FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 10, 2009
CONTACT: Juanita Ell Juanita.40daysforlifeSTL@live.com (314) 831-1989
St. Louis, MO – David Bereit, the national campaign director of 40 Days for Life, will bring the message of this international pro-life effort to St. Louis on March 18, 2009. Bereit will be speaking at the rally to mark the midpoint of the local 40 Days for Life campaign at DuBourg Hall on St. Louis University campus (One Grand Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63103). “We are tremendously pleased that David will have the opportunity to meet with the leaders of our pro-life community,” said Brian Westbrook co-director of the local 40 Days for Life campaign in St. Louis. “He’s an energetic, enthusiastic speaker and we know he will be an inspiration to the people involved in our event.” Before the rally, Bereit will visit Hope Clinic and the prayer vigil at Planned Parenthood.
St. Louis is one of the many communities from coast to coast conducting simultaneous 40 Days for Life campaigns from February 25 through April 5. “We want to thank all the people who’ve made great personal sacrifice to bring 40 Days for Life to the halfway point,” said Westbrook. “We also know that we still have a long way to go in our collective effort to demonstrate the harm abortion has done in St. Louis.”
In addition to Bereit, Mary Maschmeier founder of Defenders of the Unborn will speak at the 40 Days for Life mid-point event.
About the Speakers
David Bereit became an outspoken pro-life advocate after Planned Parenthood announced plans to build an abortion clinic in his Texas town in 1998. He helped to start and build a local grassroots coalition that rallied 60 churches and thousands of people together which dramatically reduced abortions in the region. Planned Parenthood recognized the effectiveness of David’s efforts when it labeled his town “the most anti-choice place in the nation.” David led the first-ever 40 Days for Life campaign in College Station, Texas. He helped coordinate national 40 Days for Life campaigns in the fall of 2007, the spring of 2008 and the fall of 2008 that engaged communities coast to coast.
Mary Maschmeier’s pro-life activism began in 1985 when she began standing for life in front of various abortion facilities in the St. Louis area. Her activism began with Pro-Life Direct Action League in St. Louis; from there she worked at AAA Pregnancy Center from 1988 to 1991. Her activism has taken her throughout the country to assist women in need whether it is to provide assistance to an expectant mother, or to help women who are suffering after abortion and need to get their lives back together. Her main focus is being a sidewalk counselor outside Planned Parenthood in St. Louis. For 24 yeas she has offered help to women in crisis pregnancies. Mary publishes a monthly Pro-Life newsletter, Defenders of the Unborn.
About 40 Days for Life
40 Days for Life is an intensive international pro-life campaign that focuses on 40 days of prayer and fasting, 40 days of peaceful vigil at abortion facilities, and 40 days of grassroots educational outreach. The 40-day time frame is drawn from examples throughout Biblical history where God brought about world-changing transformation in 40-day periods. To learn more about 40 Days for Life, visit: www.40daysforlife.com. For information about the St. Louis campaign, visit: www.40daysforlife.com/stlouis.
Call: (314) 827-4039
