40 Days For Life vigil opens near Planned Parenthood
About 40 pro-life advocates kicked off a 40-day vigil against abortion on Wednesday outside Planned Parenthood Greater Memphis Region on Poplar.
For the next 40 days, someone will be there from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. in prayer, hoping to convince women that abortion is against God’s will.
“If they could just choose God and trust him, we can help them,” said Libby Parks, one of the rally organizers.
There have been 18 Memphis 40 Days For Life, which started in fall 2008 and are held every fall and spring, Parks said.
“We’re in front of Planned Parenthood for 40 straight days from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. to offer help, hope and love to women or anyone going into the building,” she said. “These babies are human beings, and it’s wrong that we’re destroying their lives. The most dangerous place in the United States is the womb.”
As they rally a few feet from Life Choices, a crisis pregnancy agency, the group made available a list of similar centers throughout the Mid-South that provide alternatives to abortion and counseling and support after an abortion.
“We don’t just leave them, we offer them help,” Parks said as she praised adoption as an alternative to abortion.
“We’re not going to leave them behind, we’re not just interested in the baby being born and that’s it. They do continue to get help if they need it,” she said.
Since the pro-life campaign began here, they’ve saved 100 babies from abortion and directed more than 32 women to post-abortion counseling, said Kathy Worthy, campaign director.
“It’s a very good turnout. I just wish it would be more, but it’s a work day,” Worthy said.
Planned Parenthood’s main business is abortion, Worthy said.
“And we’re past that. We know it’s a baby. There’s always hope and love and adoption. No child ever chooses to die,”
she said.
Dr. Robert Shearin, a retired surgeon, has been an opponent of abortion since the 1970s.
“There is no historical, medical, legal or social reason to support abortion,” Sherarin said.
The activists stood on the sidewalk prayed, waved signs and were supported by many, who tooted their car horns in solidarity.
The 40 Days For Life Campaign will run through April 9 in cities in all 50 states and 40 participating nations, with a mission of community outreach, prayer, fasting and peaceful vigils to end abortion.
“It’s just a ministry that God has called me do,” said Darlene Jarrett. “I believe like the Lord says, God is the author of life and I just want to take a stand for life. And we do it in love.”
It was by design that protesters refrained from using more disturbing signs with pictures of an aborted fetus or other more aggressive tactics, said Cheryll Loe, who kept vigil as her 11-monthold granddaughter, Camilla Wade, grew drowsy in her stroller.
“We want them to know that God loves them and there is a plan. There’s a purpose for every life,” Loe said. “So, we want them reach them with love. We don’t want to scare them into doing the right thing or gross them out into doing the right thing or offend them so they won’t listen to what we have to say. We want to offer them hope.”
Reach Linda Moore at linda.moore@commercialappeal.com, on Facebook at Linda Anita Moore and on Twitter at @LindaAnita.