ABOVE: Pastor Bob Doody offers opening prayer at campaign start.
By James Mostrom, contributing writer & photographer
Prayer, fasting and helping others — those are the practices of Lent. They are also the pillars for the 40 Days for Life campaign that started this past Ash Wednesday in Syracuse.
Wind and bitter cold did not deter over a dozen pro-life advocates from gathering outside Planned Parenthood on East Genesee Street to kick off their 31st campaign with a midday prayer service. The biennial event is part of an international effort to inform women with unplanned or crisis pregnancies of life-affirming alternatives to abortion and to assist them and their babies with resources and referrals to local pregnancy-care centers.
Jeanie Owens and Shannon Guy have been organizing this local effort for 15 years. As co-leaders, they also train sidewalk counselors, called Advocates, in how to approach women considering abortion in a gentle and non-confrontational manner to inform them of their alternatives.
Shannon Guy gives encouragement while Jeanie Owens (L) and Rabbi Jacob Rogers (R) look on.
Other volunteers participate through prayer, vigil and fasting. According to Guy, just their presence on the sidewalk can impact a woman’s decision whether to keep an appointment with the facility. A source, said Guy, “has told us from the inside what happens when there’s serious prayer on the sidewalk, and she said that [there is] up to 75% no-show rate in the clinics when there are people that are gathered [outside] in prayer.”
Owens also put an emphasis on prayer and fasting in her remarks to the group. “Let’s start with a blank slate and look at these 40 days knowing that we have an opportunity … there’s so much good with our prayer, fasting and sacrifice.” Owens added, “We just show up, you know. Some of us come to pray, we pray silently or with our prayer partner. We’re not necessarily even reaching out, but just your presence here has saved lives. It’s amazing. So don’t underestimate that, while you’re standing here day in and day out in the freezing cold.”
Guy said the special spring Lenten campaign “is a time of reflection, repentance, and renewal. And certainly, we’re going to bring it right here to the sidewalk as well … we know that we have a special mission here. That’s why we’re all here standing in the freezing weather, offering our prayers and our sacrifices to God to overcome the evil of abortion in our city and across our country.” Guy referred to the promise of 2 Chronicles 7:14, that if we repent and call on God’s name, he will heal our land.
Guy also emphasized the necessity of approaching this campaign with “only love, no judgment. It’s 100% just bringing God’s love out to the sidewalk and … asking for God’s healing of our land. And that love is going to grow.” She reminded the participants to consider the workers in the business. “We also know that we are praying for the directors, the nurses, the doctors and everybody that works at this clinic. We all have to be united in the dignity and the sanctity of life and work with God towards bringing his gifts and his graces and his children into the world.”
Bill Downer has been coming out once or twice a week regularly for 10 years. He comes to support the counselors, and sometimes he hands out pamphlets himself. “I want to avoid God’s judgment on the United States of America because of the shedding of innocent blood,” he said. And he wants to see the clinic eventually closed.
Carolyn “Lyn” Paddock is another “regular” who has also been coming out weekly over the past three or four years to pray on the
Sidewalk stalwarts (L-R): Shannon Guy, Jeanie Owens, Carolyn Paddock, and Elizabeth Mostrom.
sidewalk. “I’d like to see New York State change its stupid laws,” she said, referring to the Reproductive Health Act which allows for abortions throughout pregnancy, even up to birth.
Owens gave a spark of hope to the group: “We heard of another life spared last week, so praise God! Someone that our … Advocates for Life reached right here on the sidewalk last week was able to get life-affirming care, and she’s choosing life for her baby.”
Finally, Rabbi Jacob Rogers from the Messianic Jewish community in Syracuse gave a reflection about how life includes special fleeting moments of delight and decision. “Life is truly made up of profound passing moments,” he said. “We often don’t realize the gravity and the impact of our decisions and our experiences … until much later after the fact.” He continued, “Over the next 40 days, we’re going to meet people in that same position [of unplanned pregnancy] … doing the things that they think are right in the moment. … They don’t understand the gravity of what truly is happening here.”
He added, “We have the opportunity to be that wise and godly counsel for them. Repentance, forgiveness, love, reconciliation, restoration. Those are the pillars of the Gospel. We have the opportunity to participate in the work of the Gospel right here on the sidewalk over the next 40 days by being present.”
This year the campaigns are expected to reach over 1,000 cities in 63 countries. The mission of 40 Days for Life, based in Bryan, Texas, is to end abortion locally by focusing on prayer and fasting, educational community outreach, and peaceful vigil in front of abortion businesses. So far, it is credited with saving 24,242 babies from abortion (and probably many more). It has seen 148 abortion centers close and 256 abortion workers quit. More information may be found at 40daysforlife.com.
New Hope’s “Stork” bus offers mobile services to women with crisis pregnancy.
To sign up for the local Syracuse 40 Days for Life campaign, contact Jeanie Owens at Syracuse40daysforlife@gmail.com or through the website 40DaysforLife.com/Syracuse.
Women facing unplanned or crisis pregnancies locally can reach out for help to the following:
- Birthright of Onondaga County at 315-479-5807, birthrightsyr.org
- New Hope Family Services at 315-437-8300, Newhopefamilyservices.com
Project Rachel offers help to women seeking hope and healing after an abortion and is offered through the Diocese of Syracuse. Contact Lisa at 315-424-3737 or 855-364-0076, hopeandhealing@syrdio.org
