(LifeSiteNews) — Pro-life Virginians are planning a prayer vigil for babies slaughtered before birth to take place outside an abortion center on Good Friday.
The Knights of Columbus Mount Vernon Council 5998 is organizing a local participation of the nationwide “Way of the Cross for Victims of Abortion,” scheduled for April 7. While similar prayer vigils will be held outside abortion facilities across the United States, Virginians are invited to join the local Knights of Columbus chapter outside of Alexandria Women’s Health Clinic at 12 p.m.
The “Way of the Cross for Victims of Abortion” is a national initiative launched by the Pro-Life Action League, which is based in Chicago, Illinois. This group is “dedicated to empowering Americans to put their pro-life convictions into effective action in their own local communities.”
“Christians of all denominations have been invited to participate in this solemn, ecumenical prayer service,” a press release shared with LifeSiteNews reads. “Prayers will be offered for all the victims of abortion — the children lost, the mothers wounded, the communities blighted — as well as those responsible for perpetuating this injustice, from ‘pro-choice’ elected officials to those working in the abortion industry.”
Richard Hayden, life director for the Knights of Columbus chapter organizing the event, compared the innocence of babies killed in abortion with the innocence of Christ nailed to the cross.
“On Good Friday, we remember the suffering and death of Jesus Christ at Golgotha, which means ‘place of the skull,’” Hayden said, according to the release. “We have our own ‘Golgotha’ right here in the Alexandria section of Fairfax County at the Women’s Health Clinic, where innocent preborn children, created in the image of God, also suffer violent deaths by abortion.”
The prayer vigil will be presided over by Fr. Thomas Ferguson, pastor at Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Alexandria. Per the press release, the priest commented that “through His Holy Passion, Our Lord united Himself with all the victims of suffering in this life” and that “none suffer more innocently than children in the womb whose lives are taken by abortion.”
“Jesus also unites His suffering with the suffering of those who continue to seek hope and healing, especially through the Church, after they have participated in an abortion.”
Hayden told LifeSiteNews that the same event has taken place in previous years outside the same abortion facility, although the business has moved locations in Fairfax County during that time. He also shared that the Alexandria Women’s Health Clinic “is responsible for over 90,000 abortions since 1983.” The killing business commits suction abortion — referred to as “vacuum aspiration” on the website — during the first trimester as well as the abortion pill.
The facility also boasts its convenient location and ability to murder babies whose mothers are from Virginia, Washington, D.C., Maryland, and West Virginia.
The vigil’s organizers are expecting between 100 and 150 pro-life Virginians to join the prayer efforts on Friday. Hayden commented that in his state, abortion has been an ongoing issue, even before the historic overturning of Roe v. Wade.
“Virginia has liberal abortion laws,” Hayden told LifeSiteNews via email. “We need to prevent it from becoming an abortion destination state. Our motivation [with this event] is that we do not want this abortion facility in our parishes or in our neighborhood. It is located in a residential neighborhood within 100 yards of a middle school and across from the library.”
“We pray in front of this facility every Saturday morning from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. It is truly an ecumenical effort as we are joined by many Evangelical Christians and other faith groups.”
In Virginia, women may electively kill their unborn babies until roughly 28 weeks’ gestation and until birth for broad “health” exceptions. The state’s Democrat-controlled Senate passed a bill in February designed to enshrine a “right” to abortion in the state constitution. Shortly after, the Republican-led House of Delegates defeated the proposed amendment.
Although the Senate has declared it will not pass any pro-life legislation, bills aimed at increasing abortion access will also likely fail thanks Republican-controlled House and Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who has consistently expressed support for pro-life laws. In January, he endorsed a proposal to ban abortion at 15 weeks.
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