Linda Sanfratello is one of our most loyal sidewalk advocates. Since she was trained over a year ago, Linda is a consistent presence on abortion Saturdays.
Linda’s reason for sidewalk counseling is very personal. Before the infamous Roe v. Wade decision, Linda had two botched abortions.
The child of a military family, Linda moved around the world constantly during her childhood. She rejected her family’s lukewarm Catholic faith, and became pregnant at 16. She had no concept of abortion at the time, so she delivered a healthy baby boy without considering termination.
After moving to Virginia, Linda lived a wild lifestyle with weekly recreational drug use. When she discovered she was pregnant again, Linda visited a healthcare facility for prenatal care. Her blood test revealed her drug use, and the nurse said,
“Your baby will be deformed! You have to have an abortion.”
“A what?’’ Linda asked. This was the first time she had ever heard the word. The clinic set up a saline abortion for her at the local hospital. Since the baby was supposedly “deformed” the abortion was legal under Arizona law for “health” reasons.
The doctor injected saline into Linda’s uterus three times before sending her to wait for her baby to die. After several hours, the doctor realized the fetus was still alive. He reinjected the saline, and Linda went into labor and delivered her dead baby.
She moved to Indiana and became pregnant again. She called the welfare office to alert them she would soon have another dependent. Instead of offering her support, the agent offered to pay for an abortion if Linda could make it to New York.
Linda hitchhiked with a friend to New York and obtained the surgical abortion. A month later, she was back at the hospital for an emergency D&C from an abortion complication. She fell into deep depression and harbored an irrational hatred for men.
But God did not abandon Linda.
Several years later, Linda attended a church baptism. As she emerged from the water she felt “as light as a feather. As if all my sins were washed away.”
Linda attended a sidewalk counseling training at Northside Baptist in Elkhart in 2019. While she was a consistent volunteer, Linda always elected to leave the actual counseling to another advocate. But one Saturday in December, Linda was the only counselor at the clinic.
After months of praying, she finally found her voice. Linda now fearlessly encourages women at the clinic to choose life at the abortion facility.