Sep 23, 2009 / 01:29 am
The 40 Days for Life autumn campaign will begin on Wednesday in 212 cities, starting efforts like prayer and fasting for an end to abortion, peaceful vigils outside abortion facilities, and grassroots community organizing.
The official effort is scheduled to last until November 1. David Bereit, national director of 40 Days for Life, said that “tens of thousands of faithful people” will participate in 45 American states, five Canadian provinces and Denmark.
The organization reports it has helped mobilize more than 215,000 people in its two years of work. Their efforts have reportedly saved 1,561 lives from abortion and have been endorsed by dozens of pro-life and pro-family groups.
Religious leaders, including more than 20 Catholic bishops, have also promoted the campaign.
The fall campaign will be the most widespread and longest coordinated pro-life mobilization in history, 40 Days for Life claims. It also alleges a “misinformation blitz” by pro-abortion partisans is trying to smear the campaign
Bereit said Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the country, was generating “inflammatory rhetoric.” The organization’s Houston affiliate has called on its supporters to “defend women’s health” from the “40 days of harassment.” A St. Louis affiliate has hung a huge “defend the truth” banner from the side of its building.
“Ironically, the truth is something Planned Parenthood tries to hide," said Bereit. "The truth is that the child in the womb is a human being, and that abortion takes the life of the child and can leave a devastating impact on the mother."
40 Days for Life reported that 90 percent of the prayer vigil locations are at Planned Parenthood facilities.
The organization has also been part of the Stop the Abortion Mandate coalition, which is working to ensure abortion is explicitly excluded from any proposed health care reform bill.
"We have never before seen the intensity of passion and extensive involvement in pro-life efforts that we are seeing all across North America right now," said Bereit. "We don't know what blessings this fall's 40 Days for Life will hold, but we can't wait to see what God has in store!”
For more information visit, www.40daysforlife.com.