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By Brian Jenkins (Quebec Life Coalition) - Picture: L'Odyssée de la Vie/YouTube

Sunday morning, I arrived at the vigil location, my prayer partner Denis awaiting my arrival. We chatted and after making a few prayer intentions began a rosary.

Despite being a Sunday morning, the vigil location, the intersection of Berri and St. Catherine Streets, was not deserted. One group that is drawn to this spot are the rideshare travellers, men and woman who come here to meet drivers that will take them to Ottawa, Quebec City and elsewhere.

Today, one traveller caught my attention. A petite young woman, about twenty-five years old, arrived shortly after I did travel bags in hand. Alone, I was surprised how close she stood or walked around Denis and me. She moved around, at times in front of Denis and I, at other moments, behind us, always maintaining a close distance to us.

No eye contact had yet been made between the young lady and me, not until standing some fifteen feet away, she gestured impolitely with her hand towards me. I took this as a sign of an openness to exchange.

“What do you think about abortion?” I asked. So began an exchange lasting until her driver arrived and she got in and left.

She answered that she had had two abortions and does not regret it, that these were only “clumps of cells.”

I generally use two approaches when speaking about abortion – apologetics and heart apologetics. The latter is used when the first, reasoned arguments, are not accepted by the interlocutor. For instance, if the person denies the humanity of the unborn, even after I have pointed out that if the sperm is from a man and the fertilized egg is from a woman, and that it follows that the fertilized egg is of the same species. If a denial occurs, I interpret this to mean that some emotional reason is intervening with their common sense.

At such a time I adopt an empathetic approach, hoping to bring to the surface the obstacle.

In this young woman’s case, she had had two abortions. She did not share the circumstances leading to her decision to abort her children, nor the experience of abortion, and nor again the aftermath, an aftermath she will carry for the rest of her life.

Fortunately, our faith supports me in such encounters, recalling the actions of Jesus his compassion he showed with many during his earthly ministry. We try to model this behaviour.