Tuesday, September 22, 2009

40 Days For Life Vigil Starts Tomorrow

Join tens of thousands of pro-lifers across North America (and not just North America now) in a 40-day prayer vigil to end abortion.
WASHINGTON, D.C., September 18, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Pro-lifers are gearing up for the start of a new 40 Days for Life campaign starting September 23, during which tens of thousands of pro-lifers across America and the world will join in the popular semi-annual marathon of prayer, fasting, abortion clinic vigil, and community activism to help save unborn lives.

212 cities in 45 U.S. states, 5 Canadian provinces, and Denmark have signed on to the latest campaign, making it the largest 40 Days for Life thus far.

"With abortion advocates trying to exploit the current health care reform debate to mandate taxpayer funding of abortion," said David Bereit, national director of 40 Days for Life, "we are incredibly encouraged to see record numbers of people in cities across America willing to take a stand by participating in 40 Days for Life to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves and seek God's protection for innocent children in the womb - and mothers - at risk of abortion."

The campaign, completed four times in the past two years, has exploded in popularity and reaped enormous benefits. The campaign's coordinators said that, in these four campaigns:

- 466 local efforts have taken place in 240 separate cities in all 50 states plus seven other nations
- More than 200,000 people have participated
- More than 4,000 churches have been involved
- At least 1,517 babies were spared from abortion
- At least 17 clinic employees quit their jobs
- Three abortion facilities closed their doors following 40 Days for Life campaigns

In the last campaign, from February 25 to April 5 of this year, 135 cities in the United States, Canada, Australia and Northern Ireland joined the initiative. During that campaign alone, 40 Days for Life received reports of 389 babies saved from abortion while pro-lifers were on vigil.
The vigil begins tomorrow (September 23rd) and lasts until November 1. Many cities are having a kick-off rally today, among them - Ottawa and Fredericton. In Fredericton this will be the first 40 Days for Life vigil ever. As for Moncton - we'll mark the beginning of the vigil with a pro-life rosary. We don't have a full-scale vigil yet, but we'll have several hours of prayer at the George Dumont hospital, praying to end all those abortions on demand that take place there. And of course, many of us are going to Fredericton to participate in the vigil itself. That's for sure.

About 100,000 unborn Canadian babies die in abortions year after year. We need to redouble our efforts to help save at least some of these lives.