Recently our area was in the national spotlight and for something different than the normal “football, strange weather, or economic indicator” reasons. If you have your ear to the tracks at all, you have read or heard about the director of our local Planned Parenthood resigning and joining the Bryan [Texas] based national ministry “Coalition for Life.”

In all the interviews I have heard or read, Ms. Abby Johnson is asked “Why?”

She always answers the same, having viewed an abortion via ultrasound, she watched a baby fight for it’s life and die struggling. She says at that moment she decided she was on the wrong end of this business.

It is an amazing story and one that has sent shockwaves through both the pro-abortion and right-to-life camps. Before I had even heard the story a friend in Iowa sent me a text asking what I was doing down there in Texas? As if I had anything at all to do with this!

So what did really happen?

Yes, I understand that Ms. Johnson saw a child murdered. Yes, I understand that it repulsed her and she realized that she was not helping women, but assisting in their and their baby’s destruction.

But WHAT happened? I would like to offer you what I believe is the reality of this woman’s miraculous change of heart.

On any given Saturday, and on many week days, the grass outside Bryan Planned Parenthood is occupied by a small group of “protestors.” They face the building, not the street, which might be confusing to you as you would expect protestors to face the traffic which was passing by. Instead, with their backs to the street, and their heads bowed, they face the clinic where women are lied to and children are murdered.

And they pray.

Having stood with them on several occasions, they pray for our Lord Jesus to change hearts and minds. They pray for the Holy Spirit to move upon those whose pregnancies have caused them distress, as well as those who are counseling them. They pray for our country, for our leaders, and for the babies whose lives are at great risk. They pray!

In a discussion that has become completely politicized, closely divided by party lines and dogmatized to the point that real debate rarely happens, our brothers and sisters at Coalition for Life have chosen the most effective approach. Instead of seeking a promise for a political candidate whose real mind has long been made up, they have approached The One who changes minds long made up.

If abortion is the great evil which the Catechism and the Scriptures teach it is, then the most appropriate way to combat evil is to invoke the Name that is above every name. We have long looked at elections as the primary way to effect change. Perhaps we have been seeking to influence the wrong ones.

January is typically the month we remember the Supreme Court decision which paved the way for abortion on demand as it is practiced in our county. Since the 1970s, “life issues” have become so much more than abortion. Now in our national debate we discuss assisted-suicide, euthanasia, forced birth-control, and numerous end-of-life issues. If I have learned anything from this event in my own front yard, it is that the prayer of the righteous is effective and that “the gates of hell cannot withstand it.”

Lord Jesus, have mercy on us. In Your great grace, preserve Life in our world. Amen.

prrcb