WAUSAU (WAOW)--The nationwide movement 40 Days for Life kicked off Wednesday. The group's Wausau-based chapter will be walking and praying outside the Family Planning and Health Services location on Third Avenue until November.
Cathy Stephan spent an hour on Wednesday afternoon walking along the sidewalk, praying the rosary. "It's more a prayer vigil, it's not a protest," she said.
According to the group's website, 40 Days for Life is committed to finding peaceful ways to end abortion. Stephan said the local group believes the same. "We're catholic so we pray rosaries and we're asking God to help save the lives of unborn children who might be at risk today from abortion."
Stephan said she and other members of the group will walk for hours, back and forth in front of Family Planning for the next 40 days. People in cities across the United States will also be doing the same.
But officials at FPHS said while the demonstration might be peaceful, it is still in your face. Family Planning Director Lon Newman said he and his staff believe the work they are doing is making a difference. "We do far more in a year to prevent abortion than any other folks standing out in front of the clinic that are protesting."
Stephan disagrees, saying the methods Family Planning uses to prevent abortions promote unhealthy behaviors. "We don't agree with their philosophy of passing out contraception to teens," she said.
Not so, said Newman. "It's not our patients who are having unintended pregnancies. It's the people who aren't using contraception that are having unintended pregnancies and that's the cause for abortion."
Both groups plan to continue promoting their message, whether it be through prayer or signs posted on the FPHS building, along Third Avenue.
The 40 Days for Life campaign ends on November 6th.
