Your life? $385 please

"Would you like to sign up for '40 days for Life?"  The old lady asks me.

I know about 40 days for Life. My best friend, LH, is really involved in the Pro-life movement and so I'd heard about the program. It's a 40 day prayer vigil to end abortion. 

Last year there was adoration at Father's house. People would rotate in and out of the little chapel in constant devotion to Christ praying for the end of abortion and for healing of those affected by it. In my head I think, YES! I LOVE Adoration! I can spend some Q&T with Jesus and privately pray to end abortion! SWEET!

So I sign-up - excited about adoration. Well, telling you that I'm super holy because I signed up for a weekly adoration slot to help end abortion wouldn't really make a good story - which is awesome - because that isn't the story. I hadn't read the fine print. It wasn't adoration I had signed up for - it was to be a prayer warrior - a sidewalk prayer warrior - a sidewalk prayer warrior who prayed outside of the abortion clinic...

And the worst part - I had signed up for a Friday. One of 3 days when they actually perform abortions.

 

"oh no", I thought, "not good. I do NOT want to pray in front of an abortion clinic. awk-ward. I don't want to be thought as one of those crazy lunies who hold signs saying, 'Pray to end abortion' and chants the 'Hail Mary' over and over as if the girls going in really care. What? Me? No. I can't do that."

STOP

Interesting thought here - here I am, claiming to be passionately Catholic - totally devoted to Christ and His teachings. But am I? I began to ask myself: Is this what a follower of Christ should feel? Is this how a follower of Christ should think? Is this how Christ would want me to respond?

I ask myself, what is the single most important piece of God's creation?

The answer: That which is made in God's image and likeness. Translation: Us. Humans. People. We.

Why am I too afraid to face the devil and claim Christ's victory over sin? Why am I more afraid of what the women and their boyfriends think of me, than the innocent life of their child? Being politically correct and arguing 'It's a woman's right to choose' sure makes me popular - but what about that little girl's choice to be born?

LH is my best friend because on Saturday morning, she dragged me out of bed, to mass and then, to the clinic. And I stood next to some Hispanics chanting 'Dios te salve Maria' and holding signs that said, 'Pray to end abortion.' and images of Our Lady of Guadeloupe. And it felt awkward. I kept my head down - maybe some people thought I was deep in prayer, but the reality was I was too afraid to look at the people walking in and out of the clinic. I felt so stupid. I didn't want anyone passing by to think I was judging or condemning anyone - 'I'm not crazy, I LOVE you!' I thought in my head.

Girls kept coming out of the clinic holding little blue bags, "You know numbers are down 30% since 40-days started." commented Mrs. A - one of the organizers of the event. As the next person began a new decade of the rosary I whispered to LH, 'What are those little blue bags for?' LH ran to a box and came back with a Planned Parenthood Pamphlet about the Abortion Pill. She whispered in my ear, 'On your first visit they give you a drug that stops your body from giving nutrients to the baby. Then in 3-4 days they take a second pill which is in the little blue bags. It causes uterine contractions and forces the dead baby out."

Your baby at only 4-weeks. Photo taken by mother who miscarried.

I looked at a young woman walking out of the clinic with a little blue bag and imagined the reality of what was inside of her - a corpse. a lifeless infant. something dead. something murdered. 

They were walking coffins.

"What they don't tell the women," Lori continued, "Is that you actually SEE the baby when it comes out. I mean, it's tiny, but you can see head, arms, little fingers- it's a real baby. and it can be really traumatizing for them." 

Guess what? Lori's right.  

A 10-week old baby in the hands of her abortionist. 

According to Planned Parenthood, 1 out of 3 women in the United States will have an abortion by the time they reach age 45. Reading that shocked me. 1 in 3?? It just seems like so many. But what do those number means?

• For every 1 soldier who has died in battle defending the United States for our last 12 wars, (this includes WWI and WWII) 73 children have been aborted
• Approximately 42 million abortions occur worldwide. That figure alone is nearly 16% of the current US population. 
• This number is greater than the population of Sweden, Norway, Lithuania, Latvia, Ireland, Iceland, Finland, Estonia, and Denmark combined. 
• Abortion worldwide kills more people every 2 months than the Holocaust did in 12 years 

If you go to the Planned Parenthood website, it says "Women have abortions because they care about themselves and their families or their future families"

Am I the only one who sees the irony in that? 

An fetus reaches out and grabs the hand of one of her doctors during a life-saving corrective surgery before her birth. 

For years I've been a pro-life person - I've attended rallies and voted pro-life - but I've never really  felt personally attached to it....until now. Now- the war is personal. So hauntingly personal. I can't stand on the sidelines anymore just letting evil happen. We need prayer. Lots of prayer. And the daily reminder, that Christ has already won. 

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." - Edmund Burke