ARTICLES

I Get Scared Too

Veteran Pro-Lifer Counters Planned Parenthood in the Schools

By Robert Kumpel

One thing pro-lifers and pro-aborts agree about is that the outcome of the battle over abortion depends on influencing young people. Planned Parenthood has dominated the classroom effort to "educate" young students, but one woman from California's farm country has had considerable success countering Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion opinion-makers by employing a method so obvious that most pro-lifers never consider it.

Carla Lorenzo (she asked us not to use her real name) began protesting abortion and handing out pro-life literature almost immediately after 1973's Roe v. Wade decision. She has experience in classroom outreach -- an outreach whose opportunities have dramatically decreased -- but has concluded that meeting kids on the street is far more effective. She shares her wisdom with pro-lifers at her website, www.voicefortheunborn.com.

Now in her 70s, Lorenzo prefers her anonymity and is reluctant to grant interviews, believing she is more effective as an "unknown." A resident of a town in the northern San Joaquin Valley, she reaches out to students all over north-central California and the Bay Area. "I did some big picketing in San Francisco and coordinated a lot of protests," said Lorenzo. "I was there when Operation Rescue started up. I finally came to the conclusion that you' ve got to get to the kids. The most satisfying work was at schools, reaching the young kids. They're not being told anything about abortion, why it's wrong or anything else.

"I started out in the classrooms, but now I just go out in the street," said Lorenzo. "In 15 minutes I can reach more kids than it took me all year to reach in the classroom. In the classroom, you're limited to maybe 30 kids. They also tend to resist the message when you are officially teaching them in a classroom. It's nothing compared to what you can do on the sidewalks. You can get the whole school when you do this! The kids talk about it and pass it around. I've never lost my enthusiasm for this, and I've been doing it for over 20 years."

Lorenzo hands out pro-life literature to high school, college, and some middle school students. Instead of becoming a martyr for the cause, her strategy is to take the path of least resistance -- which means keeping school administrators and police out of the loop. Most people are surprised to learn that, as long as they stay off of school property, such tactics are perfectly legal. "We found out that it's our legal right to go out on the sidewalk," said Lorenzo. "You can actually go on the campus, but I went to a lawyer and he told us not to go on campus because they can give you a lot of trouble. He was right, and I've seen it happen. It's very foolish, because you've got to fight people trying to stop you. There's no point in making them unnecessarily angry."

Typically, Lorenzo will hand out pamphlets after school and place them on the windshields of cars (most of which are students') parked on the streets around the school. Her first experience, at a high school in Fremont, was instructive. "The first time I tried it, I did it before school, and there was such a commotion within the school," related Lorenzo. "They could see us standing there, and we were there for quite a while. We really had a hard time. The kids go to class talking about it, and some are late. The teachers get really irate, especially when [the students] take the literature into the classroom. It's better to catch them going home. I realized right away that going before school was a bad idea, and I've never done it since.

"Now I go after school, but also on lunch breaks, which is a wonderful time. The kids are standing around, bored, with all kinds of extra time. What's beautiful about our work is that it opens the door to the Gospel. I get to talk about God, and you can't do that in class. When you [start to] talk about Jesus on the street, people ignore you; but when you talk about abortion, they don't ignore you. Abortion is a hot issue."

The Voice for the Unborn website has lengthy explanations about why some methods of fighting abortion are ineffective. One section's titles include: "Why Picketing Abortion Clinics Is Not Enough," and "Why Speaking In Classrooms Is Not Enough." One method Lorenzo shies away from is using the graphic photos. "I want to go back and I don't want them to go after me when I come back," said Lorenzo. "They can call the police on you. You see, the less trouble that is happening, the better it is for you. We're not there for any other reason than to talk to the kids. I just bring my tote-bag full of literature."

The focus on talking to kids is outlined on the web page in a section titled, "We Must Not Lose The Battle of Education." Lorenzo is aware that these young people will soon be voters and perhaps hold future positions of political and institutional power. "Sometimes I get into these really deep conversations with kids, particularly if they're standing in a park or at lunch," said Lorenzo. "Often they'll approach me to talk about it. You can see them get enlightened when you're talking to them. They respect you because they realize you're a target and they admire what you're doing."

While Lorenzo tries to avoid legal conflicts and upsetting the police, the road is not always smooth. She remembers a particular incident at a Turlock high school in December 2000 that still bothers her. "I'd been to this high school before, and I was distributing literature on parked cars," related Lorenzo. "There was this new police officer, a real eager-beaver type, who came over and started harassing me. I asked him if he supported abortion, and he exploded at me. Evidently, he had an abortion problem, being that zealous. Pretty soon, a meek little man and a security guard were sitting and watching me. The officer told me I was blocking the sidewalk, which is against the law, but he was making it up. He said to the security guard, 'she's blocking the sidewalk, isn't she?' and the guard agreed, lying. They were making a case against me for doing something illegal when I wasn't. [The officer] called in a female police officer, who reiterated everything he was accusing me of. I presented them with information about my right to distribute literature, and they ignored it. Eventually, they gave me a ticket; I never realized that a ticket could cause you so many problems. It was the first ticket I ever got!"

