The John-Henry Westen Show - Pro-life leader finds creative way around Canada's 'bubble zone' laws to help save the unborn

00:00:00.120 You know, there's something really interesting about the pro-life movement in Canada.

00:00:03.680 There's huge bubble zones everywhere.

00:00:05.400 We're not allowed to be like within 50 feet or sometimes meters of an abortion clinic,

00:00:12.080 an abortion place where they're doing abortions. 1.00

00:00:14.420 We're not allowed to protest outside.

00:00:15.780 There's no 40 days for life allowed outside.

00:00:18.600 However, some pro-lifers have gotten really creative.

00:00:21.940 Sometimes they open up pro-life pregnancy centers providing care and outreach for women

00:00:28.000 right outside of or next to or across the street from abortion centers.

00:00:34.280 We're going to talk to the person who runs one of those and who's expanding also.

00:00:39.960 You're going to want to stay tuned for this episode of The John Henry Weston Show.

00:00:58.000 Gabrielle Johnson, welcome to the program.

00:01:06.280 Hey, John Henry. Thanks.

00:01:08.540 Let's begin, as we always do, with the sign of the cross.

00:01:11.280 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

00:01:16.200 So, Gabrielle, you are involved in something, I won't say sneaky, but in a way to get around

00:01:25.060 some of the restrictions that are in Canada, some of the unfair restrictions that are there

00:01:29.440 to prevent pro-life people, loving people who want to offer a hand of outreach to women

00:01:35.800 seeking abortions, for an alternative, a way to respect the life in the wombs and to get 1.00

00:01:40.920 assistance to be able to carry that life to term and even beyond term to care for that unborn child

00:01:47.480 or that now-born child. And you've opened already a center, a pro-life pregnancy center,

00:01:54.860 across the street from an abortion clinic. Tell us how that's going.

00:02:00.200 So, that's going really well. Just a little bit of the backstory. We started in 2006 in Edmonton.

00:02:07.640 The Back Porch is the name of our Pregnancy Options Information Center. We are right across

00:02:12.480 the street from the abortion clinic here. And that was started by a group called Allies,

00:02:16.760 which is the group that I'm the executive director of at this point. But we've been here since 2006,

00:02:22.440 and we've been able to minister to women who are on their way to abortions. We've been able to

00:02:26.880 offer them information on all the options, make sure that at the very least they have informed

00:02:31.380 consent and can find healing after the abortion. But obviously, we're here to promote life-affirming

00:02:36.880 options. So, we've had many clients in the past who have been able to choose life and been able

00:02:42.480 to be privileged to support them through their pregnancies and afterwards.

00:02:46.660 Beautiful. And just right off the bat, I want to mention that LifeSite News has a LifeFunder,

00:02:51.860 which is our crowdfunding platform, going on right now. So, if you go to lifefunder.com,

00:02:58.120 you'll be able to support Gabrielle's work. So, Gabrielle, tell us, yes, we're not allowed to

00:03:06.740 be sort of picketing or providing alternatives on the street in front of abortion centers. But you

00:03:13.200 guys being right across the street are able to do that. How do people find out about you? How do you

00:03:17.740 get your clients who come over to you from the abortion center? How does that work?

00:03:22.400 So, there are lots of different ways. But interestingly, the main reason that a lot of

00:03:27.740 women come to us is because they mistake us for the abortion clinic at the outset. So, when they 1.00

00:03:32.780 walk in the door, we have about 30 seconds to engage them in conversation because they're here

00:03:36.780 for their abortion appointment. And when they tell us that, we obviously are upfront and we let them 0.64

00:03:41.380 know, you know, if you have an abortion appointment, it's not with us. But we can offer you information on

00:03:45.880 the abortion procedures. We can make sure that you know what's about to happen. And we can offer you

00:03:50.040 information on resources in the area, which a lot of them haven't had the time to explore or look into,

00:03:55.580 having made just a knee-jerk kind of decision to, I'm pregnant, I wasn't planning this, I'll get the

00:04:00.900 abortion, and let's not even think about it. So, we're able to engage them in conversation and offer

00:04:05.420 a little more information. Beautiful. Now, one of the neat aspects of the bubble zone laws is that

