What do you call a principle without any practice?

A phantom, because it doesn't have life or body!

With that Halloween-style lead-in, we'd like to invite you to join us during Respect Life Month putting our pro-life principles into practice. It doesn't take a national revolution to create tangible changes in society. Just one video posted by a pro-life individual saved Baby Myles.

Here are 3 things you can do during October to save babies, change lives, and give hope. Respect isn't an idea, it's an action. Being pro-life, as so many of you show us every day, is a verb, not a noun. Using your time like this member, and holding a sign at the abortion facility, literally saves lives. 

TAKE ACTION DURING RESPECT LIFE MONTH!

OUR 2020 VISION IS PRO-LIFE

1.  Join 40 Days For Life. Sign up for a couple hours per week. If you would like to join someone who's done it before, please send us a note. We'll partner you with someone! Statistics show that no-show rates for abortions rise to over 50% when there's just ONE person outside the clinic. Be that person!
2. Join the Massachusetts Walk for Life (virtually!). Clock 5 to 15k (or more) from now until the deadline for the R.O.E. Act. Here are some great ideas on how to make this a safely-distanced but still strong statement in defense of our women and preborn children. Much like other virtual walks, raise as much support as you can by asking friends and family to support you; and then walk or run whenever you can. (Have your official fundraising link set up by emailing C.J. - cj@masscitizensforlife.org)
3. Join the first-ever Dr. Mildred Jefferson Symposium ONLINE, featuring a debate on the question, "Is Abortion Immoral?" A great opportunity to invite friends who may be pro-choice or on-the-fence, or get your chapter together for a watch party. Stay tuned for official registration details!

Join the Fall 2020 40 Days for Life Campaign.

The last two years, MCFL has partnered with and sponsored the multiple 40 Days for Life campaigns in Massachusetts. The national movement, whose call to action has brought countless women hope and thousands of peaceful witnesses to use their presence to protect the unborn, returns on this Fall. "COVID, of course, was a concern," said one local leader, "But we can be safe and still show up for the unborn."

Scheduled for Sept. 23 through Nov. 1, the twice annual pro-life campaign strives to protect unborn babies from abortion through peaceful vigils outside abortion facilities, community outreach, prayer and fasting.

This year, while our members gear up to stand out for the children at Boston, Worcester, Beverley, and Western Massachusetts locations, we're also providing training on how to witness during a pandemic. A few key practices our members will be paying special attention to this Fall are:

• Social distancing. [ Keeping at least 6 feet distance between themselves and others ]
• Masks. [ All vigil participants will be wearing masks to reduce exposure to airborne pathogens. ]
• Signs, no literature. [ Instead, members will print local pregnancy help numbers large on their signs. ]
• Digital media. [ Our members have made signs with lists of apps, such What to Expect ,  or Little One Pregnancy App, both  pregnancy tracking applications for iPhone or Android smartphones. The in-app ultrasound images provided by these apps have saved many lives. ]

Since it began in 2007, witnesses with 40 Days for Life have seen over 17,226 babies rescued from abortion and 107 abortion facilities close, with nearly 206 abortion workers quitting during the campaigns as well.

What is crucial to these campaigns is their foundation: 40 Days is community-based and compassion-focused. The grassroots, as Martin Luther King Jr. remarked, is the only foundation for social movement that builds lasting societal hope and change. Some ways members and witness continue to offer support to women and families is by throwing baby showers, holding diaper drives, and by both referring women in-need to safe community support (food banks, housing, etc) or by offering it themselves.

“It’s important to be there because it really can help the women realize that they don’t have to choose abortion, that there are other options that aren’t going to be so detrimental,” said one woman, Jaylyn Smith, who now leads campaigns in Utah. 

We could not agree more. Our culture is one that shouts out options! in every arena, from the supermarket to the Planned Parenthood clinic. But when it comes to offering women true equality and support to choose their health and the health of their child, it just has one word: Abortion.

