Pro-Life Women to Complete 250 Mile Prayer Walk on Good Friday
Dozens of pro-life women will complete their 21-day and more than 250-mile trek from Houston – the home of the nation's largest Planned Parenthood center – to Dallas, Texas, on Good Friday.
The Back to Life prayer walk's mission is to amplify female voices speaking out against the injustices of abortion, with each woman participating representing one year of legalized abortion in the United States since the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling. There will be a total of 39 women participating in the walk. To date, abortion has killed more than 54 million Americans.
The founder of Back to Life, Laura Z. Allred, said the voices of women in their 20s and 30s are not always heard in the abortion debate, but they are the ones directly impacted by it.
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According to the Back to Life website, "58 percent of total abortions in our nation are from the demographic of 20-something women; the abortion industry is specifically targeting them, and they are responding by sending a message of life in their generation."
All of the 39 women walking are in their 20s and 30s. Some have had abortions and others are survivors of abortion. The Back to Life website states that these women "represent the stand for life in the midst of a culture of death."
In a video from day eight of the walk on the organization's website, a young African American woman, Lasondra Spears, said she was walking "on behalf of the African American community."
Speaking from the side of the road in Madisonville, Texas, she said that "one out of every two [African American] babies doesn't have a chance to make it out of the womb alive."
According to the U.S. Center for Disease control, since 1973, abortion has killed roughly 13 million African American children.
The women will end the walk this Friday at a rally in front of the Cabell Federal Courthouse in Dallas, Texas, where it all began with the Roe v. Wade case.
They will partner with The Esther Call, a national pro-life prayer event sponsored by Christian leader Lou Engle's prayer organization The Call. The Esther Call is named for the biblical figure Esther and her role in saving a nation.
Engle wrote in a blog post that the Esther Call and the Back to Life walk are important moments in the history of our nation, and are a call "on Good Friday to pray for an undeserved mercy in America, the rescuing of our children and healing of women."
Focus on the Family President Jim Daly said on his organization's blog that people often say that there is nothing ordinary people can do to overturn abortion, that "the matter rests with the Supreme Court, which appears in no hurry to overturn the ruling."
But he said "they are wrong," and movements like Back to Life are important in the pro-life fight.
"Historically, gatherings of like-minded people have helped to start and build the momentum of great movements," he said. "The cause for life is no different."
