How Prayers for Life Shuttered an Illegal Abortion Center

Following a years-long effort by a pro-life coalition, an abortion center in Selma, Alabama, that had been operating illegally has finally closed its doors. Yet as one deeply involved for over a decade in Alabama’s movement to protect innocent lives, I saw how prayer played a role in these events as never before.

I received a call May 21, 2015, from Catherine Davis of The Selma Project. She asked that Bound4LIFE Birmingham take part in a historic march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. She was calling for intercessors, unnamed and without fame, who would fast and pray for the mission of uprooting an illegal abortion business run by Samuel Lett—a back-alley abortionist using The Central Alabama Women’s Clinic as his office. Terry Gensemer of CEC (Charismatic Episcopal Church) for Life had uncovered this horrific reality two years before. He joined efforts with Davis and other pro-life leaders to end this injustice in the state.

On June 19, intercessors gathered to pray and the next day to march. We squeezed into a small sanctuary and lost no time in praying and crying out for Jesus to hear us in our trouble, in our darkness, in our sin. Pro-life intercessors prayed on the microphone, interceding as the packed church agreed fervently for Jesus’ life to break open injustice in Selma. The groundwork was being laid that night. We were preparing the steps for the march the next morning.

The march was the public declaration of God’s intercessors taking hold as conquerors, trusting in the power of the One who responds to our weak cries. It was a beautiful picture of the church, holding together and pressing forward in prayer for justice and life. As we came to the end of the bridge, we gathered for a press conference—asking for state authorities to take action and prevent Samuel Lett from continuing his illegal and horrific business.

We did not need to wait longer than the end of the year to get a glimpse of the victory. Gensemer announced Dec. 30 that the abortion center had shut down, and the historic city of Selma could be considered abortion free.

We praise God for His mercy and His hand on our land. We move forward to pray deeper, to march further for freedom, for the future generations of our nation and all nations. The Word of God speaks directly to what our nation faces today. In 2 Chronicles 7:14, we see what God spoke millennia ago to a national leader: “If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray, and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”