The photo that you see above contains the abortion stats for the years 2019 and 2020 in Pittsburgh. The abortions are broken down by facility (Planned Parenthood and Allegheny Reproductive doing the most), with Magee Hospital coming in third, and a smaller number committed at West Penn and Shadyside. You can see that Planned Parenthood commits about 3500 abortions each year, with Allegheny Reproductive (in East Liberty) committing about 2500. Between these two free-standing abortion clinics, Pittsburgh loses 6,000 of its smallest citizens every year.
Since the fall of 2010, our 40 Days for Life has managed to keep a prayerful presence in front of Planned Parenthood…but no organized Christian witness has happened in front of Allegheny Reproductive. (There are three very dedicated individuals; Judy, John and Margie, who go there every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday morning…but that is all…other than some Franciscan Students who come for an hour on Saturday mornings.)
At Planned Parenthood we have had the joy of being there to offer an extended hand of help and mercy to those who are looking for a way out…who, in their hearts do not really want to have an abortion, but feel pressured and alone and are doing it out of fear. Just last week I had the great privilege of attending a baby shower (held by the wonderful people at Lincon Place Church of the Nazarene) for a dear couple who changed their minds during our Lenten campaign. They were at the shower with their 3 small children, who helped them to open the gifts…so excited about their new sibling. If Meredith, Judy, Linda and other sidewalk prayer warriors hadn’t been there when they arrived at Planned Parenthood for the abortion, that little one would simply be a number on a page…just another statistic.
Ever since I recieved these statistics from Allegheny Reproductive (until now we had never been able to obtain them, so we didn’t know how many they do), I have felt a tugging at my heart that we need an organized 40 Days for Life campaign in front of Allegheny Reproductive. I have called national 40 Days to ask about the possibility and they have informed me that we need to be careful not to take anyone away from our established campaign at Planned Parenthood. We don’t want any of our wonderful volunteers to get burned out by us asking too much of them, and it is important to keep our sidewalk witness strong and vibrant at Planned Parenthood.
This means that if it is God’s Will that we have a second 40 Days for Life campaign at Allegheny Reproductive, we will need to recruit enough NEW PEOPLE to maintain the 12-hour per day sidewalk prayer witness. That means we need 80 PEOPLE to each step up to volunteer a two-hour shift once a week during this fall’s 40 Days for Life (Sept. 28th – Nov. 6).
We will also need someone to volunteer to be a LEADER of the second campaign, as national told me that each campaign needs its own leader! If someone volunteers to be a leader, it doesn’t matter to me which campaign I lead…I can stay at PP or move to East Liberty.
So, if God is stirring your heart to lead a 40 Days for Life campaign in Pittsburgh this fall, please let me know! And if you are not a regular volunteer on the sidewalk at Planned Parenthood, but are bothered by the fact that each year over 2,000 babies die at Allegheny Reproductive with no one to pray and witness for them…please respond to this request and let me know if you can be part of a fall 40 Days for Life campaign at Allegheny Reproductive! If you want to learn more about this abortion facitility, here is their website:
Allegheny Reproductive Health Center
Thank you for being part of our pro-life family here in Pittsburgh! It is wonderful to see how God is hearing and answering our prayers! We continue to pray and fast for the safety of our Supreme Court and for an over-turning of Roe!
Diaper Drive was a huge success! Thanks to all who dropped off Diapers at Planned Parenthood last Saturday!
The Diaper Drive was a great success! Thank you everyone!! We had my car full by 10am and were problem solving what to do when diapers came in. Bill H. said Catholic Charities was open for a special program. My husband, Dick went to talk to them and Catholic Charities was ecstatic! They had run out of some diaper sizes and could not complete some of the Parenting Packages! For all of our problem solving, God had a plan to take care of 2 problems at once!!❤️❤️🙏🙏 A thought for next year…some people ordered on line and had the diapers sent directly to Catholic Charities. I love to see everyone, but if you can’t get downtown, getting diapers to babies is our #1 priority.
Thank you 40 Days for Life for, once again, coming thru big time for Babies! ❤️❤️🙏🙏Charlene
Thank you for the post. I’m happy to hear that the diaper drive was a success! It’s great that 40 Days for Life exposes couples to the options available to them at a very difficult time in their lives in such a caring, understanding way.