually, a law was passed that required every abortion facility to meet the standards for an ambulatory surgical center. The Fannin location, Planned Parenthood's most profitable location, did not meet these standards and could not alter the building to meet them. Their solution was the Sterling Bank building on I-45. It would be a mega abortion facility, the biggest in the Western Hemisphere, that would end the lives of babies in Houston and surrounding cities in Texas and Louisiana.

The Houston Coalition for Life immediately began working on a plan to stop the progress of this facility. With the help of several volunteers, they contacted anyone who was involved in the building of the facility and informed them what they were actually building. Some of the contractors backed out. There were prayer rallies and offers of other jobs to people who were working on the building. There was also a Catholic businessman who refused the payout Planned Parenthood offered to break his lease early. The result was that the project was delayed for almost a year and cost them so much more. Unfortunately, the building did eventually open for business. So, what to do next?

At the Fannin location there was a pregnancy center just around the corner. The close proximity of free help was a major aid to women who were having doubts about their abortion. This new I-45 location was nowhere near a pregnancy center and there were no available lots to build one. Thus the Big Blue Bus was born.

Planned Parenthood opened their doors in May of 2010. Nine months later (ironically the same amount of time as a baby developing in the womb), the Big Blue Bus opened its doors offering free pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, and counseling. Women didn't have to wait for an appointment or drive to a different location; they could just pull over, walk in, and get the truth and real help that they would not receive at Planned Parenthood.

Meanwhile, I continued to Sidewalk Counsel, but it was more difficult to reach the women. You only had a moment when their car pulled into the parking lot, and women now had to stop their car and roll down the window to talk to us. The Planned Parenthood escorts were back and using every method they could think of to keep these women from the free help at the Big Blue Bus. They ushered people into the driveway as quickly as possible. They put up signs saying it was illegal to stop in the driveway with a reference to the law number. HCL looked it up and found that the law stated no parking in the driveway, not that they couldn't stop. The police were notified and Planned Parenthood had to take the signs down. One escort brought his amplifier and played loud music so the women pulling into the parking lot could not hear the sidewalk counselors.

I remember seeing the women walking out of the Fannin location after their abortion. The escorts who had cared so much about them getting in were not there when the abortion was through. Many women stopped to talk. I remember their tears and hollow expressions. I remember fervent prayers for their safety and thanking God that I was able to be there to show them love at one of their most painful moments, even if it was just a sincere smile. That was not the case at this new location. The women were far away and rarely did the driver stop or roll down the window.

Even with all this, through the grace of God, we were able to reach the women. Some women stopped and took the information. Some saw the signs for a free ultrasound and pulled over. Others saw the people praying peacefully and joyfully, and this caused them to slow down and think about the choice they were making.

I had the privilege of hearing some of these stories from the women themselves when I worked on the Big Blue Bus. Christine was looking for someone to fill in part time as assistant. I was in high school and homeschooling, so she asked me and I was overjoyed to accept.

It was truly an honor to work on the bus. I got to hear these women's stories, be a safe place for them – a place of peace when they felt like their world was crumbling down. I got to witness countless ultrasounds and see the looks of amazement and joy on a woman's face when she saw her child for the first time. Every pregnant woman I saw left the bus with more hope and peace than she had when she entered it.

After high school, I experienced my own crisis pregnancy after being raped by my boyfriend. Very few people knew the circumstances of my pregnancy and with the way I was treated by some people closest to me, I felt despised, a disappointment, a fraud. When I walked onto the bus and saw my coworker and friend smiling at me, I could not say the words. I could not live with their disappointment. When my mom told them why I was there, there was a moment of surprise and then nothing but concern and love. I felt that the staff at HCL were the only group of people who did not treat me differently. Years later, I told Nurse Cheryl this, and she said confused, "Why would we treat you differently? You were the same person."

I delayed college and continued working part time on the bus. The HCL staff were there for me throughout my pregnancy and supported me when I placed my daughter for adoption.

After college, I was able to work as a full-time assistant on the Baby Blue Bus. Later I became the Programs Director. I taught sidewalk counseling, led the 40 Days for Life vigils, organized volunteer and outreach, and helped on so many other wonderful projects.

Three years ago, my husband and I moved our family to Kansas. I was able to have my dream of being a stay-at-home mom, but I was devastated to leave the organization and the people who had been there and supported me through some of the most difficult times in my life. I am just one of countless women who has had her life changed through the work and prayers of the staff and volunteers at the Houston Coalition for Life. I am just one of countless women who has experienced Christ through all of you.

Even though Planned Parenthood Prevention Park is closing, there are still going to be women in need of the life-saving services the Houston Coalition provides, and I thank God that this facility will no longer be standing in the way. Whether or not Planned Parenthood was providing abortion after the ban, they were still spreading lies and evil. God is Truth, the enemy, the deceiver. He confuses and misleads. Over the years, this location has done that in countless ways whether it be by lying to women about the development of their child, using financial and psychological means to pressure women into an abortion, protecting sex predators who are seeking abortions for their victims, encouraging teanagers to engage in sex acts dangerous to their body and soul, or illegally selling the body parts of aborted babies. These are just the instances that immediately come to mind; I know there are far more.

This is a victory for God, but it is also a victory for us. It is a victory for all the HCL staff and volunteers who God worked through to bring this about. There is no greater joy on earth than participating in God's work – especially when you get to see the fruits of that work. It was not always easy. Some days it was unbearably hot or unbearably boring. A few times I doubted that this day would ever come. But we persisted, bringing His love to a place where the most horrific acts were committed. Of course there is still work to be done. We must continue to pray for those mothers and fathers who lost their children, for the workers who participated, and for the abortionists who performed the abortions. We pray that their hearts will be opened to the truth and that they will not fall into despair but go to Christ for healing.

However, at this moment… we celebrate. We celebrate all the lives saved, all those who have come to the knowledge of the truth, and most of all we celebrate the closing of this house of lies known as Planned Parenthood Prevention Park!