40 Days for Life, 1/2 Way Through & A Look At the Effects of the Abortion Crisis on America
Today marks the halfway point in the Fall 2012 40 Days for Life Campaign. So far there have been at least 198 babies saved from abortion due to the various campaigns. So far, we have not heard of any lives saved here in DBQ with our local campaign. That doesn't mean we aren't having an effect.
While there is more traffic at some times than others, there are always at least a few cars going past the site each hour. So whether there is 1 of us or 10 of us out there praying, we are a Pro-life witness to them. & to the people working at Planned parenthood or their, as they call them, clients.
Last Thursday evening when I was out there, a young man came by. When he went by the 1st time he walked on to the road & said "honk-honk!" like when many of the cars do as they pass. When he came back he stopped to talk to us, explaining why he did what he did, his wife had the car & he usually honks. He then talked to us about why we were there as well as shared a little about his family.
Sunday nite we had our midpoint rally at St. Joseph the Worker School Gym. The purpose was to share what has gone on so far as well as encouraging us to persevere. The openning prayer was lead by Fr. Noah Diehm associate pastor of the Spires of Faith Catholic Church Cluster. Next Hebrews 12:1-4 was read. Then Fr. James Parker pastor of St. Mary's Catholic Church in E DBQ & Nativity BVM in Menominee spoek on perseverance. As a part of his talk he shared part of the story of Father Walter Ciszek, SJ & his experiences as a prisoner in the Soviet Union. This included sharing a bit of what Fr. Chizek shared in 1 of his books about his struggles.
Next up I spoke on the abortion crisis & a reminder of how 40 Days was a part of the solution. I will share more about this later in the post. Then there was a slide presentation of pictures taken of those praying in front of the DBQ Planned Parenthood. After a short word of encouragement to increase our efforts people were asked to share their experineces. The evening ended with a closing prayer by Fr. Deihm & a blessing by Frs. Deihm & Parker.
Now back to what I said in my talk. On Saturday afternoon I went to the Power of Prayer Adoration Chapel in DBQ to pray about the talk, seek God's guidence on what to write & write it. As I was writing it, I was inspired to put the number of deaths of babies by abortions into a way that was easier to grasp than just the huge number of 54-55 million is. So, when I got home I did the preliminary research to get the numbers I needed. That night, for reasons you will soon see, I had trouble sleeping. Sunday afternoon I wrote that part of the talk.
So what did I do that upset me so as I better grasped the reality of the numbers dead via abortion?
I broke down that number to smaller sizes & compared them to various populations.
Before I go any farther, I need to make it clear that the number of abortions is approximate. The Centers for Disease Control does not require each state to report the number done each year. & not every state does. So the numbers aren't complete. & it takes a The propaganda arm of Planned Parenthood also puts out its estimates. So those in the pro-life movement have to use this info to make a reasonable guess that is probably, even at the higher end, lower than the actual number done. (Higher end estimate, lower end estimate). My assumption was that we would reach 55 million by the 40th Anniversary of Roe v Wade next year.
Doing that I came up with an average of 1.38 million abortions each of the 40 years. Estimates make it more like 1.2 million in recent years, but since I was covering the whole 40 year period I went with the 1.38 million number. Regardless, the average number of abortions done daily is about 4000.
Next I looked up the various populations of local communities, counties etc. This is what I came up with. & this is why I am sure I had trouble sleeping the night before based on my preliminary estimates.
Based on those numbers we see the following
The number of abortions done in 1/2 a day is approximately the population of East Dubuque, IL.
For 1 day it is about equal to the population of Asbury or Dyersville in Iowa.
2 Days about equals the population of Platteville, WI
My hometown of Oelwein, IA & adding nearby Hazleton - 1-1/2 to 1-3/4 days
Frome here on I will do the area followed by the time for which the number of abortions done approximately equals the population of that area.
Dubuque - just over 2 weeks
Add in the area immediately arround DBQ (including Asbury, Key West & E DBQ) - almost 2-3/4 weeks
Dubuque County - just short of a month
The tri-county area (Dubuque in IA, Jo Davies in IL & Grant in WI) - 6 weeks
Iowa - just over 2 years
Finally I took the total number of abortions done over 40 years. To get to that number I added the populations over every state arround Iowa - Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, N & S Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas & Missouri. But that only brought me to a little under 39 million people. So I had to add in half of the population of Canada, in particular, Ontario, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, British Columbia & Alberta, in order to reach the total number of abortions done. On Saturday nite, when I did a rough estimate in my head, I thought I would have to toss in all of Canada. As much as I could be relieved at the fact, when I did the final crunch, I was able to save half of Canada from death.