00:04:14.140 while there are, you know, no pro-lifers allowed to present options to women going into the abortion

00:04:21.500 clinic, it also, as you told me before the show, cuts both ways. Explain that for us, if you would,

00:04:26.060 please. Yeah, this is one of my favorite things to share with people. So, just from the very broad

00:04:31.600 description in the legislation, the way that it's worded, it just, it does not allow for any kind

00:04:37.300 of picketing, any kind of protesting, anything abortion-related to be happening within 50 meters

00:04:43.320 of the clinic, which effectively means within 50 meters of us either. So, while people from 40 Days

00:04:49.200 for Life can't stand there with signs, neither can people who are going to come and harass us in the

00:04:54.960 work that we do or tell women that they should not speak to people who are trying to promote life-affirming

00:05:00.660 options. Beautiful. So, that then prevents pro-abortion picketers from blocking women or whatever

00:05:08.900 who want to come to you for help. Yeah, absolutely. So, it's problematic, but it's also protective of

00:05:16.320 our ministry. Very interesting. So, tell us, in the work you do, what is for you one of the really

00:05:27.280 rewarding things that strikes you and keeps you going? So, I think the thing that has stuck out

00:05:35.620 to me the most since I began working here at the end of 2018 is just how spiritual the work is. So,

00:05:43.520 anytime that we're speaking to a woman, it's not really us that's talking to her. It's the Holy

00:05:48.580 Spirit working in us in whatever way God chooses. And sometimes that means that she chooses life and

00:05:53.840 then there's a human being who otherwise probably would have died if we weren't here. And sometimes

00:05:58.860 it simply means that we've been able to plant a seed for the future or offer some measure of hope

00:06:06.520 for healing after an abortion. It's really just wonderful to be able to be Christ's hands and feet

00:06:13.020 in this place and in this ministry that is so important to Him because it deals with really

00:06:18.340 vulnerable people and with the most innocent of human beings.

00:06:23.360 Now, that's very interesting. So, you're dealing not only with women going to an abortion, but you're

00:06:29.400 also, after an abortion, you're there to help as well.

00:06:34.280 Yeah. So, most of the women that we talk to, we do see them before the abortion.

00:06:38.120 Some of them come over afterwards because they've been through the abortion and they see our building

00:06:42.260 across the street and they wonder what we're about. And then we're able to provide them

00:06:45.140 information on hope and healing afterwards, on finding the care and the counseling that they

00:06:51.220 might need to be able to process what's just happened and to be able to just to recover from

00:06:57.740 this trauma for a lot of women. It's not in every case. Some women kind of carry on as though nothing 1.00

00:07:03.820 happened, but most women do experience some regret and some difficult emotions because it's a really

00:07:10.200 difficult thing. Can you share with us one of the testimonies that has struck you and sort of show

00:07:18.000 us, if you will, one of the clients that you've had that has chosen life?

00:07:23.720 Absolutely. So, we can play a little tip here and you can take a look.

00:07:29.180 Great.

00:07:29.620 Being a single parent is a challenge, but it's a blessing to wake up every day and see him

00:07:38.300 smile onto you. I believe he's going to grow and be a great person and everyone do deserve

00:07:42.780 a life. That's all I always tell myself that, you know, everyone deserves a life. No one deserves

00:07:49.280 to go through that abortion process.

00:07:54.800 So, that was just a little bit from Rita, who is a former client of ours. She's not one of the women 1.00

00:08:02.360 that I spoke with, but you did see in that clip the woman that she spoke to when she walked in the 0.96

00:08:07.380 clinic, or sorry, when she walked in here instead of the clinic. And one of the things that I love

00:08:13.440 about her testimony, aside from the fact that her beautiful son is there and alive and here on this

00:08:18.840 world because she came to us by mistake or, you know, by providence, if you prefer, is that she

00:08:26.520 now is able to say things like, every life is precious and no woman should have to go through

00:08:32.120 an abortion and that she was preserved from that herself. So, not only was her son saved, but she

00:08:37.240 was too.

