The 40 Days for Life campaign will be launched Feb. 17 and run through March 28 in more than 160 cities in Canada, Australia and the United States.
Canadian locations will include Montreal, Toronto, Guelph, Edmonton, Red Deer and Kelowna. There will also be regular pro-life witnessing outside the Morgentaler abortion mill in Ottawa and Cabbagetown abortuary in downtown Toronto, although these are not 40 Days events per se.
Nicole Campbell, Campaign Life Coalition’s 40 Days for Life director, says “our community will be uniting with dozens of other cities across North America for the largest and longest coordinated pro-life mobilization in history.”
The campaign, which has three key components – prayer and fasting, a peaceful vigil, and community outreach – has resulted in 2,168 saved babies, 26 abortion workers leaving their profession, and the closing of five abortion sites – and reduced hours in many more.
Campbell told The Interim, “Our presence at the abortion mills may be the only human love they (the unborn babies) will know before they die.” But, she added, 40 Days for Life is about more than stopping abortion. “We are also there for the women, and their conversion.” She said 40 Days for Life is not a protest but a ministry that “saves babies and souls.”
This is the fourth campaign in Canada, although the vigils in Kelowna, Guelph and Red Deer are new locations. Campbell said while there is usually an early enthusiasm for the campaign, the challenge is to maintain the regular vigils for the duration of the 40 days. The Toronto 40 Days for Life at 960 Lawrence St. West will run from 7 am to 9 pm daily.