Dear Mike,
The headline on the brand new Pew Research Center
report reads: "Support for abortion slips."
Interesting finding ... especially DURING a 40 Days
for Life campaign!
Specifically, the Pew survey revealed that support
for legal abortion plummeted from 54% in 2007 to only
47% in 2009.
Then the study reports: "No single reason for the
shift in opinions is apparent..."
With tens of thousands of faithful people praying and
fasting together for an end to abortion, I can think
of one possible reason... :-)
Whatever the cause, we praise God for this shift --
and for all of you who have been praying and fasting
for an end to abortion.
I've noticed that the YouTube video of 40 Days for
Life vigil participants in New York City being
heckled by abortion advocates has spread far and wide
through blogs and e-mail. If you haven't seen it yet,
it's definitely worth a look:
http://40daysforlife.com/blog/?p=321
Such counter-demonstrations seem to be more heavily
concentrated in larger cities. And even there, the
opposition effort isn't quite what the abortion
advocates might have you believe.
A "pro-choice" blogger in New York City urged more
like-minded people to "stand up and fight back"
against 40 Days for Life. So how do they counter 40
Days for Life's all-day, 40-day prayer effort? By
inviting people to show up for a mere four hours on
Saturday.
Jim in Los Angeles said people praying at an abortion
center there had a similar "welcoming committee." But
the prayer continued through all the noise.
"Under such conditions, the sound and feel of
taunting and intimidation were ever in the air," Jim
said, "but I so experienced the peace of God, which
he freely gave. For all the hate and insults we
endured today, there was a victory from the Lord."
The victory? A baby was saved from abortion!
Here's a story that hits close to home for me...
This past weekend, abortion supporters targeted the
40 Days for Life vigil in Manassas, Virginia -- not
far from Washington, D.C.
On Saturday -- the morning my home church was signed
up to cover the vigil -- the abortion advocates got a
permit to conduct a demonstration against 40 Days for
Life at the place the vigil usually takes place.
But when the day came, there were 197 pro-life people
praying at the clinic -- and only THREE abortion
demonstrators. Demoralized, they didn't stay long.
To see a photo of just a few of the faithful people
who came to stand up for life in Manassas, go here:
http://40daysforlife.com/blog/?p=321
And here's "the rest of the story"...
While all those people were out there praying, a
woman walked towards the clinic for an abortion
appointment. After people on the sidewalk spoke to
her, she entered the nearby pro-life pregnancy center
instead.
"The lady who was about to have the abortion told the
counselor she started to shiver when she saw so many
people praying," said Ken Groves of the Manassas
40 Days for Life campaign. "At that moment she said
she felt God wanted her to have her baby. A precious
baby was saved! It was an amazing Saturday in
Manassas."
In New Jersey, a newspaper report on the 40 Days for
Life vigil in Woodbridge contained a shocking
revelation showing that the abortion industry even
knows they're losing.
The manager of the clinic where the vigil is in
progress told a reporter that the sight of people
praying outside makes an impact on women arriving for
abortions. "To a lot of patients, it changed their
mind right away and they never come back," she said.
"It happens a lot."
People KNOW abortion is wrong; we just need to get
them to think about it.
And that's exactly the thing 40 Days for Life
prayerfully, peacefully insists that people do.
Here's today's devotional from Fr. Frank Pavone, the
National Director of Priests for Life...
-----------------------------------------------------
DAY 14 INTENTION
-----------------------------------------------------
Abortion is the great "no." May all of God's people
have the freedom and grace to say "yes" to His
marvelous plans.
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SCRIPTURE
-----------------------------------------------------
For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my
mother's womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully
and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and
that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden
from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully
wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes
saw my substance, being yet unformed and in Your book
they all were written, The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them.
-- Psalm 139:13-16
-----------------------------------------------------
REFLECTION by Fr. Frank Pavone, Priests for Life
-----------------------------------------------------
Unlike the rest of creation, we are capable of a
personal relationship with God. Not only did God
create us, but created us according to a plan devised
from all eternity. No matter how far back we go in
our imagination, there was never a time when God did
not know each of us, in every detail of our being.
There was not a particular time when God decided to
make us. The decision to make us has been in the mind
of God from all eternity. All our days were written
in His book.
To dare to say that a human being, developing in the
womb, should not be born is as wrong as to say that a
born person should not continue to grow and live. In
each case, an attack on human life is an attack on
the God who formed and made us. Jesus Christ is the
great "yes" to the promises of God; abortion is the
great "no."
-----------------------------------------------------
PRAYER
-----------------------------------------------------
Lord, I pray today for every unborn child. The beauty
of the bodies and souls of these children flows from
your hands and your eternal plan.
Awaken in every human conscience a profound reverence
for human life, and grant us grace to defend our
smallest and most defenseless brothers and sisters,
those still being formed in the secret places of
their mothers' womb. We ask this through Christ our
Lord, Amen.
-----------------------------------------------------
PRINTABLE DEVOTIONAL
-----------------------------------------------------
To download today's devotional as a formatted,
printable PDF to share with friends:
http://40daysforlife.com/docs/fall2009day14print.pdf
-----------------------------------------------------
For Life,
David Bereit
National Director
40 Days for Life
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