By Jessica Able, Record Staff Writer
The 40 Days for Life campaign began Sept. 26 and will continue through Nov. 5. The prayer campaign is held twice a year — in the fall, coinciding with Respect Life Month, and during Lent. It calls for peaceful prayer, vigil, fasting and community outreach to bring an end to abortion.
The vigil takes place outside the EMW Women’s Surgical Center, 136 W. Market St. Volunteers who sign up for shifts gather on the sidewalk and pray. They pray in hour-long shifts 24 hours a day.
All people who participate in the prayer vigil are asked to conduct themselves in a “Christ-like manner at all times,” a news release from the organization said.
Laura Grijalba, who coordinates the local campaign, said she prays these efforts “will help mark the beginning of the end of abortion in Louisville.”
The nationwide effort to pray for an end to abortion began in 2004 in Bryan and College Station, Texas. Since then at least “14,643 unborn children’s lives were spared from abortion, 177 abortion clinic workers converted and 96 abortion centers closed during 40 Days for Life campaigns,” Shawn Carney, president of 40 Days for Life, said in the release.
For more information or to sign up to take part in the prayer vigil, visit www.40daysforlife.com/louisville or contact Laura Grijalba at la.grijalba@att.net or 475-5403.