“They’re expecting to get yelled at that they’re going to hell,” says Baumgartner, who left behind his job as a pilot to create the organization. “We’re here to be different.”
When he started his organization in 2012, the first woman he approached changed her mind, giving birth to a little girl whose picture hangs beside his office desk. It became the first of what the group regards as a “save,” when someone they’ve interacted with who planned to have an abortion changes their mind.
Last year, they estimate about 1,600 women had an abortion at the clinic. They logged 66 saves.
This day, once the woman that exited the clinic went to A Moment of Hope’s idling RV to talk with one of its counselors, she tells of a tough upbringing in foster care, an abusive partner who’s now out of the picture, the struggles of raising a 3-year-old, the problems with money, all the things that seemed impossible even before her period failed to arrive and morning sickness started sapping her will.
And, in the end, she went through with the abortion she came here for.
For those who’ve been immersed in the long fight against abortion, there have been many days like this one, with disappointments and setbacks. But they’ll return when the clinic reopens. They’ll return even if Roe falls. Many expect the fight to continue to their grave.
They’ve never felt more hopeful. A change, they are sure, is coming.
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Sedensky can be reached at msedensky@ap.org and https://twitter.com/sedensky
This article originally appeared here.
