An Interview with Sidewalk Evangelist John Barros

By John Barros

What is nicer than seeing police knock down doors and haul out evidence at Orlando Women’s Center abortion mill? The sheriff actually let me help put up the crime scene tape. Place is swarming with undercover cops. Thank you Jesus. This is so awesome! Furniture, paintings, ultrasound machines – everything being loaded onto a truck.

The above is from John Barros’ Facebook page. John is a missionary to the preborn at Orlando Women’s Center who does sidewalk counseling and preaching five days a week.

Video Transcript

This is so amazing what is going on here today! People I forgot all about, who chose life for their babies, are coming down here to say thanks because they saw that the place is closing on TV.

Orlando Women’s Center is a place the used to kill babies. It’s not killing babies anymore because the police swarmed in here today with giant moving vans and movers. They completely wiped out everything that is in here. They took out all the tables, chairs, beds, ultra-sound machines, televisions, office furniture, computers – everything is gone.

They did it because they were collecting on a $36.7 million lawsuit judgment that James Pendergraft had against him. The attorneys for the girl that won the judgment had attached everything inside the building. So the sheriff came in and got it all out for them.

The lawsuit was over a girl who had come here for an abortion. The people who worked here gave her too much of a medication that she should not have received. She ended up getting very sick and she ended up going to a hospital that doesn’t do abortions. The baby was born very early and has multiple physical and emotional problems. James Pendergraft had paid over $100,000 dollars of the judgment, but that’s nowhere near the amount he owes.

I got here early this morning and the police had already kicked in the back door before they opened. They began the process of moving things out. The abortion clinic workers were coming down here. The police wouldn’t let them in except to get something they had inside. They would have to have a policeman with them. They systematically removed everything in the building.

I am ecstatic! I’ve been sitting on a wall next to this clinic for three years every single day. To see something that so many people have prayed for come to fruition is beyond belief!

Pendergraft was here and was trying to get on every single television station to try to plead his case. He said that the furniture in the clinic was not his and belongs to someone else. Then he said that this case was a long time ago and has nothing to do with the way he does things now. Blah, blah, blah!

There is no way that this place is open for business tomorrow. There is not one thing left in there. We are planning to have a praise and thanksgiving celebration here at 10 o’clock tomorrow morning.

Pendergraft has four other abortion mills. They are already referring people over to the EPOC center on Virginia Avenue in downtown Orlando. The plaintiff’s lawyers are planning to take the assets of EPOC too. The problem is getting these things done through the courts because Pendergraft has several dozen corporations.

We need to give God thanks and praise for closing this place. We need to pray that it stays closed and that James Pendergraft’s kingdom of abortion clinics keeps tumbling down until he is totally out of business.

Pendergraft looked highly upset this morning. He was really angry with the fact that this happened. No one knew this was coming. It came down fast! It reminds me of God’s judgment. We can go on and on and we don’t see judgment hit. Then all of a sudden, bam! It’s there! That is what happened today.

The police officers were here when I arrived and one asked me what I was doing here. I told him that I come everyday. Dr. Collins next door allows me to use his property for sidewalk counseling. Then I asked him if he knew what they do here.

I told him that on Wednesdays they give late-term girls a shot and it begins labor, and they give the baby a shot to kill they baby. And then they march the mothers in the parking lot for up to three days, and then they bring them in and have them deliver their baby in a toilet half full of water. In Randall Whitney’s own court testimony, he spoke of the babies moving around in the water.

He was disgusted. Then he said, “Well then, I don’t think you’ll mind helping me to put this crime scene tape up.’

And I said, “It would be an honor.”

For three years, I’ve been out here every single day, Monday through Friday from 7 am to 4 pm. Today it is about 94 degrees and about 90 percent humidity. Tomorrow I am coming here just because a lot of people will not know that this place is not open any longer. Good conversations can come out of that. Then I can offer them hope and help. I can lead them to a crisis pregnancy center or people that can help them.

I talked to every single news station in Orlando today. I was able to share the Gospel with them and about the horrors of what this place was. They said they would put it on the news. One of the young ladies from Univision was visibly moved to tears when I shared what happened here.

This judgment was from a court case. And we fully understand that God uses secondary causes to do His will. But the workers wanted to blame me this morning.

They said, “It’s your fault now that women are going to have to go to a hospital and pay $3000 to get a D&C done.”

I said, “You all know that’s not what was happening here!”

They just cursed at me and left.

I was here all alone when everything was coming down, but then I was able to catch my breath and get my heart to quit beating out of my chest, I posted on Facebook what was going on.

Thankfully, some of the other end sidewalk counselors from around the city came by to congratulate me on the closing of this clinic. Of course, it is not me. It is a court case that did it. The beautiful thing that happened was that some people saw it on the news who had chosen life and who had kept their babies came down here. They wanted to tell the reporters about that side of what happens here – about life and about God moving in their hearts. It’s about God changing hearts and bringing life.

The reporters were flabbergasted because thought that I was the stereotypical abortion protester with “Babies are murdered here” signs. But this is more of an evangelistic work. It has been a beautiful day. There have been people coming by who had seen it on the news, but had never been here. They came to pray and brought me water and Gatorade. It have just been beautiful.

I live out here every day. It has been like a stinking Stephen King novel. Nothing makes sense. Everything is upside down and backwards.

Then all of a sudden the police swoop in and judgment and justice are meted out. Wow! I can’t believe it. I am sitting here and my heart is about to beat out of my chest. I just can’t believe what happened here today – still I don’t.