“Unplanned” Movie Birthed by Prayer

The story of Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood clinic director turned pro-life advocate, is powerfully portrayed in the film Unplanned, a story birthed by thousands of hours of fervent prayer.

Shawn Carney is the man behind many of those prayers. He heads the 40 Days for Life campaign that began in Texas in the fall of 2004. The organization holds continuous, round-the-clock, 40-day prayer campaigns every fall and during Lent. As intercessors, they peacefully pray outside abortion clinics, petitioning God to intervene and save the lives of the unborn children and their mothers.

In just 15 years, 40 Days for Life has become a global movement with hundreds of thousands of volunteer intercessors who pray and keep vigil outside Planned Parenthood clinics like the one where Johnson once worked. That clinic eventually shut down.

When Johnson exited the abortion industry a decade ago, Carney and his wife helped Johnson find new employment and guided her through the process of leaving the cause she once passionately believed in.

Carney and Johnson remain great friends, and through their faithful prayers and efforts they continue to see clinic employees have a change of heart about abortion.

Johnson posted a request for prayer on her Facebook page about her outreach program to workers who would like to leave the abortion industry. “We need your prayers at And Then There Were None pro-life outreach,” says Johnson. At this point, at least one or two abortion clinic workers leave their jobs every day.

Johnson’s program is designed to provide financial, emotional, spiritual, and legal support to anyone wishing to leave the abortion industry. The organization claims it has helped nearly 500 workers leave the profession (abortionworker.com).

“Please pray for our staff as we navigate this busy time,” Johnson says. “Big things are happening, and we can confidently state that [the film] Unplanned has been a bigger blow to the abortion industry than we could have ever imagined! Change is coming!”

—Prayer Connect magazine