The amazing untold stories of the power of prayer and peaceful vigils to save lives, change hearts, and end abortion are shared in the new book, The Beginning of the End of Abortion: 40 Inspiring Stories of God Changing Hearts and Saving Lives.
The book, written by Shawn Carney, president/CEO of 40 Days for Life, which since 2007 has saved more than 14,000 children through prayer vigils outside abortion clinics and peaceful community engagement, is now available.
“Despite nearly 50 years of legalized abortion in the United States, the pro-life movement has more momentum now than ever before at the most important level—the local level,” Carney said.
Of using 40 inspiring stories, Carney noted that the number 40 has special significance in the Bible—such as the 40 days of rain causing the great flood and Jesus spending 40 days in the wilderness—and in his organization.
“We are actively building a culture of life in more than 750 cities in 50 countries,” he said. “From women courageously choosing life at the last moment to abortion workers having a change of heart to abortion facilities closing at a record pace the last five years, we are seeing the beginning of the end of abortion.”
“The Beginning of the End of Abortion” opens with a foreword from Sue Thayer, the former manager of a Planned Parenthood facility in Storm Lake, Iowa, who experienced a change of heart and then organized a 40-day prayer vigil outside her old facility, which eventually closed.
“From my days with the abortion giant, I knew how much Planned Parenthood despises 40 Days for Life,” Thayer wrote. “40 Days of Torture they would call it. Or worse. But I had witnessed firsthand the chaos and struggle inside the clinic whenever someone was outside praying. I knew it moved hearts.”
Carney added, “After decades of legalized abortion, the pro-life movement is now a movement of converts—the women who have had an abortion, workers who have participated in abortion and men who have paid for abortions. This is a movement of converts and therefore a movement of hope. These stories highlight the hope happening in neighborhoods across America and around the world.”
The 40 Days for Life volunteers use prayer and fasting, 24-hour vigils and community outreach to save lives, inspire abortion workers to quit and close abortion facilities, such as the one in Bryan, Texas that now serves as the headquarters of 40 Days for Life. Since going national in 2007, the ministry has mounted more than 5,600 campaigns in 50 countries. It will hold a nationwide campaign in the U.S. Sept. 26 through Nov. 4.
In a chapter about campaigns in Columbia, Missouri, the book noted that often “abortion doctors don’t want to travel to where the abortion numbers are down—because they need to make a minimum amount of income per trip to make the trip worthwhile. Many such ‘circuit rider’ abortion doctors wanted easy trips with no one praying outside …”
Christian leaders such as Mike Huckabee, Alveda King and Eric Metaxas have endorsed The Beginning of the End of Abortion. Of the many heroes profiled in the book, readers will meet:
- A volunteer in a wheelchair who was spat on, then inspired a couple to choose life for their baby.
- A woman who helped save hundreds of babies from abortions, then learned she was almost aborted.
- A doctor who heard prayers and singing in the pregnancy center next door and never performed another abortion.
- A woman who called the wrong number instead of Planned Parenthood and was talked out of an abortion.
The book can serve as a devotional guide, with one story, Scripture and devotional thought every day for 40 days. For more information on The Beginning of the End of Abortion, please visit 40daysforlife.com/book.
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