By Anne Reed
In Less Than a Month, One Employee Flees, 16 Babies Live
Hope Clinic , dubbed by Operation Rescue as “Hopeless Clinic,” is hanging by a thin thread. Within its doors, only death and deceit is found.
The facility, located in Granite City, Illinois, has a sordid history of covering up its frighteningly regular botched abortions. Last year, at least 15 women left the facility by ambulance. Though a hospital is located directly across the street from the center, nearly every emergency necessitated transfer to Barnes-Jewish Hospital, a Level One Trauma Center in the neighboring state of Missouri.
Its most recent documented transfer to Barnes-Jewish Hospital involved a 22-year-old woman that staff claimed was experiencing a mere fever. As usual, the Granite City 911 service asked no questions about the patient’s vital signs to determine what level of care would be required by the emergency medical services team.
The call was made at about 5:15 p.m. on February 28. Typically, the sidewalk counselors have already left for the day, leading them to believe the Hopeless staff waited to call 911 to decrease the chances of pro-lifers witnessing the emergency transfer.
Sidewalk counselors are present at this death trap practically any time the doors are open for its grisly killing business. The counselors’ obedience to God and dedication to the babies and to mothers led blindly into the ‘Hopeless’ Clinic has spanned decades. Some of these sidewalk counselors have regularly been on the sidewalk for close to 20 years. Others have maintained a consistent presence for the last five years.
Kelly Bradley, one of the sidewalk counselors, shared with Operation Rescue that, after so many years of prayer and service, the team of pro-lifers had recently become discouraged by the increasing number of ambulances and brokenhearted with an overall feeling of hopelessness.
But, “The LORD is near the brokenhearted” (Psalm 34:18).
The team of Protestant and Catholic believers pressed on. They kept going. They kept serving. They kept reaching out. They kept praying.
This year, they began praying specifically for one of the employees who they sensed was searching for hope. And they recently invited the 40 Days for Life prayer campaign to conduct an extended prayer vigil from the sidwalk.
Not only did 40 Days for Life take them up on their invitation but two seasoned sidewalk counselors, including John David Lewis, the founder of Beyond the Pews for Life, have also traveled from a neighboring state to serve alongside them. To the discouraged sidewalk counselors, the men served in a similar role to the New Testament Barnabus who the Apostle Paul called “The Son of Encouragement.” Bradley expressed gratitude that God answered their prayers and sent the men to be “the lifters of our heads.”
Soon after, the worker for which they had been interceding received their help getting out. In a matter of three days, over $2,000 was raised by pro-lifers to help her pay her bills while seeking employment outside the abortion industry.
A recent post from one of the sidewalk counselors celebrated that tremendous victory:
And there is more. In a month’s time, since Valentine’s Day, the lives of at least 16 babies have been saved. Moms who were determined to subject themselves to the murder-for-hire abortionists, while also putting their own lives at risk, reversed course and walked away. They decided to take the route of life and hope instead.
According to Operation Rescue’s annual survey, Hopeless charges $550 for it’s first trimester abortions – and more for later-term abortions. (Though Illinois law stipulates abortions can be performed up to the age of viability – usually considered 24 weeks – Hopeless performs abortions up to 27 weeks.)
Even if all 16 of those saved lives were first-trimester abortions, the monetary loss was close to $9,000.
Earlier this week, the team celebrated an out-of-state mom and the twins she delivered. Several months ago, she changed her mind upon hearing hopeful words from the sidewalk at the facility. One counselor, who remembers that day well, drove across several states this week to ensure their needs are met with material supplies like diapers, clothing, etc.
Every single victory means at least one life is saved. Each one is gratefully celebrated.
The killing center, at least for now, continues to operate six days a week. Each day it remains open, babies are murdered, and the lives of their mothers are put at risk. Bradley pointed out that the vast majority of women entering the facility are of Black ethnicity, following through on the abortion industry’s genocide of the Black population.
From the sidewalk Saturday, Bradley noted, “They started very early today, and 31 moms have poured into the mill so far, and it is only 9:15 a.m. All 31 moms are Black. Nobody is listening!”
“While Hopeless bemoans its losses, we celebrate God’s answers to prayer and the babies that will now live,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. “We are incredibly grateful for the dedication of sidewalk counselors and prayer warriors as we all work together to close the doors of this wretched death trap. Operation Rescue is working behind the scenes to make this a reality, and it is a huge encouragement to see God so evidently at work right there on the grounds of the blood-drenched facility. We are all His servants doing our part, and the glory belongs to Him.”
