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The Forty Days Before Thanksgiving
This past November, participants in the 40 Days for Life movement completed a time of prayer and fasting on behalf of the unborn and their mothers, and for the conversion of all involved in the abortion industry. The intention is for a real conversion of heart to take place in people’s hearts to bring an end to the abortion holocaust world-wide.
Participants in Phoenix, Arizona began their peaceful observance of 40 Days by gathering to hear pro-life leaders in the area explain the great battle that is being waged, in every sector of society, between the forces of life and the forces of death.
AZ Representative Nancy Barto
Arizona State Representative Nancy Barto spoke about bills she sponsored, and which were passed this year, placing a ban on partial birth abortion in Arizona and requiring parental consent, signed by a notary, when a minor requests to have an abortion. Representative Barto served for several years as Chairman of Health and Human Services in Arizona. She explained how this recent victory in Arizona was the fruit of much long waiting and arduous work. As a Catholic working actively in society to instill values which favor human life, she communicated to the participants in 40 Days her own modus operandi: “We cannot accomplish the defense of life without God’s spirit. Our work begins with fervent prayer, fasting, and listening, and ends with obedience, belief, and action on the vision.”
“We need God’s intervention,” Representative Barto said, “but God will not move until we take action, until we do something with our own efforts.”
Amazing Conversion
While this Fall’s 40 Days was well underway, an amazing conversion experience took place in the heart of a Planned Parenthood director. She worked at Planned Parenthood in the same town where 40 Days was founded – Bryan, Texas.
Fox News reported on her conversion, stating: “Abby Johnson, 29, used to escort women from their cars to the clinic in the eight years she volunteered and worked for Planned Parenthood in Bryan, Texas. But she says she knew it was time to leave after she watched a fetus ‘crumple’ as it was vacuumed out of a patient’s uterus in September.”
“When I was working at Planned Parenthood I was extremely pro-choice,” Johnson told FoxNews.com. But after seeing the internal workings of the procedure for the first time on an ultrasound monitor, “I would say there was a definite conversion in my heart … a spiritual conversion.”
Johnson said she became disillusioned with her job after her bosses pressured her for months to increase profits by performing more and more abortions, which cost patients between $505 and $695.
A Bishop’s Support
The Bishop of Phoenix, Most Reverend Thomas J. Olmsted, served as a bridge between Christians of all denominations in the Phoenix area. Speaking at an ecumenical event, he noted that the period of forty days represents a time of repentance, renewal, and grace. “We pray for the conversion of those who support abortion, that their hearts will be opened through humility... In order to be an effective instrument in changing the hearts of others, our own hearts must be filled with humility and charity. If there is any ounce of pride within us, we will not be effective instruments. If we are united in prayer, the 40 Days will be a time of grace.”
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