Now can you see why I had trouble sleeping?
Since abortions were legal we have wiped out the equivelent of the entire populations of 9 States & 5 Provinces. But because the deaths have been over time rather than occurring all at once or over a short period of time, we haven't fully grasped the damage that abortion has done to America.
Imagine if a plague struck & that many people dead in a short period of time, don't you think people would be screaming for something to be done to stop it.
Think about how that many deaths in so short a time would affect our county. Even though that number has been spread out over 40 years, it still has had an effect. We may very well have lost the person who would find a cure for cancer or AIDS. We may have lost the next Beethoven, Bach, Shakespeare, Jonas Salk, Albert Einstein or Madame Curie. Think of the effect this has had on our economy. Over half of those babies would be working by now, paying taxes, paying into Social Security etc. How many jobs aren't there because there wasn't the need for diapers, baby clothes etc., as well
I know that most of you aren't familiar with the local communities I referenced. but you do have similar sized communities where you are. Use them to help you better grasp the reality of what abortion has done to your community.
This afternoon a Pro-life friend of mine who was at the rally brought up the Moving Wall Memorial that is in DBQ. The wall lists the deaths of Americans in Vietnam over a 20 year period from 1955-75. It lists a little over 58,000 names. She pointed out that number is close to the population of DBQ. In short, the number of deaths that took place over 20 years in Vietnam equals the number of babies that die from abortion in a little over 2 weeks.
Let me expand on that. if you take the total number of American military deaths in every war, excursion, police action, etc., since 1775, it only equals the number of deaths of American babies in 1 year due to abortion.
I hope & pray that this serves to encourage all of you to redouble your efforts to fight abortion & build a "Culture of Life" instead. Again we need to start, end & undergird our efforts with prayer. Then we must do what ever else we can, from supporting & electing true Pro-life candidates, to speaking out (talking to friends, writing letters to the editor, your local, state & federal representatives, etc.), to praying in front of the local abortion clinic.
1 death of a baby by abortion is too many. 55 million is demonic evil at its worst.
Last Thursday evening when I was out there, a young man came by. When he went by the 1st time he walked on to the road & said "honk-honk!" like when many of the cars do as they pass. When he came back he stopped to talk to us, explaining why he did what he did, his wife had the car & he usually honks. He then talked to us about why we were there as well as shared a little about his family.
Sunday nite we had our midpoint rally at St. Joseph the Worker School Gym. The purpose was to share what has gone on so far as well as encouraging us to persevere. The openning prayer was lead by Fr. Noah Diehm associate pastor of the Spires of Faith Catholic Church Cluster. Next Hebrews 12:1-4 was read. Then Fr. James Parker pastor of St. Mary's Catholic Church in E DBQ & Nativity BVM in Menominee spoek on perseverance. As a part of his talk he shared part of the story of Father Walter Ciszek, SJ & his experiences as a prisoner in the Soviet Union. This included sharing a bit of what Fr. Chizek shared in 1 of his books about his struggles.
Next up I spoke on the abortion crisis & a reminder of how 40 Days was a part of the solution. I will share more about this later in the post. Then there was a slide presentation of pictures taken of those praying in front of the DBQ Planned Parenthood. After a short word of encouragement to increase our efforts people were asked to share their experineces. The evening ended with a closing prayer by Fr. Deihm & a blessing by Frs. Deihm & Parker.
Now back to what I said in my talk. On Saturday afternoon I went to the Power of Prayer Adoration Chapel in DBQ to pray about the talk, seek God's guidence on what to write & write it. As I was writing it, I was inspired to put the number of deaths of babies by abortions into a way that was easier to grasp than just the huge number of 54-55 million is. So, when I got home I did the preliminary research to get the numbers I needed. That night, for reasons you will soon see, I had trouble sleeping. Sunday afternoon I wrote that part of the talk.
So what did I do that upset me so as I better grasped the reality of the numbers dead via abortion?
