ARTICLES

She Felt God Had Sent Us as Angels

The Florence Nightingale of the San Francisco Pro-life Movement

By Fred Martinez

George Carter, a white haired Irishman, on Friday mornings usually stands outside the white pillared doorway of the nondescript three-story building that houses the Choice Medical Group at 1700 Pierce Street in San Francisco. Choice Medical does abortions up to twenty-four weeks. Carter or other members of his group, United for Life, come to Choice Medical to protect and support a woman who has saved more unborn babies from abortion than any other sidewalk counselor in San Francisco.

"The first time I met Nora Dougherty, I was most impressed by the calmness and the non-threatening manner in which she approached these young ladies," said Carter. "The first image that popped into my mind was of a very reassuring, comforting nurse. Quite often, I think of Nora as the Florence Nightingale of the pro-life movement in San Francisco and the Bay Area."

Dougherty, a Catholic, credits her success to waking up at 6:30 a.m. to spend an hour in prayer and quiet time to prepare for the pro-life sidewalk counseling. She said, "I pray for mercy to protect us out there as well as to give me the right words to say to the young women." After prayer, Dougherty usually drives out to meet one or two members of United for Life in front of the abortion clinic. They use a few signs that aren't gory or graphic but which show the development of the baby in the womb at different weeks.

It is a long walk carrying the signs to abortion clinic. Dougherty parks her car three blocks away because she fears that pro-abortionists might damage it. Pro-aborts have spit on the signs; they have verbally and physically threatened the sidewalk counselors in front of the Choice Medical Group.

In mid-July of 2002, a man drove up in an old truck. He jumped out cursing and began "pushing around" Dougherty and another sidewalk counselor. A week later, the man returned, but this time George Carter, who is "reasonably bulky," was there. The man "jumped out again and he rushed across," said Carter. "Joe Angelesco [another sidewalk counselor] and I were standing there and the man was in the gutter. He was about five feet two. When you're that small you don't stand in the gutter below the level of someone who is six feet high. So he started doing his old shtick again. I kind of looked at him and kidded around that I was going to take my wristwatch off. He jumped in his truck and drove away."

That day, the counselors had decided to leave at twelve noon, but they changed their minds because they didn't want the man in the truck to think he had intimidated them. So they waited, and right after the man left, a baby was saved. "This couple pulled up," Dougherty said. "They were discussing going in and having an abortion. She came over to me, so I handed her some literature. She said she had been praying about it for weeks. She said she felt that God had sent us as angels and if we weren't there she said she definitely would have had the abortion. But this was God's answer, the fact that we were out there. And we were only out there in the afternoon because this guy had harassed us."

Dougherty is hoping the man returns so she can tell him the story of how he helped save an unborn baby. Both Dougherty and Carter said this is only one example of God's providence in their pro-life work.

Dougherty got involved in pro-life work twenty years ago in Las Vegas, Nevada. Outside the local abortion clinic, she introduced herself to pro-life sidewalk counselors, who asked her to join them. Her first time sidewalk-counseling, she said, she was able to save babies "right away."

"The first success was a couple I really didn't want to talk to because they were a little bit scary; I thought they looked rough, but I talked to them, and I actually changed their minds," Dougherty said. "So if the Lord tells you to talk to someone, don't have any fear."

After fifteen years of pro-life work in Nevada, Dougherty moved to San Francisco and started going out sidewalk counseling by herself. Finally, she got in touch with Bea Smalley of United for Life and went out with them on Saturdays. (The Northern California United for Life is primarily an educational group, formed in the early 1970s. The group has a free monthly newsletter -- circulation about 500 -- puts up pro-life billboards, distributes pro-life pamphlets and sends youths to national pro-life activities. Bea Smalley said about 500 or so people support United for Life's educational work.) When Dougherty could no longer make the Saturday sidewalk counseling sessions, she started her Friday morning outings at the Choice Medical Group, where she came to be known as the best sidewalk counselor in San Francisco.

Although Dougherty isn't a member of United for Life, members like George Carter join her in her Friday work. Smalley said that although many members of United for Life sidewalk counsel in front of the Choice Medical Group and other abortion clinics, they do so as individuals not as members of the organization.

"Dougherty is the most effective sidewalk counselor I have known," said Smalley. "I attribute this to her combination of prayer, creativity, and non-threatening approach. She is the embodiment of John Paul II's challenge: 'be not afraid. Stand up for life.'"

TOP