The outrage against the 40 Days of Prayer for Abortion campaign a California Planned Parenthood affiliate has put together has been exceptionally strong since LifeNews broke the story about the campaign earlier this week.
Matthew Clark of the American Center for Law and Justice, a pro-life legal group, underscores the opposition LifeNews has seen since our report hit.
He writes: “‘Today we pray for all the staff at abortion clinics around the nation. May they be daily confirmed in the sacred care that they offer women.’ This is not a satirical prayer. This is the actual prayer of Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion business. As Jay Sekulow, ACLJ Chief Counsel, has long said, Planned Parenthood worships at the altar of abortion. Now, here is their prayer guide.”
Clark continues: “The Planned Parenthood prayer guide calls for prayer for everything from “better access to all forms of birth control” to the pro-abortion “counselors in abortion clinics” who give “wise guidance.” It goes on to pray that women would be “shielded” from the lifesaving message of prolife advocates on their way to commit an abortion.”
“Planned Parenthood’s prayer guide and their partner Faith Aloud’s spiritual advice on abortion merely rationalize the taking of a human life; they do not provide any spiritual, much less Biblical, justification for abortion,” he adds. “It is the only thing you can do when you have convinced yourself that unborn babies are not human beings who enjoy the fundamental human right to life and protection under the law.”
Mark Tooley, the president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, notes how the clergy committee of Planned Parenthood, the Humboldt County Clergy for Choice, a committee of Six Rivers Planned Parenthood in Northern California, includes denominations that are supposedly Christian. Featured in the coalition was United Methodist, Episcopal, Reform Jewish and Unitarian Universalist clergy. The group plans an evening concluding the event at a local United Methodist church.
“For an organization that claims to be about women’s health, this Planned Parenthood prayer guide seems to focus exclusively on abortion,” he said. “How sad that clergy who are supposed to protect innocent life instead try to sanctify death.”
Tooley added, “Some day churches will repent for their complicity in the culture of death. Until then, all persons of good will should robustly defend all innocents who cannot defend themselves.”
The Planned Parenthood flyer promotes specific prayers for abortion for each day:
* “Day 1: Today we pray for women for whom pregnancy is not good news, that they know they have choices.”
* “Day 34: Today we give thanks for abortion escorts who guide women safely through hostile gauntlets of protestors.”
*”Day 36 Today we pray for the families we’ve chosen, May they know the blessing of choice.”
* “Day 38: Today we pray for a cloud of gentleness to surround every abortion facility. May everyone feel calm and loving.”
* “Day 40: Today we give thanks and celebrate that abortion is still safe and legal.”
