The Eureka arm of the 40 Days For Life campaign, the human prayer shield camped out in front of Six Rivers Planned Parenthood since Feb. 13, wrapped up operations over the weekend on Sunday, March 24. Done.
(For previous Journal coverage of the prayer-a-thon, clicketh here.)
So what did we learn? Be careful what you sign up for. Early on in the saga, the Journal signed up for the 40 Days of Life daily newsletters. Then, for 40 straight days we received emails sent out by campaign director Shawn Carney through its headquarters in Fredericksburg, Va. Most of the daily blasts chronicled movement successes and inspirational anecdotes culled from reports from the many encampments around the world — the final number of babies saved they’re goin’ with is 554, by the way.
But finally, on Day 38, Eureka got its moment in the spotlight. In an email titled “They’re back!” 40 Days of Life warned its followers about efforts to undermine the campaign’s message and highlighted Clergy for Choice and Six Rivers Planned Parenthood as “the worst of the lot.” Their crime? Mocking God.
The aforementioned section of the email follows:
Subject: DAY 38: They’re back
Dear Andrew,
Lots of people love the peaceful approach of 40 Days for Life and see how God has used this effort.
BUT … it comes as no surprise to find out that not everybody is a fan.
There are people in the abortion industry who call this campaign “40 Days of Harassment.” No one is being harassed, of course (except maybe the prayer volunteers). The truth is that peaceful prayer on the sidewalk is bad for business. So the pro-abortion side is doing whatever it can to minimize the impact … by twisting the truth.
40 DAYS OF MOCKERY
There are a number of pro-abortion backlash efforts that have adopted the “40 days” theme. The worst of the lot is jointly sponsored by “Clergy for Choice” and the Planned Parenthood affiliate in Eureka, California.
This effort, “40 Days of Prayer to Keep Abortion Safe and Legal,” is really a mockery of 40 Days for Life — and frankly, of God. They use a collection of 40 daily prayer intentions — sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
But listen to some of the “Clergy for Choice” intentions:
• Day 5: Today we pray for medical students who want to include abortion care in their practice.
• Day 18: Today we pray for all the staff at abortion clinics around the nation. May they be daily confirmed in the sacred care that they offer women.
• Day 27: Today we give thanks for abortion providers around the nation whose concern for women is the driving force in their lives.
• Day 40: Today we give thanks and celebrate that abortion is still safe and legal.
To respond to each of those “prayer” intentions:
• Day 5: Fewer and fewer medical students are interested in abortion. Aging abortionists are retiring and not being replaced.
• Day 18: Abortion — the destruction of innocent children — is considered “sacred care”? Unbelievable!
• Day 27: The “driving force” for Planned Parenthood is money. There is no prestige in the abortion trade.
• Day 40: Safe and legal? Based on numerous ambulance calls at abortion facilities, “safe” couldn’t be any farther from the truth. And of course, abortion is never “safe” for the baby.
Let’s all pray for all of those who’ve convinced themselves that abortion is a moral “choice” — and for all who are deluded into believing that lie.
So there.
As we previously reported, in response to the 40 Days For Life campaign, Six Rivers Planned Parenthood launched a Pledge-A-Picketeer campaign. In the end it raised over $15,000 for the clinic.
This article appears in For the Love of Bowling.
I pray for all those who mock the great Flying Spaghetti Monster, and for all those who have suffered parking tickets.
And… for Andrew… penis!
Like Anon, I too pray. For the end of religion.
Pray for the abortionist who snip the spines of viable babies. It is all about choice right?
The Creator gave women the ability to reproduce or not at her discretion. Twat goes on ‘down there’ is HER decision not HIS, or any group, gov., church, or religion.
I pray that the dangerous decline in pirates will be corrected by an act of His Noodly Appendage.
Congratulations Six Rivers Planned Parenthood and Clergy for Choice! Being called “the worst” by this bunch is high praise indeed. I love it when members of one religious group claim pastors and other religious leaders of different groups are “mocking God”. The American Taliban in action.
“Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good
of its victim may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live
under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies.
The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may
at some point be satiated, but those who torment us for our own good
will torment us without end for they do so with the approval
of their own conscience.” C.S. Lewis
Some of the finest people I have ever known are members of Clergy for Choice. Some of the most selfless, loving, and sacrificial, graceful servants I have ever known are Planned Parenthood staff and volunteers. They do know what love is.
Yes, 40 Days of Prayer are derivative, but as always, C4C intends it for good. It shows again that the bane of society is not religion, but the perversion of religion. Praise God!
I just read this article, and although it’s 2 years old, I felt inclined to comment. The very first sentence indicated it would be slanted. I should have stopped there.
I was one of the participants in the peaceful prayer vigil – yes, peaceful and prayer. There was no “human prayer shield camped out in front” of Planned Parenthood. From where we pray, we can’t even see the building much less block people from entering. We are on the corner of the access road, on the public sidewalk. The only interaction we had with people was when they stopped to talk, either to encourage or dissuade. Even those who disagreed with us stopped and said they appreciated us exercising our First Amendment rights.
With regards to praying to end abortion. Everyone prays differently but it doesn’t necessarily mean we are praying for abortion to become illegal. Having had an abortion, I understand the deep emotion of that decision. No one WANTS to have an abortion. Of the many women I have spoken with, the ideal would have been to turn back the clock and not get pregnant in the first place. Unfortunately, that is not one of the choices.
My prayer has been that women who are not wanting to parent would not get pregnant in the first place. Whether that is because they are using reliable birth control or they are making choices to protect and value their virtue as the treasure that it is. I’ve also prayed that men would honor and protect the women in their lives and not use them for their own cravings without being in a committed relationship.
The other thing I have prayed about is that people would recognize adoption as a noble choice in which a woman, not wanting to parent, can offer her child as a priceless gift to another couple or family wanting to grow their family through adoption. Yes, it would require self-sacrifice and courage but it can be one of the most rewarding choices. We always feel more empowered when we can take a bad situation and turn it into a good one.
I also pray that society would re-think abortion. In light of the technology of ultrasound, we can no longer claim this little human life as just being a “blob of tissue,” as it was explained to me those many years ago. I meet women regularly who regret their abortions, more so after they begin having children and realize the impact it had on their lives. Many were coerced and didn’t feel they even had a choice. Women deserve better than abortion.