An interview

Walking 'the mill' with Pro-life
activist Phil Huck

By James Horsley

As part of LIFE Coalition's effort to inform the public-as well as those seeking termination of their pregnancy-about the tragedy of the choice of abortion, we recognize those pro-life individuals who provide a legal and peaceful educational presence at the Red River Women's Clinic.

Phil Huck and his wife Dorothy of Moorhead are definitely pro-life. They have been married 55 years and have 12 children (7 girls and 5 boys), 42 grandchildren and 20 great grandchildren, for a total progeny of 74.

Phil Huck and his wife Dorothy

And progeny

Huck is also a pro-life activist, who has been walking out in front of the Red River Women's clinic since it opened in the 1980s. His presence is in protest of the abortions being performed there. He calls it "walking the mill," with "mill" being short for "abortion mill." He walks there with others as a vigil, together numbering from a couple of persons to a dozen. They are usually there on Thursdays and Fridays, the days abortions are performed.

"They perform about 25 abortions a week there," he said. "It is North Dakota's only abortion clinic. You can usually tell who the women are that are coming there for an abortion. They arrive early in the morning wearing sweat pants and often have dark glasses on. If they are not wearing dark glasses, I try to look into their eyes. If I see fear in their eyes, I know I might have a chance of talking them out of the abortion. I often stand by the front door of the clinic, and before they open the door, I try to engage them in a conversation."

Red River Women's Clinic

He said that he had no set method. "Nothing is usually the same. It is usually different each time. We let the spirit guide us," he said. "Sometimes I offer them literature. Sometimes I read a certain passage. Usually, I will mention to the person to make sure that she sees the ultra-sound picture of her child prior to the abortion and I mention that a person is a person no matter how small. I carry in my pocket a picture of a fetus that is 10 weeks old and I say that this is what her child looks like that is now inside of her. Usually this will surprise them, and they will say, 'Really, I didn't know that,' and we start to talk some more." The clinic originally did not take ultra-sound pictures.

"Prior to offering ultra-sound at the clinic, we used to recommend that before they have an abortion that they go to First Choice, a pro-life organization several blocks from here, and have an ultra-sound of the child," he said.

Apparently, enough people changed their mind at First Choice after seeing the photo of the fetus, showing its hands, head and body, that the abortion clinic installed its own ultra-sound photo equipment on their premises.

"They charge $50 for an ultra-sound photo," he said.

Child or choice?
Huck mentioned that he often carries a sign that says, "Is this a child, or a choice?"

"I will say to the woman about to enter, 'What do you think? Do you believe in a woman's right to choose?' and they will usually say, 'Of course I do.' And then I will say, 'What about the little woman inside of you, does she have that right?' This starts them to thinking. And then I say, 'tell me something, what do you think your answer would be 17 years from now when you are in a discussion with your other teenage children--because you will probably have more children--and the subject comes up about abortion. What if one of your kids say, 'Mom, you wouldn't, of course, have an abortion, would you?' How will you answer?'"

"Sometimes they will say, 'I never thought of that,'" Sometimes they will start to cry. Sometimes they will turn around. And, tragically, all to often, they stare ahead and march up the stairs to the clinic's operating room. He said that he often walked the foot-high wall at the back of the clinic in the parking lot of the Gibb Building, formerly the Vogel Law Firm. He said the back of the clinic is fenced off so that nobody can walk into the back door. Once in a while, a clinic staff member will come out of the back door and throw material in the dumpster there. He said that to do so, the person used a key to gain access.

Dumpster vigil
One of the reason he walked in back of the clinic is because he suspected that the dumpster located there was being used for the disposal of fetal tissue. However, upon further investigation, that is probably not the case. According to the North Dakota Department of Health, such disposal by the clinic is off-site and out-of-state.

Huck said that once he was walking the wall and then had to run an errand to the hospital. When he came back several hours later, he was informed by members of the vigil in front of the clinic that someone from the abortion clinic had called the police to complain that he was walking on their property. He said that one of the members of the vigil told the police that the wall belongs to the law firm, not to the clinic. They came back three more times that day, the last time shortly before Huck returned to the site. Huck continued to walk the wall, but the police, since then, have never come back. He said that whoever was making the complaint was "simply trying to intimidate me. I walk the wall to show them they can not intimidate me.

Occasionally, pro-choice persons will confront him as he walks back and forth. A women who identified herself as a dancer from the Northern, a Fargo strip club, came up to him and angrily said: "Don't you believe that a women has a choice?"

"They have a right to choice," he answered, "but does the little girl inside the women have a choice?"

He said she did not have an answer and walked away.

"I have had men come up to me and put their fist that close to my nose, but I have never been hit. I have never backed away. Why should I?"

"Once, several years ago, the owner of the adult book store, located across the street and down several bocks from the abortion mill, came up to us as we were standing outside the clinic. He said, 'You know, as long as I am over there, she will be over here,' pointing first to his place down the street, then to the clinic."

