fbpx
News Articles

459 babies saved during 40 Days for Life


WASHINGTON (BP)–The pro-life organization 40 Days for Life reported 459 unborn children — and their mothers — were spared from abortion during its latest campaign, which ended March 28.

The pro-life effort, which has occurred nationwide twice a year since the fall of 2007, consists of 40 days of prayer and fasting to end abortion, as well as community outreach and peaceful prayer vigils outside abortion clinics. The latest campaign began Feb. 17 in 167 cities, primarily in the United States but also in Australia, Canada and Northern Ireland.

David Bereit, national director of 40 Days for Life, relayed the following accounts in e-mail reports during the closing days of the campaign:

— At a 40 Days for Life rally in Hagerstown, Md., a man told of going to pray at the abortion facility with his wife and eight children, Bereit recounted. “While they were there, a woman canceled her abortion appointment and decided to keep her child.

“Some days later, the man’s 4-year-old son said, ‘Daddy we saved a baby. When are [we] going again?'”

— “Praying in front of Planned Parenthood has drawn me closer to the cross than I’ve ever been before in my life,” a woman named Julie wrote. “Twenty years ago, I had an abortion. I never knew the power of prayer until now.”

“For years, she said, the pain, shame and all that goes with it had been buried deep within her,” Bereit wrote, continuing with her words, “This year, God called me to 40 Days for Life and I was listening.”

She broke down while praying at the vigil and two days later, Julie celebrated, “I made a complete confession and turned my life over to God, completely. I know I still have a long way to go in healing, but I can’t express what it feels like to be forgiven….”

— “If you don’t think 40 Days for Life works, this should be proof,” a 40 Days for Life team member in Fort Pierce, Fla., reported, recounting how one volunteer had been a sidewalk counselor for 11 years but couldn’t remember an instance when, three Saturdays in a row, women changed their minds about abortion.

“We’re not doing anything different as sidewalk counselors,” the vigil participant said, “but during 40 Days for Life, there is more prayer going on, and this is the fruit of your prayer….'”
–30–
Compiled by Baptist Press Washington bureau chief Tom Strode.

    About the Author

  • Staff