Pro-life "Drop Cards"

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Iheartcoffee

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I read an article recently about purchasing and carrying pro-life “drop cards” to leave around and spread the pro-life message. I have to say that I liked the idea, but I haven’t liked any of the cards I have seen. A lot of them are great for starting a debate and ruffling pro-choice feathers, but as I looked at them, I kept thinking that many of them are useless for a pregnant woman in need that wants help. Some of them could be considered very uncharitable to women that come across them while in the middle of an unplanned pregnancy. The very people we want to reach the most are not served by most of the card designs I have seen online. Therefore, I made my own! Vistaprint has very inexpensive options for designing business cards. I put information about local pregnancy resources on the card and they are in the mail to come to me soon!

I urge everyone to consider making some pro-life “drop cards” that not only spread a loving pro-life message, but also tell people where to go for help if they are in need of it themselves. If more of us can leave not only the pro-life message, but RESOURCES around in our communities I think we can really change hearts and lives for the better. The cards can be left anywhere you think someone may happen upon them and need one. Think of leaving one on a shelf near the pregnancy tests in the drugstore, in a magazine rack, etc. You can always just have some with you in case you come across a woman that needs help. I remember back in high school that I walked into a bathroom while a girl and her friend were waiting to see the results of her pregnancy test. I wish I had known then what I know now. If only I had a card or a website I could have shared with her!
 
Just 2 things to keep in mind:
  1. Don’t ever give one to a pregnant woman on the assumption that her pregnancy was an accident, no matter how young or poor she looks. That would be hurtful.
  2. If you leave one on a restaurant table, do it in addition to your tip, not instead of. That’s so rude, and waitstaff need the tips they earn to get by. Nothing made me angrier than getting religious literature and cards as a tip instead of money.
 
BlueEyedLady said:
Just 2 things to keep in mind:
  1. Don’t ever give one to a pregnant woman on the assumption that her pregnancy was an accident, no matter how young or poor she looks. That would be hurtful.
  2. If you leave one on a restaurant table, do it in addition to your tip, not instead of. That’s so rude, and waitstaff need the tips they earn to get by. Nothing made me angrier than getting religious literature and cards as a tip instead of money.
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Umm. I would avoid leaving them on a restaurant table at all. Your charitable message could easily get misconstrued by a self-concious female server. “OMG! Do I look like I’m pregnant? I must be getting fat!” Best to leave them in public places like a bullitin board at the cafe or in the laundromat. I wouldn’t give them to any specific woman unless she has confided in you that she needs help.
 
Allegra said:
Umm. I would avoid leaving them on a restaurant table at all. Your charitable message could easily get misconstrued by a self-concious female server. “OMG! Do I look like I’m pregnant? I must be getting fat!” Best to leave them in public places like a bullitin board at the cafe or in the laundromat. I wouldn’t give them to any specific woman unless she has confided in you that she needs help.
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Agreed.

As a waitress for a decade or so (some of that time I was not committed to my faith/some I was), I thought it was highly presumptuous for people to leave bible tracts and other religious paraphernalia. We know the general opinion of some “Christians” of restaurant employees is that we are a wild bunch who chooses to work on Sunday (usually we have no choice on that). It is typically evangelicals who have given this impression, and I wouldn’t want Catholics lumped in with them for assuming we are fornicating. I have never seen a server react kindly to such things, and I have rarely received an over 20% tip from one of these evangelists, so we really don’t take their “generosity” seriously.

Incidentally, corporate restaurants will not generally allow you to discuss religion, so I could never return the “Are you Saved?” garbage and offer the patron a rosary instead.

I am no longer a waitress myself, but at 36 weeks pregnant, I have removed my now tight wedding rings. When I did wait tables, I never wore rings because of all the hand washing. So that poor, single girl you see sporting a baby bump may be a happily married, practicing Catholic.
 
Allegra said:
Umm. I would avoid leaving them on a restaurant table at all. Your charitable message could easily get misconstrued by a self-concious female server. “OMG! Do I look like I’m pregnant? I must be getting fat!” Best to leave them in public places like a bullitin board at the cafe or in the laundromat. I wouldn’t give them to any specific woman unless she has confided in you that she needs help.
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I wouldn’t recommend it either, but I assumed that’s what they were for. If they say something like “Pregnant? We can help” that’s going to make a server self-conscious. If they just say generic pro life slogans they probably won’t.
 