Lorenzo then was taken to the police station. "The same police woman came out, and I accused her of lying, which she denied," said Lorenzo. "So I hired a lawyer. He told me what to do at my hearing, but he said that if there was more trouble after the hearing, he would come in and represent me. My attorney also contacted the city attorney, who, in turn, contacted the chief of police, asking him why they chose to bother me when I was just exercising my right of free speech. Well, he was as bad as the other cops."

Lorenzo said that "it all worked out, because the Lord was with me. When I walked into the hearing, the case was dropped. I told them that if they dropped it, I would not sue them. I did everything to protect myself. If I had it to do all over again, I would have just left [the school]. When it gets too hot, they can cause trouble for you. It ruined Christmas for me."

Lorenzo doesn't fear arrest or the police. She just doesn't see any point in wasting her time and money on legal hassles when she can take her case directly to the kids. "I challenge the police all the time and usually they back down," she said. "I'll tell them that I can sue them personally as well as the police department for violating my right of free speech. But I'm also very cautious, and I try to use discretion. You don't want to cause trouble, but you also don't want to run like a rabbit when trouble comes. I've done this for many years and have almost never got into any trouble. There's an instinctive feeling when it's getting too hot. I'm not interested in anything but these kids. I want to meet them and change minds."

Lorenzo is convinced that her efforts are fruitful. "I just got a letter from a girl in Fremont," she related. "Another woman was distributing the literature, and she told the girl, 'all I'm trying to do is save lives.' The girl was a smart-aleck, challenging Lorenzo, but the girl's friend stood up to her and said, 'these are babies, Monica.' For some reason, those comments stayed in this girl's mind. As she grew a little older, those two comments made a big impact on her, and now she's pro-life. She wrote me to tell me that she changed her mind because of that one experience. I experience so many things with all the schools I go to.

"I got a telephone call recently from a girl named Veronica," continued Lorenzo. "Before she moved to Washington, she received a booklet from me called, 'Diary Of An Unborn Child,' and that impacted her life. It was a Knights of Columbus publication that told the day-to-day thoughts of a baby in the womb. It ends abruptly with, 'today my mother killed me.' It does touch people's hearts."

But she has found some of her biggest resistance from Catholic educators. "There is a difference in their response than from public schools, and, unfortunately, it's worse," said Lorenzo. "I was at the high school in San Francisco right by the cathedral and here was this nun, dressed in her habit, on fire with anger toward us. She had flashing blue eyes. I remember she stormed out of the school, came out, and took the literature out of the kids' hands. We finally had to get away from her -- she was too much for us. As soon as we'd distribute it, she'd grab it away. I asked her, 'you're not a member of Catholics For A Free Choice are you?' She glared at me. I got a telephone call later from one of the priests in the area who knew about the school, and he told me that one of the first things she did when she took over the school was remove the Birthright ad from the student newspaper. She was definitely pro-abortion."

Catholic schools have not been the only obstacle Lorenzo has faced. "In Oakland, we picketed the Catholic Voice newspaper because of their bad articles on abortion." According to Lorenzo, the subject of abortion was constantly being thrown in with other subjects like capital punishment and war, and when it was mentioned at all, the tactic of talking about all phases of human life -- the handicapped, elderly, etc. -- was used to further water down the abortion issue. In early September 1975, a particularly bad article appeared in which two sides were presented on the question of fetal experimentation. A final remark favored fetal experimentation on the grounds that the living aborted human fetus had no longer the potentiality of becoming a person." During the picketing, "the bishop, Floyd Begin could see us from his office, and we picketed there for a couple of months. Finally, one day he called me upstairs. I thought, 'how often does anybody get an audience with their bishop?' I brought my sign up with me and I talked with him for a full hour. And this man was, I'm sorry to say, spineless. He tried to argue with me, and he ended up agreeing with me. I asked him why he was tolerating such bad stuff in the paper. I said, 'aren't you the publisher of this paper?' All he could say was, 'my hands are tied.' But he told me he liked my signs. It was a bizarre experience."

Lorenzo's list of do's and don'ts is short and simple. Do meet the kids. Do talk to them fearlessly. Do give them pro-life literature and speak from your heart. Create the feeling that you can go back again. Don't trespass. Don't make waves with authorities. Don't get arrested. Don't waste your time sitting in an office. "I just got a letter from a woman in Kentucky. She used to try to address kids in the classroom, but the chances dried up, and the successes were few. She's going to start the sidewalk apostolate this September. I encourage people to take some action, but not everybody can do what I do. They're just too afraid. I get scared too, but it's so rewarding to realize that I'm reaching these kids."

Lorenzo dismisses protesters with bloody signs as "foolish," yet she also says that the signs can be effective when used right. "Everybody's going to come after you and try to stop what you're doing," she said. "I don't downplay anything in the pro-life movement that saves lives. If you're moving [referring to the Center for Bioethical Reform's trucks with pictures] they can't come after you! That's a good way to do it, and I agree with that. But don't stand still with them. A woman who was just on the news had a big collection of pictures, and the pro-aborts tore them all up. When we were in Berkeley, distributing literature at the Sather gate on campus, they'd steal the pictures. We had a big banner and they set it on fire. They made off with all of our color pictures from a display when we turned around and weren't looking. When we looked again, they were all gone."

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