40 Days for Life participants hear about importance of year-round presence on the sidewalk

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The president of Mizzou Students for Life said seeing those who stand in the gap every day to help people turn away from abortion inspires her to keep making her own sacrifices.

Their prayerful determination in the face of taunts and inconveniences emboldens her to withstand persecution by fellow students on campus.

“Because I know you exist, I have the hope to encourage our members to come to meetings and have these very important conversations on campus,” said Kaitlyn Banning, a biomedical engineering major at the University of Missouri and president of the campus chapter of Students for Life.

Ms. Banning, who had to move out of student housing last year because of the death threats she received, spoke to more than 100 people who attended the 40 Days for Life Columbia Campaign Closing Rally and Dinner on Nov. 4 in the St. Andrew Parish Hall in Holts Summit.

Members of the parish’s Knights of Columbus Council 8400 prepared and served the meal.

Each person who attended the rally received a book titled What to Say When: The Compete New Guide to Discussing Abortion, by Shawn D. Carney and Steve Karlen.

Mr. Carney is president and CEO of 40 Days for Life International, which helps organize 40 Days for Life campaigns throughout the United States and abroad.

40 Days for Life is a peaceful, intensive campaign that focuses on 40 days of prayer and fasting, peaceful vigils at abortion facilities, and grassroots educational outreach.

The 40-day timeframe is drawn from examples throughout Biblical history where God brought about a world-changing transformation in 40-day periods.

Columbia was one of 561 cities that held simultaneous campaigns from Sept. 27 to Nov. 4 this year.

The local campaign draws volunteers to pray in the public right-of-way outside the abortion-referral facility at Columbia Planned Parenthood.

“We have so much to be thankful for!” said Kathy Forck, campaign director for Columbia 40 Days for Life, at the closing rally. “We completed our 14th year of prayer on the sidewalk with many faithful supporters, new and old, who have joined us in prayer both on the sidewalk, at home, or wherever you may have been.”

Abortions no longer take place at the facility, but referrals do.

Ms. Banning told the audience that the goal of Mizzou Students for Life is to transform the culture on campus that celebrates abortion to one that celebrates life.

She said it breaks her heart to see girls and young women her age walking into the Planned Parenthood in search of out-of-state abortion referrals.

“Then, I see you guys go and talk to them,” she stated. “You start conversations and let them know that they have other options. It’s so good to know you’re doing what you’re doing.”

“It’s working”

“I’m here to tell you that you’ll probably never know in this life how important your presence out there is,” Heather Gardner told the crowd at the closing rally. “Your dedication is so much more powerful than you realize.”

She said each former abortion clinic employee who gets prayed out of the industry says, “Keep doing what you’re doing. It’s working.”

“With all of that, we know we’ve got to continue,” said Ms. Gardner, director of campaign advancement for 40 Days for Life 365, and keynote speaker at the closing rally.

She talked about being pro-life since her grandmother explained the “abortion stops a beating heart” sign on her car.

“I asked her what it meant, and she told me in an age-appropriate way,” Ms. Gardner recalled.

From that conversation forward, Ms. Gardner knew that abortion was wrong.

She started writing papers and giving talks on the subject at school.

She was studying at Texas A&M University in College Station when the 40 Days for Life Campaign was getting started. Friends from school and from church encouraged her to stand with them outside the large and very busy Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in the city.

“They invited me to go and pray and put my convictions into action,” she said.

Afraid of what might happen out there, she kept deferring.

“It can be very scary because we understand that death is happening right behind those walls,” she stated.

Finally, she did go out and pray on the sidewalk.

It took several more invitations to bring her back.

“Then, my friends said I should learn to be a sidewalk counselor, who greets women at the facility, reaches out and gives them love and hope and resources and talks to them about reconsidering abortion,” she said.

She thought they were crazy.

“No way I could do something like that!” she said.

Her friends persisted in inviting her to attend the sidewalk-counselor training. She finally went just to get them off of her back.

She found out during the training that while the College Station area has a large Christian population, not enough people were signing up to pray outside the abortion clinic.

“I realized that if I’m not doing anything about it, I can’t complain about anyone else not doing anything,” she stated.

An unexpected visitor

Ms. Gardner kept going out to the sidewalk, relying ever-more radically on God’s help and protection.

Right before she graduated, Mr. Carney, director of Coalition for Life, of which 40 Days for Life is a part, invited her to come and work for the coalition.

She felt unqualified, and she had other plans.

“I fought it the whole way,” she recalled. “But then, the doors to the other things I was pursuing started to close. So, I figured I’d go to work for the coalition temporarily.”

That was several years ago.

She began suspecting that she was on the right track when she started experiencing spiritual warfare in her personal and professional life.

Her spiritual director gave her a book written by Norma McCorvey, who was the “Jane Roe” plaintiff of the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion-on-demand throughout the United States.

“She wrote about how angry it used to make her when people prayed outside the abortion facility,” Ms. Gardner said.

“But they kept on loving and praying and finally broke the callouses on her heart, and they prayed her out of the industry,” said Ms. Gardner. “It was miraculous!”

The book was just what Ms. Gardner needed to regain her joy and motivation.

A short time later, she was working at the Coalition for Life office when the manager of the nearby abortion clinic arrived in tear-soaked clothes, sobbing and saying she didn’t want to be part of the abortion industry anymore.

At first, Ms. Gardner did not believe her, but it soon became clear that Abby Johnson meant what she was saying.

Mrs. Johnson went on to become an ardent pro-life advocate and to write a book that was adapted into the popular movie, “Unplanned.”

“We wound up becoming very close,” said Ms. Gardner, who is now the godmother of two of Ms. Johnson’s children.

Worth it

Ms. Gardner spoke of a time when she was praying alone, in intense heat and humidity, outside another abortion clinic that was next to an auto-repair shop.

“It was miserable,” she recalled. “I was out on the sidewalk, having a pity party. It was super-hot, super-humid, I was super-alone, and abortions were going on inside.”

Just then, a man who was having his car fixed came up and asked what she was doing.

She explained that she was praying for the women going inside, and trying to offer them alternatives.

The man’s face lit up.

“You guys saved my baby!” he told her.

He said, “Keep doing what you’re doing! I wouldn’t trade my baby for anything. She’s the best thing that ever happened to me!”

“It matters”

Ms. Gardner invited everyone at the closing rally to sign up to help keep the sidewalk outside the Columbia Planned Parenthood covered with prayer throughout the year.

“Keep going further out of your comfort zone,” she exhorted. “You have friends. Invite them to come with you. Do it because it matters. Do it because it works.”

Mrs. Forck noted with distress that the number of abortions performed in states neighboring Missouri has shot up since Missouri became an abortion-clinic-free state.

All the more reason to be present and be ready to help mothers and fathers and families find alternatives instead of traveling to get an abortion.

That’s why sidewalk counselors and the prayer warriors who support them need to be out on the sidewalk whenever Planned Parenthood is open and giving referrals, she said.

For information about 40 Days for Life 365 in Columbia or to sign up to take part in a sidewalk vigil, visit 40daysforlife.com/columbiamo.

For assistance or for more information, contact Mrs. Forck at 573-821-5130.