This is only a model to give you some ideas. Obviously local circumstances differ, and you may want to emphasise other things altogether
Thank-you for giving me this opportunity to speak to you. In this city there are X abortion centres, where X children are killed every day (Put in numbers & some local detail about what has been done so far to combat them. Talk about your local group, what it does, what it suffers, and what it has achieved)
This is a thing which most of us prefer not to think about, for a variety of reasons, but partly because we feel helpless in the face of so tremendous an evil, we feel unable to contribute anything which will make a real difference.
As Christians we should not feel so helpless, as each one of us has a tremendous resource available, no matter how poor or weak or insignificant we may feel. That resource is prayer. In this country and in the USA, abortion centres have been shut down because people prayed for them to shut. In London the abortion centre at Cricklewood was closed after people had been praying for its closure for two and a half years.
Sometimes people say: "Well if they shut down that one down, they would only open another elsewhere". I am not sure that is true, but even if it were, I think this city would be a healthier and better place if it were a place were no child could be killed by abortion, no woman maimed in body or in soul by the abortionists.
Other people feel that somehow they are invading personal liberty if they even pray for an end to abortion - that is as the popular media would have it, that pro-lifers are necessarily anti-woman. This is the opposite of the truth. Pro-lifers care about the health and lives of women as much as for the health and lives of their children. In view of the enormous damage done to the health of women, I would be anti-abortion even if I did not believe that abortion involved the death of an innocent human being. Women who have had abortions are likely to be very damaged by the experience, and are in desperate need of our prayers.
Some people are daunted by the requirement to fast. We do not have any set rules about what constitutes a fast - some people are happier to stay on bread and water, some people will be able to miss one or two meals, or eat nothing all day. It is better to make a rule for yourself that you can keep, than to make a grand resolution which you then break. Please consider whether you could make an undertaking to fast and pray once a month for the closure of an abortion centre. I will be available at the back of the Church after Mass if you would like to join a prayer rota, or if you would like to know more about what we do.
