Abby Johnson ran a Texas Planned Parenthood until the people praying outside her fence won her over.
Twenty-two years later, that same prayer campaign is back outside Planned Parenthood, and the abortion industry can't stop it.
In upstate New York, one plea from the sidewalk reached a military couple walking into Planned Parenthood.
40 Days for Life Prayer Vigil Saves a Baby at Watertown Planned Parenthood
The 40 Days for Life fall campaign kicked off September 23 and runs through November 1.
In Watertown, New York, a military couple arrived at the local Planned Parenthood for an abortion, with the husband about to deploy.
The 40 Days for Life volunteers on the public sidewalk made one simple appeal.
"Please don't do it. Save your baby!"
That's what these vigils are.
A stranger who cares enough to speak up at the last moment it can still make a difference.
The couple went inside anyway, and the volunteers kept praying.
According to 40 Days for Life co-founder Shawn Carney, the couple came back out together, smiling, and chose life.
A service member shipping out will come home to a son or daughter because somebody showed up on a public sidewalk to pray.
And the Watertown vigil is growing.
Local leader Flora reported that the kickoff rally drew 10 newcomers from two churches that had never joined before.
Milwaukee Couple Chose Life After an Hour Inside Planned Parenthood
Watertown wasn't the first save of this campaign.
In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a couple headed for an abortion spent an hour inside Planned Parenthood while volunteers prayed outside.
When they walked out, the volunteers asked what they had decided.
"I am pregnant. We changed our minds. We are keeping the baby!"
Read that again and picture the people on that sidewalk hearing it.
In Beaverton, Oregon – one of the most pro-abortion states in America – the group's general counsel, Matt Britton, found a vigil run by veterans of the movement who keep showing up year after year.
26,714 Babies Saved From Abortion and 187 Abortion Centers Closed Since 2007
40 Days for Life reports 26,714 babies saved since its first nationally coordinated campaign in 2007.
The group also counts 279 abortion workers who walked off the job and 187 abortion centers that shut their doors.
The oldest of those children are old enough to vote in the November 2026 elections.
The abortion industry knows exactly what a peaceful person on a sidewalk can do to its bottom line.
That's why it keeps trying to push them off.
Federal Court Blocks Clearwater Abortion Buffer Zone Targeting Sidewalk Counselors
Clearwater, Florida, used an ordinance to wall off 38 feet of public sidewalk outside an abortion facility whenever it was open for business.
Public sidewalks are the most protected free speech ground in America.
The Thomas More Society sued on behalf of Florida Preborn Rescue and its volunteers.
The Eleventh Circuit sided with the counselors in December 2025, and in March 2026 the city agreed to a permanent federal injunction blocking the ordinance.
Thomas More Society senior counsel Tyler Brooks said Clearwater "tried to use the pretext of 'safety' to drive these pro-life advocates off the sidewalk."
Translation: Clearwater wasn't protecting women.
It was protecting the abortion business from customers who might change their minds.
From Abby Johnson's Unplanned Story to the Watertown Sidewalk
The Left has spent two decades treating these volunteers like a threat.
Biden's Justice Department prosecuted pro-lifers under the FACE Act until President Trump pardoned 23 of them on January 23, 2025.
"They should not have been prosecuted. Many of them are elderly people," Trump said.
Blue cities keep drawing buffer zones.
And still, the people on the sidewalk keep winning.
They don't win with lobbyists or billion-dollar budgets.
They win with lawn chairs, rosaries and a willingness to stand in the rain for 40 days.
Abby Johnson watched that very first 2004 vigil from inside her Bryan, Texas facility.
She walked away in 2009 after taking part in an ultrasound-guided abortion, then fought to shut the place down.
When Planned Parenthood announced in July 2013 that the facility would close, she called it "the biggest personal victory of my life."
Her story became the movie Unplanned.
The Watertown couple's story won't hit theaters.
But it's the same miracle, playing out one sidewalk at a time.
Governor Kathy Hochul has made New York the abortion industry's safest harbor, from her 2023 shield law for abortion-pill prescribers to her campaign for Proposition 1.
Hochul should spend one morning on the Watertown sidewalk and watch what happens when New Yorkers are offered a choice her laws never mention.
Sources:
- Shawn Carney, "40 Days for Life Keeps Saving Babies From Abortions," LifeNews, October 2, 2026.
- Shawn Carney, "40 Days for Life Campaign Saves First Baby From Abortion," LifeNews, September 25, 2026.
- 40 Days for Life, "Fall 2026 Campaign and Cumulative Results," 40daysforlife.com, accessed October 3, 2026.
- Thomas More Society, "City of Clearwater Agrees to Restore Pro-Life Speech Rights," Thomas More Society, March 12, 2026.
- Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell, "'They Should Not Have Been Prosecuted': Trump Pardons Pro-Lifers Convicted Under FACE Act," The Daily Signal, January 23, 2025.
- Adelaide Mena, "Pro-Life Activist's Former Abortion Clinic in Texas Closes," Catholic News Agency, July 2013.
