Late last year, LifeSiteNews reported on a woman in London who jumped out the window of an abortion facility to avoid a forced abortion. New information has come to light that the woman, a 26-year-old Albanian named Veronica, had been sexually trafficked, and pro-life sidewalk counselors helped her flee from her captor.
In early November, pro-life advocates with the UK's Good Counsel Network were taking part in a 40 Days for Life vigil when the young woman said she was being forced to abort by the people who accompanied her. She asked for their prayers as her companions led her inside the facility.
She came back out and again told the pro-life counselors she opposed abortion and had been forced to come to the facility, but the people who brought her to the office followed her outside and began threatening the counselors, according to the Network.
Veronica then began calling the Network from inside the facility, and the Network phoned the police.
“When our counselor called the police, her companions were distracted by having to answer their questions, and it gave [the woman] a chance to escape,” the counselors wrote. “While the police were inside the abortion center, the woman leaped out of the ground floor window and cleared three fences to escape! She later contacted our center where she received some support and help.”
The young woman found a bed at the Salvation Army, where volunteers suggested that she contact Street Talk, an outreach to prostitutes and “sex workers” by psychotherapist Pippa Hockton.
“When I came to Street Talk a year ago, I was suicidal and I didn’t want to talk about my life with anybody,” Veronica told the London Evening Standard. “My Street Talk counselor, Francesca, was so friendly and patient and helped me open up, and my support worker, Charlotte, helped me get leave to remain in the UK, which just came through. So, now I can legally stay!”
Hockton established Street Talk in 2006 to care for the mental needs of prostitutes in the British cities of Lambeth and Camden. She and eight therapists have counseled 300 women, and 100 women have left prostitution altogether.
Dr. Hockton called her clientele “the most desperately vulnerable women in London. Every one of them had been victims of child sex abuse, drug addiction, and in many cases undiagnosed mental illness.”
“They are haunted by flashbacks of being abused as children and by the deep-rooted shame of what they’ve become, so they self-medicate with drugs which only makes them feel they deserve more abuse,” she added.
Hockton said her team succeeds because, unlike the men who exploit them for sex or money, “We treat them as human beings. If we can make these women feel they deserve better, they will find the motivation to change.”
Click “like” if you are PRO-LIFE!
Sometimes, having a child helps the women change their minds, as well. One drug-addicted prostitute, “Maria,” gave birth and immediately had her baby taken away from her.
“I want to be alive for my son when he comes looking for me at 18,” Maria told Hockton. “Can you help?” Within a week, she had changed her timeline. “I want to clean up and fight to get him back now,” she decided.
Hockton says today, by all appearances, Maria is a “successful African woman,” who got off drugs, found a mainstream job, and is a happy mother.