Huck explained that a society devoted to lust often makes abortion appear necessary. "But it never is" he said. "It is a way out." Rescuing the unborn

He said he once got a call from a women in a town about 100 miles from Fargo. She said her youngest sister was scheduled for an abortion in four days. "'Who scheduled it?' she asked."

"'My mother,' she said. 'How can I stop it?'"

"Does your father know about this?"

"'No, he is a good man, but we don't want to involve him,' she said. 'My other sister is against it, but we don't know what to do.'"

"You father will be involved whether your little sister has it or not. He will either have a grandchild or he will not have a grandchild. Where is you sister now?"

"She lives in a small town fifty miles from here."

"Tell you what to do. Call your sister and you and she meet me in Fargo. Don't tell her why you want her to come to Fargo. Just that you want to have dinner with her in Fargo. Do you think she would come?"

"Yes."

"Can you meet me tomorrow at Mom's Kitchen? I will pay for your dinner."

"Yes," she said.

"'So,' he said, 'we met for dinner at Mom's. I explained who I was to the sister, what the problem was and the necessity of having the father involved. I suggested--well, it wasn't me. It was the Holy Ghost working through me--anyway, I said, if your father knew, would he want your little sister to have an abortion?'"

"'No,' the sister said."

"Good, both of you go home and tell your father and ask for his help."

"Later, they told me what happened. The sister said that they talked with the father and told him the story. The father got his pregnant daughter together with his wife and said what he had learned. He told his wife that everything was going to be all right. Then he told his daughter:

"You do have a choice--to keep the baby and raise it or to adopt the baby. What choice are you going to make? We all make mistakes. We will all be behind you."

"'I will keep the baby and raise it,' she said."

Huck said a year later he got a call. It was from the woman who had been pregnant.

"I just wanted to tell you that I kept the baby," she said. "She has been the delight of my life. Thank you."

He then took a picture out of his wallet.

"See this picture?" he asked. "It is of another baby that we helped save." The photo was of a happy, smiling baby boy with brown hair.

He then told this story.

"My baby is alive"

"A young women approached the clinic one morning. Her mother was behind her, pushing her on the back toward the door.

"'Go in,' she said. Well, I knew by seeing her being pushed what was going on, so when the girl got near me, I said, 'Be sure you have an ultra-sound of the baby, and bring the picture out to me after you have the appointment.'"

"'The baby is dead,' the young girl's mother said."

"'Who said?' I asked," then added, "You see, they often say that or are told that--that the baby is dead. So, I asked her who told her the baby was dead and the mother said that the doctor had said that."

"Really," I said. "Then if that is true, he has the obligation to treat your daughter. If the baby is indeed dead, that is a medical condition that should be handled in a hospital. She should not be coming to an abortion clinic. Be sure to have that ultra-sound and then come see me.

"Later the daughter came out and proudly handed me the picture. 'That is my baby,' she said. "It is not dead. It is alive. My baby is alive!"

"'What are you going to do?' I asked."

"'I am going to keep my baby,' she said."

Sometime later, the mother of the young women called Huck. He told her this:

"'I just wanted to thank you. I am now a grandmother of a very wonderful little boy.'"

One day Huck was standing at the back of the abortion clinic. The backdoor of the clinic opened and the doctor who performed abortions there walked out. Huck was standing near the doctor's car. The physician took his keys out of his pocket to open the door of his automobile.

"Where does life begin?"

"Excuse, me, sir," Huck said, "but tell me something, when does life begin?"

The doctor stared at Huck and dropped his keys.

Huck held up both his hands and pointing at an imaginary time line with his index fingers, said:

"We both know that life begins at the beginning, here," he said, motioning with his left hand. Then he motioned with his right hand, "Not somewhere in between. Don't you agree that life begins at the beginning, at conception?"

Reaching down and fumbling for his keys, the physician quickly opened the door and drove off. Huck never saw the doctor after that encounter.

Once will standing out in front of the clinic, a FedEx truck pulled up. The driver was let in and exited later with a brown package about the size of a shoe box. Huck looked at the label and it said, "Keep refrigerated." Huck wonders if the clinic is engaging in the sale of fetal tissue. There are virtually no way to keep track of such transactions, at present, for clinics are not inspected by any governmental agency for compliance to laws that do make the sale of fetal tissue illegal.

His wife has supported him through all their years of marriage.

"But, I don't go down to the mill because I get very emotional," Dorothy said. "If I went down there, I would just start to cry." "What joy a child can bring"

Referring to the women who seek abortions at the clinic, she said, "They have no idea what joy a child can bring. The joy is like opening a Christmas present. It is like 'wow.' The first thing you do is count the fingers. They will never see how this child would blossom. They are only looking out for 'me,' that one moment of pleasure and are frustrated when something happens."

"No," she said, "they will never know what joy this child would have brought."