The Catholic Standard & Times - Celebrating 40 Days For Life

Celebrating 40 Days For Life

By Susan Brinkmann
CS&T Correspondent

WARMINSTER — Hundreds of people throughout the area have reason to celebrate after participating in a nationwide campaign of 40 days of prayer, fasting and community outreach to end abortion in the United States. The results were better than many expected.

“We’ve had two people per hour praying at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Warminster, 24 -hours-a-day, since the campaign started 40 days ago,” said Mike McMonigle, public affairs director of the Pro Life Union of Southeastern Pennsylvania and coordinator for the project in Warminster.

“Judging from the number of cars that usually come in on a Friday morning, this clinic averages about 21 abortions every Friday,” he said. “Since the campaign started, they’ve been down almost every Friday to just 10-to-12 abortions.”

McMonigal said he also saw many people pray at the clinic who were not on the project’s prayer schedule.

“We also had excellent cooperation from clergy — from Cardinal Rigali on down,” he said. Many area churches sponsored a day at the clinic, when their parishioners signed up to cover a 24-hour period of prayer.

In West Chester, participation was similarly enthusiastic. People there kept a 24-hour prayer vigil outside the Planned Parenthood clinic at Wayne and Market streets.

“We’ve had an amazing amount of people coming here to pray,” said Jo Christoff, president of the Chester County Pro Life Union and the project’s coordinator in West Chester.

“We didn’t have every hour scheduled, but people have been coming on their own,” Christoff said. “We probably had well over 300 people who have come out to pray here, and a lot of them were new people.”

According to David Bereit, national manager for the 40-day project, more than 100,000 people in 50 states took part.

“We’ve had reports of over 300 children spared from abortion … and have heard of several hundred people beginning post-abortion healing programs,” he said. “But the most important accomplishment has been a renewed sense of hope among people of faith and conscience, who for years have been … thinking abortion is just something we’re going to have to live with.”

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