DES MOINES--March 18, 2008--Thank you to all who participated in the 40 Days for Life! The peaceful prayer vigil, which ran from February 6–March 16, 2008 outside the local abortion or Planned Parenthood facility at 1000 East Army Post Road in Des Moines was a big success!  Over 622 hours were prayed for the babies and their mothers outside Planned Parenthood – even in the middle of the night.

 

Neither rain, snow, nor hail stops the mailman. The same can be said for pro-lifers, who turned out faithfully for their shift despite extreme cold, snow and rain. Iowans are a hearty stock and pro-life Iowans, even more so.

 

Thank you for the churches from all faiths, that signed up for a day and filled in the hour time slots. Thank you also to the college students from Iowa State’s Students for Life group, who came down from Ames, despite their busy class schedules. Thank you also, to the people who could not make it to Des Moines, who signed up to pray from their own homes and in groups.

 

Just how effective was the Iowa Right to Life 40 Days for Life? Interestingly, while Iowans were united in prayer for those 40 Days with 59 cities in 31 states simultaneously praying for the end of abortion, the abortion industry suffered a few setbacks:

 

• The State of Virginia voted to end state funding to Planned Parenthood

 

• Iowa’s Rep. Steve King sponsors a bill seeking to de-fund Planned Parenthood nationwide, based on Planned Parenthood’s marketing pornography to children through www.teenwire.com

 

• A fired CFO of Planned Parenthood of Los Angeles exposed Planned Parenthood for misspending $180 million of taxpayer dollars.

 

• Republicans in the Florida Legislature introduced a bill to declare that life begins at conception.

 

• Students at UCLA exposed several Planned Parenthoods across the country for enthusiastically accepting donations from a “fake” donor who said his goal was to kill black babies.

 

• A Senegalese immigrant sued a New York Hospital for aborting her healthy baby, after misdiagnosing her as having an ectopic pregnancy

 

• New York Governor, Elliott Spitzer, who as an attorney general tried to prosecute pro-life pregnancy centers, was forced to resign from office after a prostitution scandal.

 

Prayer is powerful!! And we can all make a difference! Please continue to pray for an end to abortion and for a change in the hearts of those in the abortion industry!