Every summer, I’m reminded of the old cliche “seeing is believing” when I help with our fair/festival outreach.

Volunteers at People for Life of Erie’s pro-life booth

When it comes to abortion, our society is very good about distancing itself from the reality of what abortion is: the killing of a baby in the womb. Society talks about women, pregnancy, health care, poverty, politics – everything but the baby. As our Legislative Director Maria Gallagher puts it, our society has “photoshopped” the baby out of the debate.

And so, we work hard to remind people of what is truly at stake when abortion is legal – the lives of babies in the womb. Every summer, we focus on sharing visual reminders at local fairs and festivals.

We and our 40-plus chapters set up booths at local fairs/festivals and display colorful, family-friendly images and models of preborn babies.

Photo of baby at 6-8 weeks

We encourage people to stop and hold our life-like fetal models of babies at 12, 20, 26, and 30 weeks. When people hold them, they usually are surprised to hear that they look and weigh about what a baby would at that stage of development.

And the reality hits them when we tell them that it’s legal to abort a 30-week preborn baby in some states, and it’s legal to abort a 12-week preborn baby in every state.

Through these simple means, we help people realize that abortion is more than just a political issue or a women’s issue. It first and foremost involves killing an innocent human life.

As a result, every summer, dozens of people come up to us and thank us for what we do.

I’ll never forget last summer when a woman walked by our booth, smiled and said, “Because of you, I have a grandson. Thank you!” Or two summers ago when a young woman shared one of our 12-week fetal models with a friend who was considering abortion, and her friend chose life.

Please consider getting involved in our fair/festival outreach this summer. The Federation and our pro-life chapters will be at dozens of events throughout the summer. For details about volunteering in your community, click here.

You can help people see the truth about abortion and save lives!