(RNS) The “40 Days for Life” bus tour is headed for Tampa, Fla., on the homestretch of its anti-abortion campaign through all 50 states.
The campaign includes rallies, usually outside abortion clinics, where participants hold signs and pray for people who are considering an abortion. Whenever someone reconsiders, they call it a “life saved.” In its Orlando stop this year, participants said they saved five lives by talking and praying with mothers.
David Bereit, CEO of 40 Days for Life, has been holding the cross-country rallies twice a year since 2007 and said he’s seen 136 abortion workers leave the industry since. This year, three abortion workers have left due to the campaign’s efforts.
Bereit sees abortion as a unifying topic for most evangelicals and Catholics, but also acknowledges that unity over the specific topic might not translate into a unified vote.
“You certainly have a split of people because of their frustration with their choices at the top of the ticket,” Bereit said.
Neither of the choices for president, Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump, is popular among the anti-abortion crowd. Even though Clinton clearly favors abortion rights, Trump is a recent convert to the anti-abortion stance, and repeatedly mentioned the beneficial work of Planned Parenthood.
For Bereit, Trump has “a very ambiguous record.”
“(Trump) says today he’d nominate pro-life justices, but he has a long history of being a public promoter of Planned Parenthood. The recognition is that there’s not a clear obvious choice of the moral high ground. We have two problematic candidates.”
At the same time, he hoped voters would not use the problems at the top of the ticket as an excuse to refrain from voting on Nov. 8.
“We need, up and down the ballot, to vote for life,” Bereit said.