With 40 Days for Life, we continue to demonstrate that health and healthcare include both mother and baby. We make a list of countless options, and just our presence will repeatedly show women like this one that there's hope -- we we're there to support her before, during, and after the birth of that baby.

Go to 40 Days for Life today and search for your town/city to sign up for the Fall vigil as an MCFL member!

Donate to support the MCFL 40 Days For Life team.

by Steven Hardy, MCFL Member, Boston

The 40 Days for Life Bosto 2020 Campaign Launch was held at Saint Catherine of Siena parish in Norwood on February the 23rd. A Mass was celebrated by Fr. Michael McNamara, followed by a powerful talk from Patricia Sandoval, known as the primary voice for the preborn, and women healing after abortion, in Mexico.

At the Mass, Fr. McNamara delivered a homily in which he touched on our responsibilities towards those in need, particularly the preborn, as well as the need to show love towards our friends and neighbors who believe abortion should be legal. 

Following the Mass, Patricia Sandoval shared the heart-wrenching story of her upbringing, which lead to three abortions, a brief stint working at a Planned Parenthood facility, and a rock-bottom in drug use and homelessness. It was at that bottom, feeling utterly lost, that she recalled a childhood memory, and began to pray.

She then recounted how  the answer to that prayer -- one stranger -- changed everything for her.

While crying and praying with her eyes closed and her head downcast, she all of a sudden felt a firm and warm embrace. She opened her eyes to see a waitress from a restaurant across the street who had seen her and felt compelled to help. This proved to be the turning point for Patricia. The waitress helped her to reunite with her mother, who had also been praying for this for some time.

Mrs. Sandoval’s incredible story is a testimony of the power of how the actions of one person can have an enormous impact. That waitress not only saved Patricia’s life by acting out of love for a stranger in distress, but by sharing her story, Patricia is likely saving the lives of countless others by inspiring us to be that one stranger who acts out of love for a woman in distress about to enter an abortion facility. 

Have you joined the MCFL-sponsored 40 Days Vigil in your community?

SIGN UP FOR YOUR HOUR: 40 Days in Boston

Look up Boston, Worcester, Beverly, and Springfield here.

Be the one who makes a difference -- Join MCFL today.

Support our work.

Sofia Infante, Communications Intern

[Director's note: 40 Days began as a religious campaign, and we invite all of our religious members to join on that basis. But the act of abortion is a human rights issue, not a religious one. Many of our secular advocates also participate, and we encourage everyone and anyone to follow their passionate example of outreach and vigil, with or without prayer, during a 40 Days Campaign.]

This year I am looking forward to participating in my first 40 Days for Life, and am grateful MCFL has sponsored the campaign in Massachusetts.

This mission-based campaign reaches women-in-need at ground-zero, and directs people’s attention to the impact of abortion in their own communities. The 40-day campaign, including vigils and witness at an abortuary, highlight the need and offer a life-affirming solution. Here are five reasons why I am already counting down the days until next year’s 40 Days for Life:

• 40 Days fosters a greater sense of community and a shared feeling of responsibility for our neighbor’s well-being

By Rita Russo, Coordinator of 40 Days for Life campaign, Boston

Our third Friday night Candlelight Vigil will be on March 2 and led by Fr. Jurgen Liias and the seminarians from Pope St. John XXIII Seminary.

We are looking for 40 parishes to Witness for Life this Lent, one for each day of the campaign. A participating parish signs up to dedicate a particular daily Mass and Eucharistic adoration at the parish. All-day adoration would be great or a Holy Hour, if that’s what you can do.

We invite those who are able to come to the Vigil location, outside Planned Parenthood, 1055 Commonwealth Ave, Boston. Learn more by visiting 40daysforlife.com/boston.

Things are going will in our Witness for Life Initiative. I received this lovely email yesterday from Sister Carmen Christi of the Daughters of St. Paul:

Dear Rita,

Count all our community, 70 strong, united in prayer for the 40 Days for Life Campaign, with special prayers throughout this day of Eucharistic Adoration.

God bless you. 

Here is the current list of participating parishes: