40 Days for Life fights Christian apathy, pro-abortion hostility

BALTIMORE—At a rainy vigil Thursday night on a sidewalk near the Whole Women’s Health abortion center in the Fullerton community of northeast Baltimore, 40 Days for Life founder and director, David Bereit, encouraged a crowd of 45, hunkered under umbrellas, to let their waterproof glow sticks shine. Gesturing to the cars streaming by on Route 1, he reminded his soggy audience, “You don’t know who is impacted by what we’re doing.”

Jody Ward, 57, who in February 2013 started the Fullerton campaigns with her husband Rick, 59, shared an example. A year ago, a young woman approaching Whole Women’s Health to keep her appointment decided to drive past. On Tuesday of last week, the woman’s mother came to the abortion center parking lot to show Ward a picture of her 3-month-old grandson. “Thank you so much for what you’re doing,” she told Ward tearfully, explaining that her daughter had second thoughts when she saw 40 Days for Life volunteers praying and holding signs.

This baby, Bereit continued, is one of the “10,000 confirmed saves” worldwide since the first 40 Days for Life campaign in late 2007. About 8 million children have been aborted in the United States during that time. I asked him after the vigil what constitutes a confirmed save. He defined it as a case where an abortion-minded woman reports her change of heart to 40 Days for Life staff or to a crisis pregnancy center (crediting 40 Days), or if her transformation there “on the sidewalk is clear and obvious.” He did admit he “can’t guarantee she didn’t return three weeks later,” but he surmised for every confirmed save there are likely many more that go unreported.

Although most vigil hours pass with little drama, positive or negative, a few opponents have reacted with more than just angry shouts and obscene hand gestures. On March 23, a 52-year-old woman allegedly tossed a Molotov cocktail at a 40 Days for Life group praying outside an Austin, Texas, Planned Parenthood. She was arrested soon after the incident. Still, Bereit told me that since 2007 there have been fewer than 10 acts of violence directed against 40 Days volunteers.

“General persecution—yelling, vulgarity, ridicule—is most frequent on the West Coast, and there is quite a bit of hostility in the U.K.,” he added.

From the beginning, Bereit’s greatest disappointment has not been in opponents’ hostility but Christians’ apathy. Bereit, 46, said he is dismayed “more churches and more clergy don’t see the moral imperative to rally against the staggering loss of life.” He suggested if a town does not have an active pro-life presence, the neighborhood abortion facility should hang a sign on its front door that reads, “Open with the blessing of the local Christian community.”

An increasing number of Christians who do not want abortion centers in their communities are taking up Bereit’s challenge. Since 2007, 40 Days for Life has conducted more than 3,500 campaigns with 650,000 volunteers in 27 countries, including Croatia, New Zealand, and Uganda.

“The world is watching,” Bereit said.

While in England recently, a campaign leader told him, “The British don’t like to admit such a thing, but we’re looking to the U.S. for moral leadership. If you want to end abortion in the world, end it in America.”