On July 16, Thomas More Society appealed on behalf of Coalition Life to the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the Court to overturn Hill v. Colorado and burst anti-speech bubble zones nationwide. This is the first part of our new photojournalism series sharing sidewalk counselors' stories from the front lines in the battle for life.‍‍‍

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“When my kids were younger, they were homeschooled, and I was looking for a way to work from home. With all the abortion news that was coming out the past four years, I thought, ‘Man, if there’s something I could do, you know, at home, work from home would be great.’”

“Long story short, I put in the right Google search one day and Coalition Carbondale came up. I did not realize that Coalition [Life] was out doing things at Choices [Note: ‘Choices’ is one of three abortion businesses in Carbondale].”

“I’ve been living in Carbondale for about 25 years. I started volunteering with Coalition in April 2023 and got hired on as an employee in August 2023.”

“My first turnaround was a huge highlight. A lady that very briefly spoke to me... When she came back, she was crying and said she had changed her mind. She kept saying ‘I'm too old for this.’ Turns out, we’re the exact same age. She invited me to talk to her and we had a very long conversation.”

“Because of her age, she had this assumption and was told by her doctor that the older you get when you’re pregnant, [the] higher chance of Down syndrome or something wrong with your child. But she didn't know it for sure.

“At one point, I said, ‘Well, you know, there’s adoption.” She looked at me with a look I’ll never forget... A sort of confused light bulb went off. And she goes, ‘You really think that someone would want to adopt my child if it had problems?’ I said, ‘Of course! There’s plenty of people that would.’”

“We cried together. We hugged. We prayed.”

“What makes the biggest difference is having that human connection. We're not out here just holding signs, you know, damning them to hell. We want to speak truth in kindness and with empathy.”

“When we are restricted with that ‘bubble zone,’ we’re not always able to make those connections. Once they pass by us in this driveway, that’s all we have—we don’t have the option to walk up closer to them. We don’t have the option to go up and give them a hug. We don’t have the option to get up close to them and present them with the information that could potentially save their baby's life."

“I understand why a bubble zone for the pro-choice people is helpful. It’s very obvious what they’re trying to do... Because of the bubble zone we have a limit on what we can and cannot do. And once you make that connection with people, you can really get to the heart of why they’re here. It can be a beautiful experience.”

“[They’re] preventing our opportunity to show them all of their options and all of their choices, because they don’t really want them to have a choice—they want to give them one choice.”

“There are plenty of women that come in here with very serious situations that are very difficult. But the choice to end the life of your child is not going to solve your problems. Let us walk alongside you, let us help you.”

“It just struck me that the beliefs that these [women] come into this clinic with are so unfortunate. The lies that they believe... That if her child turned out to have Down syndrome no one would ever want to take care of that baby, no one would want to deal with that child. And it’s the complete opposite. We do.”

“We’re the last line of defense for these women before they go into this clinic... You’re the last person that is going to be able to say to them, ‘Stop, no, turn around. This is dangerous for you. It’s dangerous for your child.’ And there needs to be more people out here.”

“I’m privileged to be able to do this. I’m very grateful that there’s people out here. You have to put your beliefs into practice. We are told, ‘You’re the hands and feet of Christ.’ Well, here you go, here’s an opportunity for you to come out to pray, to speak, to hold a sign, to do what you can.”

“Ultimately, it’s God that does the work, He gets the glory for it. We recognize that the more we can get up close and personal with people, the better it’s going to be overall.”

“It’s a human-to-human thing, right?”

Meghann Buehner
Coalition Life Sidewalk Counselor
Carbondale, Illinois

To learn more about Thomas More Society's fight to end bubble zones and defend Coalition Life sidewalk counselors' rights, click here to read more.