Pro-life activist Linda Gibbons counts on Christ鱿鱼视频app strength
OTTAWA - Pro-life activist and Queen鱿鱼视频app Diamond Jubilee Medalist Linda Gibbons is back in prison, certain she is doing God鱿鱼视频app work for praying outside an abortion facility.
Police moved in and arrested her Oct. 30 after the 64-year-old great-grandmother prayed outside of the Morgentaler abortuary on Hillsdale Avenue in Toronto, breaking a temporary injunction prohibiting demonstrators from coming too close to the facility and impeding its business.
Gibbons carried her usual sign depicting a picture of an infant and the words: 鈥淲hy Mom? When I have so much to give.鈥� Police moved in after about an hour and a half and arrested Gibbons.
鈥淲e will remain free in our love, we will not be coerced by the government to turn our backs on the unborn child,鈥� Gibbons told CCN in an exclusive phone interview from Toronto days before her latest arrest. 鈥淚f that lands us in court, that鱿鱼视频app a gift, another providential opportunity to do the Lord鱿鱼视频app work.
鈥淲hen hoping and praying become a criminal activity, where is our freedom?鈥� she asked.
Gibbons said her fellow inmates often ask her how she can stand the confinement, and being away from her family.
鈥淚 always tell the girls, 鈥極ne day at a time with Jesus.鈥� It is Christ鱿鱼视频app strength that gives you that fortitude to persevere,鈥� she said.
The injunction dates back to 1989 after the former Morgentaler clinic on Harbord Street was firebombed.
Morgentaler built a bigger and more secure facility at the Hillsdale Avenue location that is covered by the temporary injunction creating a bubble zone around it.
Gibbons recalled the first time she was arrested. She and some fellow pro-lifers were in the alley behind the facility praying in a circle. They were not blocking the entrance or talking to people or doing anything that might impede Morgentaler鱿鱼视频app business operation, she said.
She knew she would lose her job at military headquarters if she was arrested. But the words of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane came to her: 鈥淐an you not pray with me for one hour?鈥� She realized her job 鈥渋s something I must lay down.鈥�
鈥淎nything I put before Christ is not where I should be at the moment,鈥� she said. 鈥淒oing the will of Christ is my first duty and the duty of the moment.鈥�
In between arrests Gibbons used to try to get a job so as to maintain her apartment, but she realized hanging onto her home or an income was unrealistic.
鈥淔or 20 years, I have had no government support; I鈥檓 on no government program,鈥� she said. 鈥淧ro-lifers have are carrying me through.鈥�
A great-grandmother of two, Gibbons does miss her family when she鱿鱼视频app in prison.
鈥淚 see this as a cost of doing business with the government,鈥� she said. 鈥淚鈥檓 trying to leave a legacy for my grandchildren, so they don鈥檛 have to live in a society burdened by abortion.鈥