The largest pro-life sidewalk advocacy organization is celebrating 12 years of outreach and more than 25,000 lives saved from abortion.
Sidewalk Advocates for Life (SAFL) recently announced that 25,645 moms had been served, and babies saved from abortion as the organization’s celebrates a dozen years of pro-life advocacy.
After launching more than 250 teams of sidewalk advocates across the country and training tens of thousands of others, the organization’s progress is verifiable, and the advocacy has revealed insight into the hearts of those who seek an abortion.
“No matter how much abortion supporters ‘shout their abortion’ and try to convince the world abortion is a good thing, tens of thousands of sidewalk advocates know firsthand that most women do not actually want to abort their preborn babies,” said Lauren Muzyka, founder, president, and CEO of Sidewalk Advocates for Life.
Through the years and especially since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, SAFL has continued to see vast changes in the abortion landscape. With that, they have developed new tools and techniques to meet women where they are regardless of the state law.
For example, in states where abortion has less regulation there is more call for the long established SAFL strategies advocating outside abortion facilities, but in states where abortion is more heavily regulated a different approach is required.
Sidewalk Advocates for Life added the “town square” strategy to its training an approach for advocates in states without abortion facilities, where volunteers can distribute information regarding pro-life resources at public events.
“Our goal is to have Sidewalk Advocates outside every one of the 777 abortion and abortion-referral facilities in the U.S., but we won’t stop there,” Muzyka said. “We will keep going until abortion is not only illegal all across the country—but unthinkable.”
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Elisabeth Beall, director of Communications for Sidewalk Advocates for Life, credited the work of volunteers for the organization’s success over the last 12 years.
“We couldn’t do any of this without their willingness to be out there on the sidewalk,” Beall told Pregnancy Help News. “Their selflessness and their desire to help people—of course they want to save lives but above all else they just want to help people who are in need of help.”
Beall described SAFL’s method as aimed at reaching out to people with the love of Christ. The order followed is to focus on mom, baby, and then God.
“We don’t start with evangelism,” she said. “We start with the woman where she is and try to find out what brought her to this abortion facility.”
In Muzyka’s words, “What these women need is life-affirming resources and support to give them the confidence to make the choice they really want to make: to give life to their children.”
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“Something practical has happened,” Beall said. “Does she have a problem in a relationship? Does she have financial trouble? Did she lose a job? Did her parents kick her out of the house?”
“What is that hands-on cold hard fact that she is wrestling with and how can we help with that?” Beall continued. “From there when she has the reassurance there are resources that can help her. We are people who will walk with her. Then we can move into those other areas—the life growing within her, God’s love for her and that baby.”
Sidewalk Advocates for Life also demonstrates Christ’s love to abortion workers as well. This has resulted in more than 100 abortion workers leaving the industry due to the group’s advocates who shared information about transitioning into more life-affirming work.
Beall shared the most recent example of a security guard who worked at an abortion facility who the SAFL volunteer connected with And Then There Were None abortion worker ministry, which is helping him to secure work and tap into other resources to help him and his family.
The man and his wife went to dinner with the some of the SAFL volunteers to, “celebrate his departure from the industry,” Beall said. He had hated working for an abortion facility but was doing the job out of desperation to support his family.
The way in which SAFL trained volunteers pointed him toward resources follows the same pattern of help offered to women seeking abortions, showing unconditional love, listening to understand the need, and then meeting needs with resources.
It all starts with being there, being prayerful, and using a loving, professional approach toward individuals and being willing to be used by God, Beall told Pregnancy Help News.
Lives saved can also be calculated through the number of abortion facilities that have permanently closed where Sidewalk Advocates for Life has been present; 72.
“God makes it all happen,” Beall said.
“I cannot tell you how many times a woman has said to the sidewalk advocate, ‘I was praying for a sign that I shouldn’t do this, and you are that sign,’ said Beall. “Or the woman approached the sidewalk advocate to tell them, ‘You are the sign from God.’”
Training and development are ongoing for Sidewalk Advocates for Life. The library of available handouts is ever expanding so that sidewalk advocates can address a wider scope of issues with women they encounter.
“We’re always trying to come up with new ways for advocates to present themselves on the sidewalk,” Beall explained. “A-frame signs, handheld signs. We have best practices handouts to guide advocates.”
Sidewalk Advocates for Life has developed multiple strategies for navigating the challenges sidewalk Advocates may encounter. An online advocates training is currently in development.
Beall commented that some of the SAFL teams are very adept at digital outreach. Doing things like airdrops, sending everyone in the area information about the local pregnancy center.
Beall noted that they remind their advocates, “You take your training with you wherever you go. You could be on public transportation, at work, at school, at church, for a walk in your neighborhood and encounter a woman who needs a sidewalk advocate.”
Some advocates will utilize their training online as they encounter opportunities on social media or in connecting with loved ones and friends.
The anniversary celebration is ongoing as Beall highlighted the upcoming Sidewalk Advocates for Life conference in Dallas in October, with workshops, speakers, and a 12-year anniversary gala.
