For those who question the effectiveness of 40 Days for Life and peaceful protests and prayer vigils outside of abortion clinics, here are some numbers to think about. As a direct result of 40 Days for Life campaigns:
- 5,928 babies have been saved from being aborted
- 69 abortion clinic workers have left their jobs and the abortion industry
- 24 abortion clinics have been permanently shut down
The second emotionally powerful moment was when the founder of 40 Days for Life, David Bereit, spoke and explained how the event was started. Bereit got the idea from a friend, who told him that if Christians really believed what they claimed to believe about abortion killing an innocent human life, they would be outside of abortion clinics protesting and seeking to rescue lives 24/7. When Bereit started the first 40 Days for Life in 2004, his friend signed up to stand outside the clinic in College Station, Texas all night every night for the entire 40 day period and brought other friends with him to his all-night vigils.
Much later, Bereit found out why his friend was so passionate about this issue. Shortly before he had talked to Bereit, the friend had witnessed the death of his father. He was the only family member who came to be with his father as he was dying. For several days, he sat by his father's bedside to pray with him, and every time his father would insist that they pray for an end to abortion. Finally, he asked his dad why this was the only thing he wanted to pray about. Then his dad told him a story he had never heard before. When the dad was in his late teens he got a girl pregnant, and he urged the girl to have an abortion to make sure their parents didn't find out. He prepaid the bill and made an appointment to meet her outside of the clinic on the day the abortion was to happen, but she had second thoughts and never showed up. He continued to pressure her to have the abortion but she continued to refuse. Eventually she had the baby and they ended up getting married. As you might have guessed, that son sitting by his dad's deathbed was the child that he had wanted to abort! And now, many years later, that son was the only family member who came to be with him as he was dying.
I think it is so critical for people to hear about these stories, because they need to understand that real human lives are at stake. It is easy to shrug off abortion when the victims are nameless and faceless, but it is much harder to ignore when people are confronted with true stories of real people. This is why I think this video from Kelly Stauffer, who had an abortion when she was 14, is more powerful than a thousand logical arguments.
Please pray that God will use 40 Days for Life this year in a powerful way to change people's hearts and minds on this issue. And please check out their website here to see if there is a campaign in your area that you can get involved in!
4 comments:
Even Michelle Obama had an "anti-woman" moment recently, in her speech to the CBC. While giving special acknowledgments to CBC members, she said:
"And then there's Congresswoman Barbara Lee, who almost didn't make it into this world. When her mother was in labor, the segregated hospital refused to admit her, and they didn't agree to care for her until hours later, when it was almost too late."
Had our First Lady not gotten the memo that prior to birth babies are not precious human lives? And that can extend even after birth based on a decision that must remain between a woman and her doctor, according to President Obama's (thankfully minority) opinion.
Interesting. And Barbara Lee is one of the most radically pro-abortion members of Congress. Go figure.
Obama's support for infanticide places him as far to the left on the issue of "women's reproductive choices" as you can get. Which must explain why he is running ads claiming Romney (Romney!) is an extremist on abortion.
This is an old thread, but I recently listened to Obama's old speech at Hampton that has generated huge controversy on the eve of the first presidential debate. Many things in his his speech are fake starting with the assumed accent, but one absolutely infuriating part of it is that the running theme of the speech was centered on an anecdote about a baby who was shot in utero and born healthy except for the bullet needing to be removed. Obama uses it as a metaphor for the plight of blacks in "racist" America, but he makes a big deal about showing sympathy for the baby (doesn't call it a fetus) and valuing it as a precious human life. What a jerk!
Yes, Obama is a jerk, to put it mildly....
I agree that Obama's concern for the unborn baby is hypocritical in that speech, and I find that this seems to be the case for many pro-choice people. It is hard for pro-choice people to be consistent with their own beliefs. I have heard several of my pro-choice co-workers reference the "unborn child" of another co-worker. The moment you make such a reference, the cat is out of the bag. Either that baby in the womb is a human child, or it is a blob of tissue not worthy of protection. It can't be both. That is why pro-abortion groups fought so hard against legislation like Laci and Conner's Law to make it a double felony to kill a pregnant woman. They know the implications of such a law for the future of abortion. It is beyond illogical to say, as many people seem to want to do, that it's an "unborn child" if the mother wants to keep it but if the mother doesn't want it it's a "fetus" that can be legally destroyed.
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