Monday, August 25, 2008

40 Days for Life Campaign Coming to 170+ Cities in US and Canada this Fall

Exciting news from our brothers and sisters in Washington:

WASHINGTON, Aug. 25 /Christian Newswire/ -- "We may be on the verge of a turning point in the battle against abortion," said David Bereit, national campaign director of 40 Days for Life. "Response to our call for communities to participate in this fall's 40 Days for Life campaign has exceeded our wildest expectations." More than 170 cities will take part in this effort from September 24 through November 2.

The community-based 40 Days for Life campaign features 40 days of prayer and fasting, round-the-clock peaceful vigil outside an abortion facility and grassroots educational outreach. Simultaneous campaigns will be conducted coast-to-coast – and internationally – as part of a unified outreach in some 170 communities. In a number of those communities, peaceful vigils will be conducted at multiple abortion locations.

"We're especially pleased to see three Canadian cities joining 40 Days for Life this fall," said Bereit, noting that campaigns will be conducted in Toronto, Ottawa and Halifax. "As there will also be a campaign in Washington, D.C., this means that 40 Days for Life will have a presence in the capitals of two nations. We firmly believe
that this campaign of prayer and fasting will have a profound impact."

In all, 40 Days for Life events are taking place in 45 states, the District of Columbia and two Canadian provinces. The list of participating cities is online at www.40daysforlife.com/location.cfm.

"The spread of 40 Days for Life is amazing," said Bereit. "The growth of this outreach is a reflection of the excitement that people are expressing about the many ways 40 Days for Life impacts a community. This program is being embraced by cities conducting their first 40 Days for Life and those who are planning their second, third, or – in the case of Bryan/College Station, Texas – fourth campaign."

Bereit noted that more than 75 of the 40 Days for Life prayer vigils will be held outside of Planned Parenthood facilities. "Planned Parenthood is a special concern because it is the nation's largest abortion provider," said Bereit. Planned Parenthood's latest annual report shows some 290,000 abortions performed in a single year – almost one fourth of the total number for the entire United States.

"This fall marks a critical time for our country and our culture, and this heartfelt effort to pray and fast for an end to abortion is crucial with regards to our future and what sort of nation we wish to become," said Bereit. "We hope to share the truth about what abortion does to every community where it is practiced, and to make this fall the beginning of the end of abortion in America."

40 Days for Life Madison Web Site Goes Live

The official Web site for 40 Days for Life Madison went live this week!

Visit http://www.40daysforlife.com/madison/ for your one-stop shop for information on this fall's prayer vigil.

Click here for a complete 40 Days for Life schedule, including information on organizational meetings, events, and the hours that need to be filled.

"Truly children are a gift from the Lord; the fruit of the womb is a reward" -- Psalm 127:3

Saturday, August 23, 2008

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Fetus. Mass of tissue. Blobs of cells. And, perhaps, our personal favorite: "products of conception."

The pro-abortion lobby uses a lot of deliberately misleading and cleverly crafted language to justify killing the unborn. Which should come as no surprise. Movements that kill a lot of people always use dehumanizing language to conceal the fact that they engage in murder.

But if the old adage is true, and a picture is worth a thousand words, the lies and deceit of the abortion crowd is bound to fail. Check out the following link to see a famous 1999 photograph of Samuel, who was operated on to treat spina Bifida at just 21 weeks in utero.

http://www.michaelclancy.com/

Monday, August 18, 2008

40 Days for Life at the Madison Diocese Family Picnic

Madison 40 Days for Life had a booth at the Diocese of Madison's family picnic yesterday. We met a lot of great, pro-life people who will be joining us in prayer outside of Planned Parenthood this fall.

If you'd like 40 Days for Life to have a booth at your church's summer festival, let us know. If you get us in, we'll staff the booth!

Sunday, August 17, 2008

From Conception to Natural Death

While the direct goal of 40 Days for Life is praying to bring an end to abortion, we believe it is the duty of all Christians everywhere to protect the sanctity of life from conception to natural death. Abortion, assisted suicide, human cloning, euthanasia, contraception, and embryonic stem cell research are all threads of evil woven together to create the pall that drapes our society.

The culture of death is sneaky. Its agenda often advances through dubious court rulings or obscure policy changes. Anti-life laws are often enacted before the faithful have time to react. As such, we want to inform you of critical developments in the State of Washington, where our brothers and sisters--like our pre-born brothers and sisters--are in desperate need of our prayers.

In November, the State of Washington will vote whether to legalize physician-assisted suicide. If the measure passes, doctors would be allowed to legally prescribe deadly drugs to ill patients with the sole purpose of killing them.

The list of reasons to oppose this initiative is seemingly endless. However, numerous aspects of the proposed law are particularly troubling:
  • Physicians would be allowed to encourage patients to end their lives.
  • Government and private health insurance providers would have incentive to pay for suicide drugs rather than more expensive palliative and therapeutic drugs. In fact, this has occurred in Oregon, the only state with legal physician-assisted suicide. Cancer patient Barbara Wagner received a letter from the Oregon Health Plan informing her that a drug that could extend her life is not covered by the state-funded insurance plan. However, the letter did inform her that the state would pay for her to commit suicide.
  • Patients suffering from depression and mental illness would not be required to undergo counseling before committing physician-assisted suicide.
  • Requests for the fatal drugs would not need to be made in person. Instead, they could be phoned in, picked up, and administered by an acquaintance of the patient.

Like every other movement in the culture of death, this initiative is driven by lies. Official death certificates would not list suicide as the cause of death. Instead, the patient's initial diagnosis would be listed.

Furthermore, a judge has ruled that neither the initiative, nor the state's official pamphlet describing it may use the term "physician-assisted suicide."

Jessica Skelton, an attorney and proponent of the initiative said the term is "politicized language" that "implies a value judgment and carries with it a social stigma."

It also happens to be an accurate description. And so, when telling the truth impedes the eugenicist goals of this country's death profiteers, they did what they always do: change the meaning of words.

It's worth noting that the Netherlands, which became the world's first country to legalize physician-assisted suicide more than a quarter century ago, has moved on to euthanasia. More than 1,000 patients each year are killed by their doctors without any input in the decision.

Let us pray for a renewed respect for life, not just in the Madison area and not just for the preborn, but for all human beings around the world.

I call Heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live...

-Deuteronomy 30:19

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

And the Truth Shall Set You Free...

South Dakota's only Planned Parenthood location has chosen to shut its doors rather than tell the truth about abortion.

South Dakota's new Abortion Informed Consent Law requires abortionists to inform mothers in writing that abortion "terminate[s] the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being." The law took effect last month when it was upheld by the US Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Planned Parenthood's response: Close up shop. No abortions have taken place in South Dakota since the court's decision.

This, of course, is great news for Christians everywhere. America is blessed to finally have a state free of the legalized slaughter of children--even before Roe vs. Wade is repealed. The Prince of Lies has been exposed.

The tremendous victory in South Dakota is also great news for women--particularly mothers who might have considered abortion. By the mandate of law, they will hear the truth. And the truth shall set them free.

For more information, see LifeNews.