How To Stop Abortion:
Claiming Our Victory Over Satan

"Truly you have formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother's womb." —Psalm 139:13

SPIRITUAL WARFARE

I have been praying publicly before abortion chambers for over 25 years and have been privileged to see babies saved through our prayers. In these years, I have not had the slightest regret about my public witness for life. I am more convinced than ever of the power and fruitfulness of publicly waged spiritual warfare. Millions of babies have been killed, but millions of babies have been saved. We will eventually bring down our "culture of death," but we have a long way to go. To accelerate our victory in Jesus, we must realize we should not be fighting primarily abortion and abortionists. Rather, our battle is not against human forces, but against the devil (Eph 6:12).

When we know our ultimate enemy, we can choose the appropriate weapons. "The weapons of our warfare are not merely human. They possess God's power for the destruction of strongholds. We demolish sophistries and every proud pretension that raises itself against the knowledge of God; we likewise bring every thought into captivity to make it obedient to Christ" (2 Cor 10:4-5). These weapons are invisible and are directed against an invisible enemy, Satan. They are wielded by faith (see 2 Cor 6:7).

FAST AND PRAY

To enlist as a soldier in God's army (2 Tm 2:3), we must accept Jesus as Lord and Commander-in-Chief. Then we receive the power of the Holy Spirit and, as a part of His body the Church, are given authority over all evil spirits (Mt 10:1). We exercise this authority by wielding several weapons, especially prayer and fasting. Pope John Paul II has taught: "Jesus Himself has shown us by His own example that prayer and fasting are the first and most effective weapons against the forces of evil (cf. Mt 4:1-11). As He taught His disciples, some demons cannot be driven out except in this way (cf. Mk 9:29). Let us therefore discover anew the humility and the courage to pray and fast so that power from on high will break down the walls of lies and deceit: the walls which conceal from the sight of so many of our brothers and sisters the evil of practices and laws which are hostile to life" (The Gospel of Life, 100).

When we pray and fast in faith, we can move the mountain of Planned Parenthood and the international system of abortion (Mt 17:20). The power of our prayer is much more than we can ever ask or imagine (Eph 3:20). Our fasting sets the captives free (Is 58:6), even babies captive in the womb-tomb of an aborting mother. Our prayer and fasting are like loaves and fish to be multiplied to transform the masses and save babies throughout the world.

DIE TO SELF

The devil will attempt to rob us of the "fire-power" we have through prayer and fasting. He will tempt us to sin by focusing on ourselves. To save a life, someone must usually die to self. We know this from Jesus' crucifixion and death. We must die to ourselves, or babies in the womb will die. We must resist temptation, accept persecution, and make sacrifices. "Continually we carry about in our bodies the dying of Jesus, so that in our bodies the life of Jesus may also be revealed" (2 Cor 4:10). If we die to self, we bear much fruit (Jn 12:24).

LOVE AND FORGIVENESS

Another way the devil tries to sabotage our power in Christ is by taking away our love, for if we refuse to love in God's unconditional way, whatever we do profits us nothing (1 Cor 13:2). To beat the devil and save lives, we must have four loves:

We are to love God with our whole heart (Mt 22:37). This is the first commandment and the basis of the Christian life.
We must love the babies in the womb.
We must love our enemies (Mt 5:44). This includes forgiving those who have had the abortions. They are often more victims than victimizers. Furthermore, we must love and forgive even the most unscrupulous abortionists.
We should also love our co-workers, others standing for life and fighting against abortion. The devil tries to get us fighting among ourselves. We all have different callings. Even though we advocate spiritual warfare against the demons of abortion, we must respect those fighting abortion in other ways.

OBEDIENCE

In spiritual warfare, obedience is of utmost importance. Often God call us to wage war publicly, to do our praying and fasting in the open, on the street, in front of the abortion chamber. We must obey His calling and prophesy through public witness in the tradition of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Francis of Assisi, and Mother Teresa. When we obey, Goliath falls; the walls of Jericho come tumbling down, and Satan is quickly crushed under our feet (Rm 16:20).