Last month, Aaron Gouveia took his wife (MJ) to a clinic to have a surgical abortion. There were personal reasons for that decision, but that didn’t matter to the protesters outside the clinic.
Aaron and MJ made their way inside, but not completely unscathed.
… when I looked at MJ she was in tears.
Those self-righteous assholes had gotten to her. Without knowing one solitary thing about her or why we were there, they inserted themselves directly into our nightmare and made it that much worse. So now my wife, who was already nervous as hell prior to surgery, is near hysterics. Me not being allowed in there with her only made it that much more painful.
I was seething and glaring out the window at a woman holding a picture of Jesus across the street. Then MJ asked me what I was going to do for the next couple of hours. I looked at her, then looked out the window, then back at her. I asked permission with my eyes, never uttering a word. And as they called her name she nodded and gave me a kiss.
Aaron went outside to talk to the protesters.
Here’s what happened:
This is obviously a delicate issue and I imagine anyone who’s had to go through a similar situation empathizes with Aaron. I appreciate his attempt to talk to the protesters directly. I appreciate him letting them know what they’re unfairly doing to women that goes well beyond their disagreement about abortions.
But I think he played right into their hands. He called them names. He said that because of people like them, he’d seen pictures of aborted fetuses and that there were fewer abortion clinics — as if they’d be upset by that. It wasn’t exactly a calm, reasoned response.
Then again, if my wife was the one getting harassed by them, I probably wouldn’t be in a very diplomatic mood, either.
There’s far more to the video then just that — Aaron has more thoughts, too — but I wonder if there’s a better way to handle this type of situation. I’m certainly not taking the side of the protesters, but I wasn’t thrilled watching Aaron.
You’re not going to convince the other side to stop what they’re doing, but how could you talk to them in a more effective way? Especially over such a heated issue?
(Thanks to Rebecca for the link)