00:08:39.160 Wow. Can you describe for us probably a sentiment that you've had, a feeling that you've had,

00:08:46.000 or a sensation that you've had that most of us will never have in our lives, the sort of before

00:08:52.240 and after effect of speaking to a woman who then chooses life, later getting to see that woman,

00:08:59.060 and perhaps even getting to see or even hold the child whose life is sort of there in a way because

00:09:06.560 you intervened?

00:09:08.580 Yeah. It's an incredibly humbling experience, for sure. I have this vivid memory of

00:09:15.920 actually, when we were filming that video that we played earlier, while they were recording Rita

00:09:22.080 and our staff member and some other people involved in the video, I was watching her son

00:09:27.440 for part of that. So, all of this was going on, she's describing her testimony, and I'm here holding

00:09:32.880 this child that would not be here today if it weren't for the ministry of the back porch.

00:09:38.340 It can be quite overwhelming at times. It can be very humbling, and it really does fuel the desire

00:09:45.200 to continue doing what we're doing because how many more lives can be saved, and the whole world

00:09:50.940 is changed by that, right? Every human life makes such an infinite impact on the world. So, it really is

00:09:58.720 a beautiful thing to be a part of.

00:10:00.900 Amazing. What is your motivation, Gabrielle? What really drives you to continue in this work

00:10:07.820 when you could be doing other things?

00:10:10.240 Oh, my goodness. So, the short answer to that is, God asked this of me, and when God asks,

00:10:16.400 you know, what are you going to do? Are you going to say no? Of course not. But, yeah, I know I think

00:10:21.540 that this is such a place and such a ministry where you can have impact that you can't even

00:10:28.860 understand, and on top of that, knowing that I'm doing what God is asking of me and knowing that each

00:10:35.060 moment of my life is spent doing something that Jesus cares so deeply about is such a wonderful

00:10:42.060 thing. The ability to be conformed to Christ in that, to be able to talk to these women and know that

00:10:48.200 as much as I, in this moment, love them and their children, how much more Jesus loves them. And so,

00:10:53.980 I know that I can be pleasing to Him and love Him in that way, too.

00:10:59.820 Now, so often, calls from Christ to engage in certain things are difficult to hear or discern.

00:11:10.500 Would you mind sharing how you got that call and generally how to recognize it?

00:11:15.580 Oh, my goodness. So, I'm not sure how to answer that question. I think, for me, for the period of

00:11:25.420 time before I started working at the back porch, God closed a lot of doors that I thought made sense.

00:11:32.180 And I gave Him permission to do that. You know, I said, I just, I want to do whatever you want me to

00:11:35.740 do. So, take me there. So, He closed some doors. And then, when a place opened up to work here at the

00:11:43.140 back porch, I was ready and primed to do that. And as soon as I heard about what they were doing

00:11:48.420 and what I could be involved with, it was, it was a very clear, just a very clear picture that this

00:11:54.240 is something that is meaningful, something that is valuable and something that I was at least going

00:12:00.240 to try. And then, I think that was affirmed in the success that we've had that, okay, this is where I

00:12:06.620 should be. Beautiful. Beautiful. Where can people get in touch with you and support the work that

00:12:14.640 you're doing? Oh, well, you can email me directly if you want, executive director at allies.ca.

00:12:21.960 That's allies with one L, A-L-I-E-S. You can find out more about what allies does generally at 0.99

00:12:27.180 allies.ca, A-L-I-E-S, or thebackporch.info. Beautiful. Anything else you'd like to convey as a

00:12:35.680 close? Oh, just to let people know that part of the reason that we're trying to get more

00:12:41.420 information out there is that we are hoping to expand. So not just being in Edmonton here across

00:12:46.940 from the clinic, but our hope is to open up a similar ministry right next door to the Kensington

00:12:52.000 Clinic in Calgary as well. Beautiful. Canada is hard territory to work in. We, of course, have laws

00:13:00.040 that don't protect life at all here, actually on either side of the spectrum of life. So it's great

00:13:07.340 and heroic work that you're doing. Thank you. Yeah, thank you so much for having me. God bless you,

00:13:13.460 Gabrielle. You too. And God bless all of you. We'll see you next time.

00:13:18.300 God bless you, Gabrielle. You too.

The John-Henry Westen Show - July 08, 2022

Pro-life leader finds creative way around Canada's 'bubble zone' laws to help save the unborn

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