40 Days for Life
A Vision of Healing for Central Ohio

Our nation is sick and in need of healing.  The blood of millions of aborted children cries out as do the martyrs under the heavenly altar, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” (Rev 6:10).  Millions of women lament and weep, greatly mourning as Rachel did, “weeping for her children, and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more” (Jer. 31:15).

Every day throughout the world, 1.2 million children die from abortion.  This number is staggering and more than we can comprehend.  787 thousand people live in the City of Columbus.  Today the populations of nearly two cities the size of Columbus are killed in their mothers’ wombs.  Abortion is a global crisis. 

Every day in the United States, 3,700 children will die from abortion.  While smaller, this number is still hard to grasp.  Today more children will die in our nation’s abortion holocaust than people who lost their lives in the incomprehensible 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.  Abortion is a national crisis.

Every day in Franklin County an average of 15 children die from abortion.  Columbus Public Schools’ average first grade class size is 18 to 23 students.  Today more than half of a future classroom will be torn limb from limb in their mother’s womb and thrown out as medical waste along with used syringes and bloody bandages.  Abortion is a local crisis.

And this local crisis demands a local response.

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.  2 Chronicles 7:14

This is the clarion call of 40 Days for Life. 

After His disciples had unsuccessfully tried to exercise a young boy of a demon, Jesus charged the demon to leave the boy and never return, which he did.  When the disciples asked Jesus why they had been unsuccessful, He replied, “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting.” (Mark 9:29)

As we enter into the 40th year of legalized abortion, could it be that what we are dealing with one that can only come out by prayer and fasting?

I believe so.

40 Days for Life is a focused, community-wide campaign of fasting and prayer, outreach and constant vigil at a local abortion center.  It goes to the core of the abortion crisis – the spiritual wickedness that
has led so many in our community and throughout the world to believe that abortion is good for women, good for families, and good for our community. 

40 Days for Life is a simple but radical solution to the local crisis of abortion.  It’s simple because it’s a natural extension of our Christian faith – praying, fasting, and sharing God’s truth and love with those around us.  It’s radical because it calls for a radical faith and a radical commitment.  It calls for a faith that is confident in God’s promises:  “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.  And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.” (1 John 5:14-15).  It calls for a commit to do what others may think is foolish, but “. . . the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.” (1 Cor. 1:25).

Since 2007 Greater Columbus Right to Life has sponsored our local campaign, which has included a daily 12-hour vigil.

It’s time to kick it up a notch.  Can you imagine the spiritual impact of 40 days of a nonstop prayer vigil? That’s 960 hours of non-stop prayer.  

     • When the abortionist and his staff arrive at work – we’ll be there
     • When someone goes out to grab lunch or take a  smoke break – we’ll be there
     • When their working day is over and they head for home – we’ll be there.  

We’ll be there praying for the women, for the families, for our community – and for the abortionists and their staff.  We’ll be there witnessing the love of Christ to a fallen and hurting world.

Can you imagine a day when Franklin County no longer has four abortion facilities but only three because God answered our prayers and closed the Complete Healthcare for Women abortion business?  I can – but it’s only the starting point.  I can also imagine a day when the last abortion facility in central Ohio closes its doors because it simply cannot stand up against the weight of our fasting, prayers, and commitment to make visible God’s declaration that all life is sacred.  I can see that day in my mind’s eye, and I know that day will only come as Jesus said it would – with fasting and prayer. 

Imagine with me, pray with me, and celebrate with me as we watch God turn our vision into reality.

Always for Life,


Ruth Yorston
Executive Director