I broke down that number to smaller sizes & compared them to various populations.
Before I go any farther, I need to make it clear that the number of abortions is approximate. The Centers for Disease Control does not require each state to report the number done each year. & not every state does. So the numbers aren't complete. & it takes a The propaganda arm of Planned Parenthood also puts out its estimates. So those in the pro-life movement have to use this info to make a reasonable guess that is probably, even at the higher end, lower than the actual number done. (Higher end estimate, lower end estimate). My assumption was that we would reach 55 million by the 40th Anniversary of Roe v Wade next year.
Doing that I came up with an average of 1.38 million abortions each of the 40 years. Estimates make it more like 1.2 million in recent years, but since I was covering the whole 40 year period I went with the 1.38 million number. Regardless, the average number of abortions done daily is about 4000.
Next I looked up the various populations of local communities, counties etc. This is what I came up with. & this is why I am sure I had trouble sleeping the night before based on my preliminary estimates.
Based on those numbers we see the following
The number of abortions done in 1/2 a day is approximately the population of East Dubuque, IL.
For 1 day it is about equal to the population of Asbury or Dyersville in Iowa.
2 Days about equals the population of Platteville, WI
My hometown of Oelwein, IA & adding nearby Hazleton - 1-1/2 to 1-3/4 days
Frome here on I will do the area followed by the time for which the number of abortions done approximately equals the population of that area.
Dubuque - just over 2 weeks
Add in the area immediately arround DBQ (including Asbury, Key West & E DBQ) - almost 2-3/4 weeks
Dubuque County - just short of a month
The tri-county area (Dubuque in IA, Jo Davies in IL & Grant in WI) - 6 weeks
Iowa - just over 2 years
Finally I took the total number of abortions done over 40 years. To get to that number I added the populations over every state arround Iowa - Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, N & S Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas & Missouri. But that only brought me to a little under 39 million people. So I had to add in half of the population of Canada, in particular, Ontario, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, British Columbia & Alberta, in order to reach the total number of abortions done. On Saturday nite, when I did a rough estimate in my head, I thought I would have to toss in all of Canada. As much as I could be relieved at the fact, when I did the final crunch, I was able to save half of Canada from death.
Now can you see why I had trouble sleeping?
Since abortions were legal we have wiped out the equivelent of the entire populations of 9 States & 5 Provinces. But because the deaths have been over time rather than occurring all at once or over a short period of time, we haven't fully grasped the damage that abortion has done to America.
Imagine if a plague struck & that many people dead in a short period of time, don't you think people would be screaming for something to be done to stop it.
Think about how that many deaths in so short a time would affect our county. Even though that number has been spread out over 40 years, it still has had an effect. We may very well have lost the person who would find a cure for cancer or AIDS. We may have lost the next Beethoven, Bach, Shakespeare, Jonas Salk, Albert Einstein or Madame Curie. Think of the effect this has had on our economy. Over half of those babies would be working by now, paying taxes, paying into Social Security etc. How many jobs aren't there because there wasn't the need for diapers, baby clothes etc., as well
I know that most of you aren't familiar with the local communities I referenced. but you do have similar sized communities where you are. Use them to help you better grasp the reality of what abortion has done to your community.
This afternoon a Pro-life friend of mine who was at the rally brought up the Moving Wall Memorial that is in DBQ. The wall lists the deaths of Americans in Vietnam over a 20 year period from 1955-75. It lists a little over 58,000 names. She pointed out that number is close to the population of DBQ. In short, the number of deaths that took place over 20 years in Vietnam equals the number of babies that die from abortion in a little over 2 weeks.
Let me expand on that. if you take the total number of American military deaths in every war, excursion, police action, etc., since 1775, it only equals the number of deaths of American babies in 1 year due to abortion.
I hope & pray that this serves to encourage all of you to redouble your efforts to fight abortion & build a "Culture of Life" instead. Again we need to start, end & undergird our efforts with prayer. Then we must do what ever else we can, from supporting & electing true Pro-life candidates, to speaking out (talking to friends, writing letters to the editor, your local, state & federal representatives, etc.), to praying in front of the local abortion clinic.
1 death of a baby by abortion is too many. 55 million is demonic evil at its worst.
Labels: 40 Days for Life, Planned Parenthood
posted by Al @ 6:41 PM
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