Iheartcoffee said:
I read an article recently about purchasing and carrying pro-life “drop cards” to leave around and spread the pro-life message. I have to say that I liked the idea, but I haven’t liked any of the cards I have seen. A lot of them are great for starting a debate and ruffling pro-choice feathers, but as I looked at them, I kept thinking that many of them are useless for a pregnant woman in need that wants help. Some of them could be considered very uncharitable to women that come across them while in the middle of an unplanned pregnancy. The very people we want to reach the most are not served by most of the card designs I have seen online. Therefore, I made my own! Vistaprint has very inexpensive options for designing business cards. I put information about local pregnancy resources on the card and they are in the mail to come to me soon!

I urge everyone to consider making some pro-life “drop cards” that not only spread a loving pro-life message, but also tell people where to go for help if they are in need of it themselves. If more of us can leave not only the pro-life message, but RESOURCES around in our communities I think we can really change hearts and lives for the better. The cards can be left anywhere you think someone may happen upon them and need one. Think of leaving one on a shelf near the pregnancy tests in the drugstore, in a magazine rack, etc. You can always just have some with you in case you come across a woman that needs help. I remember back in high school that I walked into a bathroom while a girl and her friend were waiting to see the results of her pregnancy test. I wish I had known then what I know now. If only I had a card or a website I could have shared with her!
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I don’t think these cards do anything at all, other than getting thrown away. I made some cards but I always handed them to mothers going into Planned Parenthood. It had the Jeremiah quote about knowing you before you were born, and the numbers of pro-life clinics, and said something non-threatening like, “There’s true help for you and your baby!” I always talked to the moms before I gave them the card. Leaving stuff anywhere is a waste of money when any pro-abortion person can just throw it away.
 
I forgot to mention that I have known many, many wonderful, devoted, hard-working single mothers during my years in restaurant work. Whether or not they have the same beliefs as you or me, they would never dream of killing their child through abortion. I have also watched some of these same single young women go through the pain of miscarriage, only to return to work quickly. A “drop card” would be highly inappropriate.
 
I’m absolutely not advocating handing them out to just any pregnant woman on the street. My example in my original post was referring to a time when I was in high school and I walked into a school bathroom while a girl was having an extremely anxious, “Am I pregnant?!” moment with her friend. It was blindingly obvious this would be a crisis pregnancy situation if she was indeed pregnant.

I also don’t believe in leaving the cards for a specific person, for instance, a waitress. That’s way too presumptuous. The only time I would advocate doing it is if a person specifically said they are pregnant and scared and they have no idea what to do.

When I said it would be great to leave them around, that means leaving them around without targeting a particular person. For instance, A Half-Price books in my area (on the same street as an abortion clinic) has a “community board” where anyone can post anything they wish. I have seen coffee shops that do the same thing. Those are the kinds of places where it could be useful to leave something and just ask God to let the right person happen upon it.
 
I guess we all just assumed since restaurant tables seem to be a favorite spot of people who try to evangelize with small pieces of paper. Mea Culpa!

But, truthfully, I cannot imagine a piece of paper speaking loudly enough…people need a human touch when going through hard times.

If it is a comfort, that girl in the bathroom may have been naïve; I remember a girl who worried the same thing when I was in 8th grade, and on further examination of the subject, she hadn’t even done anything that could lead to pregnancy! 🙂
 
I use drop cards

I put them in the condom section at stores, near the check out , and I hear bathrooms are good places
 
I can see leaving such cards in a women’s rest room. However, speaking as someone who worked in retail and general customer service for nearly five years, you might want to consider something.

For much of my career, I worked in a bookstore. Certain types of evangelicals thought it was appropriate to leave Chick tracts scattered throughout various sections and inserted in some books. I really doubt they ever had the kind of effect that the people who left them expected. I do know that I–who as a Catholic, by the by, find most Chick tracts pretty offensive–got screamed at a lot by customers who did find them. From what I could see, the primary effects of such things was to a) get innocent customer service types yelled at 😛 and b) to cause considerable irritation to be directed towards any form of Christianity, as the Chick tracts inevitably got lumped in with any form of Christianity by those (a majority, I might add) who didn’t know better. The booksellers were annoyed that we got targeted/had to spend time we didn’t have going through a section of books to remove this sort of thing, and the customers were annoyed to open a book that didn’t agree with some aspect of Chick-style Christianity and find a tract on Why They’re Going To Hell.

I can’t say for certain, but I’d hazard a guess that a similar stunt performed with pro-life literature would have similar effects: serious irritation from nearly everyone who had to deal with it, and little positive result.

That’s all leaving aside the fact that it’s just plain rude to litter someone else’s property with one’s belongings and expect the other person to clean it up. 😉 I do realize that’s not at all the intent of the people who do this sort of thing, but it is the perception by pretty much everyone else.
 
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