In a day of cheesy and flawed sports and entertainment “superheroes,” John Barros is a true hero who is saving the lives of babies. John stands on the public right of way outside the Orlando Women’s Center, a small brick building on an Orlando street dedicated to the murder of at least 100 babies per week, trying to dissuade expectant mothers from aborting their unborn babies. He has carried out this mission full time — nine hours a day, six days a week — since 2010 with no remuneration save the incalculable value of saving lives. He estimates that over a thousand babies have been saved.

John was recently the featured speaker at a local event for 40 Days for Life, an international mobilization to access God’s power through prayer to bring an end to abortion throughout the world. Since the first coordinated 40 Days for Life campaign took place in 2007, local campaign leaders have reported 8,973 lives saved from abortion, 101 workers quit and 54 abortion facilities closed.

40 Days for Life
Consisting of three key components, 40 Days for Life includes prayer and fasting, peaceful vigil and community outreach. Its mission is “to bring together the body of Christ in a spirit of unity… to seek God’s favor in the turning of hearts and minds from a culture of death to a culture of life, thus bringing an end to abortion.”
Locally, 40 Days for Life will occur from September 24 through November 2 on the public sidewalk outside the Fort Lauderdale Women’s Center at 2001 W. Oakland Park Boulevard. Volunteers will stand in a peaceful prayerful vigil during daylight hours for 40 days, holding signs and testifying to those driving past that what goes on inside that building is terribly wrong. Those unable to stand in vigil are invited to join in praying for an end to abortion, petitioning Heaven that God will forgive and heal our land.
In South Florida, the 40 Days for Life campaign has already witnessed seven abortion-minded mothers make decisions for life. Volunteers intervened last fall in the life of Lilly, a young woman who was being pressured to abort. They helped her find a maternity home and this past spring Lilly gave birth to Kayden, a beautiful baby boy who might not have been born without the counseling, prayers and help provided through 40 Days for Life volunteers.

The villain
Participants in 40 Days of Life will be standing against one of the people that John Barros has been speaking out against in Orlando for many years. The villain is James Pendergraft, the owner of five abortion clinics in the state of Florida including one right here in Broward County. Pendergraft has had his medical license suspended four times and has fought several lawsuits including a $36.7 million judgment for a botched abortion in which a baby was born alive and survived with massive birth defects. His license is currently on active/probation status, and his five clinics remain open where his staff continues to perform late-term abortions.

The call
The hero, John Barros, is obeying Proverbs 31:8 to be “a voice for the voiceless in the cause of all who are appointed to die.” He is joined by many local Christians who pray, preach, and offer alternatives to the desperate mothers, including counseling and free sonograms at crisis pregnancy centers. Other options include adoption resources, medical care, practical help with clothing, furniture and the like, as well as referral to safe housing.
Some of that material help is provided by Barros’ church, St. Andrew’s Chapel in Sanford, Florida, where theologian R.C. Sproul serves as co-pastor. All is offered with the compassion of Christ.

The numbers
Some 12,000 unborn infants die from abortion each year in Broward, making abortion the leading cause of death in our county. Nationwide, over 56 million babies have been aborted since 1973. That staggering figure is far greater than the number of murders attributed to Nazi Germany in World War II and is why abortion can be called the American Holocaust. The death toll from abortion in the U.S. works out to about 3,300 every day.

The response
“You cannot overreact to this problem,” said R.C. Sproul, Jr. “This is the most significant, the most serious, the most dreadful reality, in my judgment, in the history of the world.”
Sproul, Jr.asserts that “True religion … is to visit widows and orphans in their trouble. If anybody is an orphan, it’s a baby in the womb, who, voluntarily or not, has a mother and father taking this child to be murdered. These are the people who are in trouble; these are the people who are in need. These are the people who need those who practice true religion to visit them, and where are they but at the abortion mills.”
It is not too late to be a hero like John Barros. Contact Tewannah Aman, 40 Days for Life Outreach Coordinator, for more information at [email protected]. Further information may be found at www.40DaysforLife.com or on John Barros’ website at www.whowillstand.net.