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BRYAN—Citing “budget cuts and persistent attacks on women’s health” the lone Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Bryan-College Station closed down on Aug. 1. But a coalition of Christians from throughout the Brazos Valley credits the power of prayer and God’s grace for the closure and believes it could be a breakthrough moment in the fight against abortion.
Some confessed they never believed the clinic would close in the college town where 50,000-plus Texas A&M students reside. Still others were certain it would happen in God’s time. And all of them, for 15 years, prayed for and ministered to countless women and their unborn babies. Yet while they mourned the loss of 6,400 babies at the Bryan Health Center, they praised God on Sept. 7 for the birth of an international movement, 40 Days for Life, which they credited with breaking the back of this facility and some others across the nation.
“God used you and abortion is now ended in the Brazos Valley,” said Shawn Carney, 40 Days for Life campaign director, at the “Breakthrough” celebration held across the street from the former clinic.
Bobby Reynoso, director of Coalition for Life in Bryan-College Station, said pro-life leaders there believe what happened could be the breakthrough or “tipping point for the pro-life cause in helping end abortion across the nation.”
The coalition is exploring ways to replicate the success in other cities.
Speakers at the celebration included former abortion clinic employees, pastors and priests, prayer volunteers, crisis pregnancy center volunteers, health care ministry volunteers and the mayor of Bryan.
Jason Bienski said as mayor he is always glad to see new businesses start, but not any kind of business. “Today we celebrate the closing of a business. Planned Parenthood was never welcome in Bryan-College Station,” Bienski told those gathered.
Speakers recounted story after story of spiritual interventions and the renewing of their faith in a seemingly endless fight.
Karen Hall, director of Central Texas Orphan Missions Alliance (CTOMA) and member of Central Baptist Church, said the driveway into her offices was sometimes mistaken for the driveway into the neighboring abortion clinic. Once inside the CTOMA facility the women, thinking they were at Planned Parenthood, announced they had arrived for their ultrasound.
CTOMA has a state-of-the-art ultrasound machine as part of its pro-life ministry. While the women completed forms an ultrasound nurse was hurriedly making her way to the clinic.
“There was joy in heaven every time a woman missed that Planned Parenthood drive and came into our office,” she said.
David Bereit, 40 Days for Life national director, told the crowd, “I believed the end of abortion would begin in this community. For 15 years you prayed. You never gave up. Today we understand why this community is shaping the abortion debate.”
According to their website, Planned Parenthood blamed a lack of state funding for the closure, adding that low-income women would suffer for the loss of their services. The statement failed to note such services included abortions. In 2011 the Texas Legislature ended state funding to Planned Parenthood, an act many attribute to the closing of clinics across the state. Women from that region of Texas seeking abortions must now drive almost two hours to Houston, home to the largest abortion clinic in North America.
In 1998, when Planned Parenthood announced it would open an abortion clinic here, Lauren Gulde, a Roman Catholic, was appalled. She rallied like-minded pro-life advocates to stand in opposition to the clinic. To her amazement, representatives from 60 churches attended the first strategy meeting and the Bryan-College Station Coalition for Life was born.
The coalition illustrates the unity of pro-lifers drawing volunteers and donors from evangelical and Catholic backgrounds. And already well-established pregnancy centers welcomed the arrival of a new partner in the fight.
For Tracy Frank, director of the Hope Pregnancy Center, “the Marines had landed.”
“It is generally accepted in warfare that if you claim sanctuary status, you don’t snipe or fire on the enemy. If you do so, you lose that status and will draw incoming fire,” Frank told the crowd.
The faith-based evangelical organization has for 28 years operated behind the scenes in Bryan-College Station, never drawing attention to itself through protests but effectively and quietly working behind the scenes leading women to Christ and away from Planned Parenthood. So Frank, a member of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Bryan, was elated when the Coalition for Life stepped into the fray.
As a fledgling organization the coalition sought counsel from similar organizations. A trip to Los Angeles taught the volunteers the increasingly popular and peaceful tactic of sidewalk praying and counseling.
With training and faith volunteers showed up regularly to pray and counsel with women entering the clinic. Local police told Carney the sidewalk in front of the Bryan Planned Parenthood clinic is the most protested piece of Planned Parenthood property in the country.
And Planned Parenthood noticed. Jim Sedlak, an early volunteer, recalled a fund-raising visit from Gloria Feldt, then president of Planned Parenthood. When Sedlak told the crowd Feldt declared Bryan-College Station “the most anti-choice place in the nation,” they cheered.
“They were really upset about you,” he said to more cheers and laughter.
Clinic directors did not like the quiet protests so fences were erected. But the metal bars did not block views or voices and volunteers passed pro-life tracts through the gaps.
So another director put up a screen across the fence.
That director was Abby Johnson who, in 2009 after viewing an ultrasound during an abortion, walked out of the clinic and around the corner to the Coalition for Life offices. When she returned to the Planned Parenthood clinic weeks later it was as a prayer volunteer on the sidewalk.
Choking back tears, she addressed the crowd. “I never thought I would call some of you friends.”
The 40 Days for Life volunteers persistently prayed outside her office. Carney developed a cordial relationship with her. But Johnson remained committed to what she believed was a woman’s right to choose—until that fateful day.
Bereit said Johnson is just one of 83 confirmed abortion clinic workers across the nation who left their jobs since the beginning of the 40 Days for Life campaign. The movement calls on volunteers to pray around the clock for 40 days. Each volunteer takes a shift praying at the clinic so someone is always there, praying, 24 hours a day.
The 40 Days for Life movement grew from a desperate time in the coalition. In 2004 Bereit said the Coalition for Life leadership believed they were at an impasse. They were tired and the way forward was unclear. In search of answers the leadership team committed to pray together for one hour.
“That prayer gave life to 40 Days for Life,” Bereit said.
When Bereit recounted the prayer meeting to friend Jim Olson, he responded, “Planned Parenthood doesn’t know what a bad day they just had.”
That was 2004. By 2007 the movement spread throughout the U.S. and 19 countries. By 2009 Abby Johnson walked out her clinic door. And by 2013 Planned Parenthood’s Bryan clinic closed.
“Never again will a single baby be lost at 4112 29th Street. Never again will a young college woman walk briskly to her car with tears in her eyes,” Gulde said.
Bereit said, “You’ve shown the world that with God all things are possible.”
But Johnson said, “I want to leave you with this—it’s not done. It’s far from over.”
She believes abortion will end with the help of former abortion workers like Haywood Robinson and Noreen Johnson. The husband and wife were abortion doctors in Los Angeles before leaving the industry and promoting the pro-life cause. They now practice medicine in College Station and are Christians.
Pointing to the barred and locked clinic gates, Robinson told the crowd, “Those gates across the street represent the gates of hell and it shall not stand. That building stands as an Ebenezer as to how God and his people triumph over evil.”
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