Sunday Marks End of Second 40 Days for Life Effort, Lives Saved From Abortion 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
March 14, 2008
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Sunday marks the end of the second national 40 Days for Life campaign and the director of the projects says it was another success in saving lives from abortion. David Bereit tells LifeNews.com that the second campaign, like the first, also reinvigorated pro-life groups across the country.
The campaign began February 6 to correspond with the Lenten season and it saw people in 59 cities in 31 states join together for prayer and fasting for an end to abortion.
In many cases, local pro-life advocates spent 40 days praying and talking to people outside abortion centers.
"We are seeing a tremendous change taking place across the nation as our second simultaneous coast-to-coast 40 Days for Life campaign draws to a close," Bereit said.
"We know lives have been saved. People participating in vigils across America report that women who were planning to abort their babies changed their minds," he explained.
Bereit said he received daily reports from participants and not one day went by during the campaign where he didn’t hear about an abortion prevented.
The campaigner told LifeNews.com that pro-life people in communities across the nation who are inactive in the fight to protect unborn children learned, in some cases for the first time, that their city had an abortion business.
"I know many people are simply not aware that abortion is present in their neighborhoods," he said. "But this effort has changed that."
"One of the leaders of a local 40 Days for Life campaign told me she had driven past a building almost every day for ten years, but never knew an abortion facility was present. A whole community knows it now," he added.
Bereit said people are shocked when they find out an abortion facility is located in their community and they want to do something about it.
One outcome of the event is the realization that more trained counselors are needed to talk to women considering an abortion and direct them to places like crisis pregnancy centers that provide tangible help.
"Local communities have identified these needs and we at the national level intend to do everything we can to support them in meeting those needs," he explained.
That will be a key goal until the next 40 Days for Life campaign begins.
