The next 40 Days for Life prayer campaign that has pro-life advocates reaching out to women going to local abortion centers with real help and support has rapidly become the largest ever.
“With the dramatic changes in congressional leadership, negative attention surrounding Planned Parenthood and the rest of the abortion industry, and the monumental shift in public attitudes regarding the right to life, we have reached a cultural tipping point,” Shawn Carney, campaign director of 40 Days for Life, told LifeNews.com today.
“Against that backdrop, we are preparing to launch the largest-ever 40 Days for Life campaign,” he said.
Carney said pro-life advocates in 243 cities — reaching from coast to coast in the United States, plus Canada, England, Ireland, Australia, Belize, Spain, Georgia and Armenia — are preparing to participate in the peaceful pro-life event. The coordinated international campaign begins March 9 and runs through April 17 and the campaign coincides with the Christian season of Lent.
This spring’s 40 Days for Life campaign represents a staggering 45% increase in participating cities compared with last spring’s effort in 167 locations.
“People are becoming more aware of the truth about abortion,” Carney said. “The recent closure of a dangerous abortion center in Philadelphia and the murder charges filed against its owner shows that abortion is anything but mainstream medicine.”
He added: “The institutional scandal at Planned Parenthood which revealed the organization’s willingness to aid and abet illegal sex trafficking of girls as young as 14 demonstrates the shocking reality of what goes on behind the closed doors of America’s leading abortion chain — facts also borne out in Unplanned, the national best-selling book recently released by Abby Johnson, the former Planned Parenthood clinic manager in Texas, who experienced a conversion during a 40 Days for Life campaign. As more people discover the truth, abortion’s days are numbered.”
The 40 Days for Life campaign consists of 40 days of prayer and fasting for an end to abortion, 40 days of constant, peaceful vigil outside abortion centers and Planned Parenthood offices and 40 days of pro-life community outreach.
The 40 Days for Life movement continues to grow. Thus far, seven coordinated national 40 Days for Life campaigns have been conducted, twice each year, beginning in the Fall of 2007. More than 400,000 people in some 337 cities have already taken part. Nine abortion centers have closed following 40 Days for Life prayer vigils, and at least 43 abortion industry employees have quit their jobs, including Abby Johnson. [related]
“The best news,” Carney said, “is that there are 3,599 children — and their mothers — who were spared from abortion. And of course, those are just the ones we know about. There may be countless others.”
“Just the sight of people peacefully praying can touch the consciences of those who are so desperate they think abortion is a solution,” he said. “We know of many cases where minds have been changed — and lives saved — without a single word ever being spoken.”
