800 Families Have Walked Away From Abortions Because of This Movement

In 2012, longtime prolife advocates David and Jason Benham's Cities for Life program began bringing businessmen and pastors to abortion clinics in order to understand what really happens. One of those leaders was entrepreneur Justin Reeder. 

"There was probably 30 moms who were there to have an abortion," Reeder described. 

"If you think in the context outside of an abortion clinic, where if there was thirty kids that were being killed at the local school down the street, there would be cops, ambulances, FBI, SWAT, and even churches that would be running to the scene to comfort those families, to give hope to them," he continued. 

From that experience Reeder felt a call to mobilize the church to move.  His goal was to eradicate abortion in the city of Charlotte, North Carolina.  

In 2016, Reeder's Love Life mission began. It was a 40-week journey to unite and mobilize the church to "create a culture of love and life that would bring an end to abortion in Charlotte." 

In order to do it, Reeder teamed up with longtime abortion fighters like the Benham Brothers in order to conceive a tangible strategy. The first step was to get churches to commit. 

"They'll preach a prolife sermon on a Sunday. They'll commit as a congregation to pray and fast corporately on Wednesday and then on Saturday that week, they'll join us for a two-hour prayer walk around the abortion clinic," Jason Benham told CBN News. 

In two years, that message of "love and life" has spread across the city of Charlotte with more than 100 churches joining the effort.  

"The next thing you know, we had Presbyterian pastors with charismatic pastors, next to Baptist, next to Episcopalian, all marching together," said Jason Benham. 

"We are now averaging 300-500 people every Saturday," he continued.    

According to Love Life, 800 families have decided to forgo their decision to have an abortion at the appeal of the Love Life movement. 

The Love Life team pairs those families with pro-life doctors to assist the mom at no charge. They also connect the family with churches willing to assist them in their new journey. 

The weekly prayers have also touched workers inside the clinic. 

"Just last week, a woman who was a secretary for 12 years finally decided to walk away," said Jason Benham.

This Saturday, organizers will hold the "Week 40" prayer walk, a culmination of two years of work. The team anticipates more than 7,000 marchers. 

Across racial barriers and denominational groups, the brothers say Korean, African American and Hispanic churches will join together for the march. 

"It is so amazing to see congregations so diverse coming together," said David Benham.