Local 40 Days for Life Teams Up With Ongoing Campaign – Everyone is Saying No to Planned Parenthood
BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Sept. 24, 2018 — Tuesday at 6:30 PM, a coalition of pro-life leaders and organizations within the community will gather on the sidewalk outside of Planned Parenthood Birmingham for the Fall 40 Days Candlelight Kickoff – a vigil that begins forty straight days of prayer, fasting, and public outreach.
The 40 Days for Life prayer campaigns are conducted twice a year outside of Planned Parenthood, the city’s last remaining abortion clinic. However, this year’s Fall 40 Days will run in tandem with the ongoing “We Say No” campaign.
Earlier in the year, citizens discovered that Planned Parenthood is attempting to build a new facility in the downtown area. In light of Planned Parenthood Birmingham’s sordid history – covering up sexual abuse, selling abortion drugs illegally, even botching abortion procedures – citizens and leaders immediately created the “We Say No” campaign to raise public awareness and stop this new facility from being built.
They are also calling for the revocation of the facility’s current license and a denial of any future license for any new locations.
It has been over a year since Planned Parenthood has even been able to provide abortions, and, local sidewalk counselors report that hardly any patients have been seen entering the current building for months on end. Also, just one month earlier, Planned Parenthood told the media their current building was not even worth updating – hence the new facility. In the face of all of this, however, the Alabama Department of Public Health refuses to revoke the failing facility’s license.
The praying citizens of Birmingham are not deterred by the state’s lack of action though. Pro-life leaders and citizens are inviting everyone to get involved in these two important campaigns.
“With both the Fall 40 Days and the ‘We Say No’ campaign going on, citizens will have many, many opportunities to make their voices heard,” says Ed Carrick, local organizer of 40 Days for Life Birmingham. “They will also have the opportunity to reach out to hurting women and men in this community, mothers and fathers who find themselves in a difficult or unexpected pregnancy. We are excited to see what the Lord does with this campaign, and we hope people will come out and spend some time praying for this dangerous facility to finally close.”
Besides forty consecutive days of prayer, the campaign also strives to offer compassionate assistance and real resources to women in the community every single day. Over the last ten years that these campaigns have been held in Birmingham, over 400 babies have been saved, which means over 400 mothers were empowered to choose life for their child, whether through parenting or adoption.
The Birmingham 40 Days campaign will join 415 cities around the world and 100,000+ people. Since 2007, these campaigns have seen 14,643 lives saved, 177 abortion workers quit, and 96 abortion clinics close for good.
Sarah Howell of Charismatic Episcopal Church For Life, emcee and organizer for Tuesday’s Vigil, comments, “Every time we begin one of these campaigns, we hope it will be the last one. Planned Parenthood is clearly struggling to stay open, but still absolutely determined to destroy children’s lives. We say no to that destruction, and we pray especially for our state officials who have the authority to stop such a shoddy business from continuing to prey on women in our community. We pray that they will find the courage to protect Alabama citizens, not the abortion industry.”
The Fall Candlelight Kickoff begins Tuesday night at 6:30 PM, on the sidewalk of Planned Parenthood (located at 1211 27th PL S).
For more information on the local campaign, click here.