40 Days for Life CEO and President Shawn Carney announced on Sunday that the public vigil portion of the current 40 Days for Life campaign has been suspended due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. According to the statement, the suspension was effective immediately.
Carney wrote to supporters, “This was the toughest decision I’ve made serving as President & CEO of this lifesaving movement, but I feel it is the right one. Since we did the first campaign back in 2004, I have visited over 530 vigil locations, and the safety of your family during a campaign is and will always be my number one priority.”
Carney continued, “Fulton Sheen often criticized the world for wanting Christ without His cross. He said, “When we look at Christ on the cross, we feel involved.” The Coronavirus is a cross in our lives and the world right now. We all can’t help but feel involved as we adjust our own lives and unite with those health workers on the front lines, government leaders, medical professionals, and those families who are sick or have lost loved ones. We are all involved, and I pray this cross does not go without drawing my family, your family, and our broken world closer to Jesus Christ. For He can’t help but bring good out of this if we stay close to Him during this difficult time.”
READ: Abortion industry attempts to capitalize on COVID-19 pandemic to expand abortion
Also on Sunday, Live Action News noted that the pro-abortion magazine VICE took aim last week at 40 Days for Life’s continued peaceful, prayerful presence outside of abortion facilities worldwide even as some countries limited the size of social gatherings to minimize the spread of coronavirus. As noted by Live Action News, in addition to failing to provide evidence that 40 Days for Life participants had violated these safety guidelines at even one location, VICE saw no reason for abortion mega-facilities, like the one in Houston, to modify or halt operations.
While 40 Days for Life ultimately altered course in the name of public safety, where is the outcry from abortion supporters over the willful violation of public safety by Ohio’s abortion facilities and those in other states as well, which are refusing to halt surgical abortions despite a mandatory halt on non-essential and elective procedures? Abortion — the intentional taking of an innocent human life — is never medically necessary and certainly shouldn’t be elective. Taking the lives of preborn children is always wrong, but certainly during efforts to preserve human lives during a pandemic, it is especially tone-deaf.
In a Monday email to supporters, Carney noted that 276 babies were known to have been saved during the first 25 days of the public campaign. He noted that the “prayer, fasting, and spiritual union” which have characterized 40 Days for Life will continue in private. Carney encouraged supporters to continue following along for more updates from the campaign on the 40 Days for Life podcast.
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