By Kelly Johnson, North Louisiana Director

Too often the pro-life movement limits itself to “preaching to the choir,” sharing the message with those who are already actively defending life. We need to take our message of love and truth to all people to save lives and change hearts and minds. That is what we are doing right now at the Louisiana State Fair!

For the first time ever, Louisiana Right to Life is hosting an information booth at the State Fair of Louisiana in Shreveport, and the results have been extraordinary! The fair, which is being held in Shreveport from Oct. 25-Nov. 11, 2018, is attracting tens of thousands of visitors from all over the state and region, and a good percentage of those attending are taking the time to stroll through the exhibition area. This year, visitors are being greeted for the first time with information celebrating the beauty of life.

Scores of volunteers are assisting us in staffing the booth, in three-hour shifts, for 11-12 hours each day. Our multimedia exhibit attracts a crowd and gives us a great opportunity to engage people in a friendly conversation about the dignity and value of every single human life. We also offer a large variety of resources, popular pro-life publications and unique souvenirs. In fact, an neighboring exhibitor, who travels to many different state fairs, shared with us that it was “the best pro-life fair exhibit” they had ever seen!

Among the most effective outreach tools we have is the life like 3-inch model of an unborn baby at 12 weeks. As we give them a model to hold and keep, virtually everyone reacts with a sense of awe about the development of the unborn baby. The most common response we hear is “I had no idea!” At this moment of realization and education, almost every person is then anxious to add their name and contact information to our petition to the Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court to protect life. In the first four days we received more than 700 petition signatures and distributed hundreds of the baby models.  Many visitors leave our booth with a new or renewed commitment to our cause, and many have shared their own inspiring stories, from abortion survival to the blessings of adoption.

One of our volunteers shared this with us after her shifts: “It was an incredible weekend at the Right to Life table at the State Fair! People were extremely responsive, and many had their eyes opened to the reality of abortion. I talked to so many teenagers, and they were overwhelmingly pro-life! I also met a wonderful grandmother and grandfather who are raising their 7-year-old grandson who is an abortion survivor! His mother tried to abort him at 23 weeks, but God had other plans!”

Thanks to our courageous volunteers to stepping up and representing the pro-life cause! The outreach could not succeed without them.

And the booth has reached people of all ages and backgrounds, from little children marveling at the baby models, to teenagers discussing the reality of abortion and following us on social media, to adults committing to taking more action for life. The booth’s success has surpassed our expectations so far!

We look forward to finishing this outreach strong in November and hope to continue this strategic outreach in the years ahead and involve many more in the effort. If you want to volunteer to assist us this year or next year, please email me at kelly@prolifelouisiana.org, and I will add you to our 2019 volunteer list.