Already more than two weeks into the 40 Days for Life campaign, many lives have been changed and babies have been saved. Today, we know of 146 babies that have been saved in just around a dozen days.
On day thirteen of this campaign, one baby was saved in Downers Grove, Illinois. One of the volunteers for 40 Days for Life noticed a young couple lingering in the parking lot. Karen went up to them because, as she says, “It looked like they were struggling.” Karen offered them pregnancy resources to help them with their decision, and later in the conversation even mentioned the racist roots of Planned Parenthood.
The woman had entered the abortion facility, but left in tears only 15 minutes later. She told Karen how much it meant to her that she had approached her, and then she kept thinking about the words Karen had spoken to her. “I did not have the abortion…I kept thinking of the words you said to me,” she explained. “The abortion workers were rough with me, wouldn’t let me see the ultrasound, and were talking about death a lot.” We often hear that abortion workers aren’t very open or friendly, but rarely is is from the mouth of someone who has just witnessed it.
“I got up and left. I am going to keep my baby.” the expectant mother proclaimed to Karen. At these words, Karen hugged the woman and prayed with her, that she might have a safe pregnancy, and that God would deliver her through these trying times. “We told her we had been praying for her in there the whole time,” Karen explained, and Karen and her group gave the woman a baby onesie.
“I want to get as far away from the abortion clinic as I can get right now,” the mother expressed, and told the group how she was going to get an ultrasound. A baby was saved that day, and a mother was saved much heartache in the years to come. Often people will think that it is a myth, or that pro-lifers are just using it as leverage that people who work at Planned Parenthood can be very mean. Surely not all Planned Parenthood workers are mean, but this is a true story of one instance a woman was actually drawn away from getting an abortion by the abortion clinic workers themselves.
Going out and praying in front of these clinics does make a difference, as the above story shows, and if we can even plant a little seed of doubt in the women’s’ mind about getting an abortion, we have done our part. Until this country illegalizes abortion, and even after that when there will doubtless still be illegal abortions occurring, we need to step up as people who love life and who love women and children, and be the voice they need to hear on one of the hardest days of their life.