In 2023 there were 43 documented cases of babies saved due to the efforts of Pro-Life Action Ministries (PLAM). It is likely that many more were saved, however, as PLAM’s standard procedures protect the privacy of women. Only those who step forward to report the decision to cancel their abortion and carry the pregnancy to term are recorded. PLAM is a Minnesota-based pro-life ministry with a presence in Central Florida as well.
The PLAM website offers testimonials by clients and volunteers discussing the effectiveness of sidewalk counseling in changing hearts and minds of women who are scheduled for abortions.
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PLAM Executive Director Brian Gibson points to prayer as the key element to the success of PLAM. Whether it was the closing of the abortion facility in St. Paul’s Regions Hospital or saving a single life by engaging a mother outside Planned Parenthood, prayer is the primary mechanism.
“So, when we pray outside an abortion facility, we come into close proximity where prayer is needed the most,” Gibson wrote in the group’s monthly newsletter. “We have the least power to intervene for the lives of God’s precious little ones and we must rely on God to move hearts and minds as we pray at these places.”
“Additionally, we can hear and see the situations that arise that need directed prayer,” he continued. “Through prayer at abortion facilities we have witnessed and documented many babies’ lives saved and moms and dads spared.”
Volunteers sign up for regular shifts based on their availability and PLAM provides materials for them to distribute as well as training in how to engage individuals in conversations as they are entering abortion facilities.
This front-line work is supported further by the educational and advocacy efforts and the tenacity of the PLAM staff.
PLAM has witnessed Planned Parenthood employees and volunteers leaving the abortion industry and abortionists who have left and received Christ. The healing of many post-abortive women and men has been gratifying for PLAM members to see as individuals have been set free from guilt and shame.
PLAM’s focus on publicly defending the sanctity of human life initiates from a grassroots level to build pressure through peaceful efforts affecting the community all the way up to the state legislature.
Gibson discussed PLAM’s latest efforts with Pregnancy Help News, the discussion beginning with bad news on the legislative front, followed by the big picture good news.
The Minnesota legislature works on a biennium, or two-year cycle, process. The first half of 2023 from January to June the body delivered numerous measures that Gibson calls, “horrible.”
From February until May 2024, the second half of the biennium is taking place, with a short period of time left. Any piece of legislation that was presented in the first part of the biennium is set to go in the second part.
“So were facing some of that right now,” Gibson said, “last year after passing the PRO Act which by law defines abortion as a fundamental right and opened up abortion through all nine months of pregnancy.”
“They added other laws that included safe haven for abortionists so that abortionists would be invited to Minnesota to open up shop,” he explained.
“The PRO-Act made it illegal for communities—cities, counties, towns, townships— to pass ordinances that would prohibit abortion facilities or abortion in their locals,” said Gibson. “So, like the sanctuary city stuff, that made that illegal in Minnesota.”
Gibson went on to explain the 2023 session wrapped up with an omnibus bill that eliminated all pro-life legislation that existed for more than five decades.
“Last year, one of the things that was passed in the state senate was an equal rights amendment for the state constitution,” he said. “This year the work going on now is to complete getting the equal rights amendment together and putting it on the ballot this fall.”
Gibson is concerned that not only are “abortion rights” in the amendment, but lawmakers have also taken out protections for religious freedom.
“It’s even worse than enshrining abortion rights in the constitution,” he told Pregnancy Help News. “It goes to the point where you cannot exclude or be excluded from paying for abortions through health insurance programs and through other means based on religious beliefs as an organization, as a church, as anything.”
“This is a direct attack on religious beliefs,” he said.
Assisted suicide was also introduced last session and now for the first time in the history of Minnesota the legislature is holding committee hearings on this, and Gibson believes it is going to make it to some sort of vote.
“The good news is we’re still saving babies on the sidewalks in front of abortion facilities,” Gibson noted. “The pregnancy help centers have not been deterred from the good work they are doing.”
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Gibson is encouraged to see many of the pregnancy help centers have switched to a medical model where ultrasounds are offered.
“New centers have opened,” Gibson said. “For example, in Marshall, Minn., which is a college town, an amazing new center was opened with a registered nurse on staff and a medical doctor who is their oversight.”
“Despite the fact that those who wish to do evil and harm, continue to do what they’re doing, the good that pro-life people, that Christians are doing continues and we continue unabated,” he said.
PLAM is in front of all the abortion facilities in the state of Minnesota and a couple of facilities in Orlando, Fla.
In North Dakota, an abortion facility was moved to Morehead, Minn., right after the Dobbs decision was handed down. PLAM responded with trained sidewalk counselors ready to offer hope and concrete help for women scheduled for abortion appointments.
“When we talk about 43 babies saved, these are documented,” Gibson noted. “These are ones we know for certain decided not to have abortions and went forward with having their children.”
“We have this amazing relationship with pregnancy help centers so when a woman decides to not go through with an abortion, there’s a pregnancy center nearby and often times our volunteers are walking them right over to the pregnancy help center so they get the ongoing help and care that they need,” he said.
Gibson refers to his state as the “abortion island of the upper mid-west.” Case-in-point; a mother and daughter from Wisconsin had driven 140 miles to a Planned Parenthood where PLAM volunteers were ministering in the driveway that led into the abortion center parking lot.
“They took the literature from the sidewalk counselor in the driveway,” said Gibson. “Because there wasn’t an escort from the abortion clinic that day, the sidewalk counselor was able to start engaging in a bit of a conversation which is always the idea, to get into a conversation.”
“Our sidewalk counselor talked about all the help that is available,” he said. “There is a pregnancy help center a half-a-block from the Planned Parenthood location and so she told them about that.”
The mother and daughter remained in their car for a time, and then came back out and talked to the PLAM sidewalk counselor again. The counselor was on the passenger side where the daughter was sitting with tears streaming down her face.
The mom didn’t want her daughter to have an abortion in the first place, even though she’d driven her out of state to have it. While the girl had tears flowing down her face, she had a smile at the same time, as she told the sidewalk counselor she’s not going to have the abortion, she’s going back home.
Before leaving, the women asked for more information about the pregnancy help center and ended up going back to Wisconsin and getting help from a pregnancy center there.
A PLAM sidewalk counselor named Julie wrote of engaging a mom which resulted in saving her baby from abortion in a report for the pro-life group.
“I believe the Lord prepared her heart with our prayers and then she received the words that the Holy Spirit put in my mouth,” Julie said. “She saw the love of Christ with compassion as she reached for my hand for comfort.”
PLAM staff and volunteers continue to see clearly how they are in a spiritual battle and victory will continue to come as they continually work to turn hearts and minds toward Jesus.
