Midwest March for Life presenter helps women where they are
March, day of life-affirming activities to be held April 26 on Missouri Capitol grounds
Lauren Muzyka recently stood outside an Illinois abortion facility near St. Louis.
“I looked out at the parking lot and saw license plates from Missouri and Tennessee and all over the place,” said Ms. Muzyka, president and CEO of Sidewalk Advocates for Life (Sidewalkadvocates.org).
“It was chilling,” she said. “Women were coming from all over. These border communities are becoming critical crossroads of life and death.”
Ms. Muzyka will give a keynote presentation at this year’s Midwest March for Life (midwestmarchforlife.com) in Jefferson City, focusing on helping pregnant women in crisis in their time of greatest vulnerability.
The 14th annual march and rally will take place on Wednesday, April 26, on the South Lawn of the Missouri State Capitol Grounds.
Activities are planned from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Parishes and schools throughout the diocese are encouraged to participate.
All are encouraged to wear red.
Shawn Carney, co-founding CEO and president of 40 Days for Life, and Sister Deidre Byrne, superior of the Little Workers of the Sacred Heart, will also give keynote presentations.
Bishop W. Shawn McKnight will pray the Opening Prayer and give remarks at the pre-march rally.
“Women need us more than ever in post-Roe America,” said Ms. Muzyka. “We can’t sit on our laurels and say, ‘it’s illegal here, so my work is over.’
“The hard work is just starting,” she said. “We’re on the front lines to many battles. We have to be ready to mobilize and network with all the communities we serve.”
The April 26 activities will start at 8 p.m. with a Prayer Walk in the Capitol and the praying of the Divine Mercy Chaplet on the Capitol steps.
Singer and songwriter Camille Harris will provide entertainment at 9 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.
A pre-march rally at 9:30 a.m. will include Bishop McKnight; Brandy Meeks, president of the Vitae Foundation; Bridget Van Means, CEO Vision Leader of ThriVe Nation; Jon Nelson, lead pastor of Soma Community Church in Jefferson City; and Susan Klein, executive director of Missouri Right to Life.
The keynote speakers will then take the stage, followed by a peaceful march through downtown Jefferson City.
“Where miracles happen”
Ms. Muzyka said having a loving human presence has a powerful effect in helping women in crisis choose life and reject abortion.
“It’s the spirit of the Incarnation,” she said. “Jesus became one of us so he could save us and show us the way.
“He showed up!” she stated. “And we seek to follow in his footsteps. We seek to be the hands and feet of Christ.
“When God’s people go into the gap and speak into women’s circumstances, that’s where the miracles happen,” she stated. “It’s beautiful to see how the simplest acts of love are saving lives and leading to conversions.”
Ms. Muzyka is an attorney who started out in grassroots pro-life work.
Serving as a prayer volunteer during the nation’s first 40 Days for Life in College Station, Texas, she helped pray the manager of one of her state’s largest Planned Parenthood affiliates out of the abortion business.
The manager was Abby Johnson, author of the book Unplanned, and founder of a national outreach that helps abortion clinic workers break away from that dark profession.
“I saw firsthand how peace, prayer and love can transform a whole community,” said Ms. Muzyka. “That introduction is really what led me to start Sidewalk Advocates for Life.”
She enrolled in the Ave Marie School of Law in Vineyards, Florida, planning to become a lobbyist or litigator in the pro-life, pro-family movement.
Upon graduating, she went to work for the 40 Days for Life national team with the organization’s co-founders, David Bereit and Shawn Carney.
“I got a front row seat to what was going on in communities all over the country,” she said.
She recognized that people didn’t have the support and infrastructure they needed to counsel women who were seeking abortions toward the alternatives that were often right around the corner.
“At that point, I had Shawn’s and David’s blessing to leave 40 Days and form Sidewalk Advocates for Life,” she said. “We launched in 2014. We have our ninth anniversary coming up.”
Sidewalk Advocates for Life started with 22 locations and has risen to 239 in the United States, as well as Mexico City, Puerto Rico and Colombia.
“We set up in front of abortion or abortion-referral facilities and give the women who go there life affirming information and support,” said Ms. Muzyka.
Each Sidewalk Advocate receives extensive training in how to communicate with women who are abortion vulnerable.
“We give our advocates ready-made tools and staff support,” said Ms. Muzyka.
“Each group gets assigned a national advisor from our team,” she said. “We give them what they need in order to go to the darkest places in their community and offer those life affirming alternatives.”
“Our goal is to be the gateway to life affirming resources for the women we help,” she stated. “We connect them with the nearest pregnancy resource center. We let them take over while we get back to the sidewalk.”
She said that if a woman goes to a pregnancy resource center, sees an ultrasound image of her baby, is given holistic counseling and learns her options, “90 percent of the time, they’ll choose life.”
“That’s a game changer,” she said. “Because she can see the precious life in her womb and be presented the truth about fetal development and the truth about abortion.”
Proponents of legal abortion say it’s necessary in order to given women a choice.
“But a lot of the women who go there feel they have no other choice,” said Ms. Muzyka. “We’re the ones who are actually giving them a choice — painting a picture of how they could be a parent and still pursue their dreams.”
Human rights battle
Ms. Muzyka said members of her organization have seen abortion proponents in abortion restricted states all over the country “working relentlessly to get people across state lines.”
“Our advocates who work in border communities are pleading with us to stay the course,” she said. “So, many of our advocates who were counseling outside abortion clinics in abortion restricted states are now transitioning to the abortion referral centers in those states.”
And in communities that no longer have an abortion referral center, the advocates are finding creative ways to move into the public square.
“They’re looking at highly visible places where they can spend a few hours handing out information about the local pregnancy resource center, which is often right there in their backyard,” she said.
She emphasized that women are being enticed to seek out the nearest facility or order dangerous abortion causing drugs.
“Women from Missouri who want to get an abortion will find someplace to get one,” she said. “If we’re not at the ready with life affirming resources in our communities, they’re going to drive 300 or 600 miles, or order dangerous, unregulated abortion causing drugs, often from India or China.”
Ms. Muzyka emphasized that there’s a place for everyone in this sector of the pro-life community.
“At some time, we’re all going to run into someone who needs help, and we need to know where to send them for that help,” she said.
“In post-Roe America, especially in abortion-restricted states, we show the world that we are ready to journey with women who are facing unexpected pregnancies,” she stated.
That’s one more reason for people to attend the Midwest March for Life.
“These gatherings are important not only to encourage us in the battle, but to equip us,” said Ms. Muzyka. “There’s going to be great information at the event that will everyone discover their place in the greatest human rights battle on earth.”
Planning ahead
Lunch at the event will be available from the Fulton Knights of Columbus, with all proceeds benefiting the Midwest March for Life. The $5 child’s special includes a quarter-pound grilled hotdog, chips, cookies, ice cream and water, and a family of four or more can eat for $20.
Mr. Carney will be outside the Selinger Centre next to St. Peter Church, signing copies of his books, What to Say When and The Beginning of the End of Abortion, which tells the story of how 40 Days for Life local prayer supporters were faithful and God was successful in ending abortion at the Columbia Planned Parenthood.
The books are $15 apiece or $25 for both.
Ms. Muzyka said one way to get more out of her presentation would be to watch Sidewalk Advocates for Life’s 14-minute documentary, “Saving Lives in Post-Roe America.”
“That would be a great motivator for all of us in abortion restricted states to stay the course,” she said.
She also suggested searching online for the nearest Planned Parenthood abortion referral facilities.
“It might be right in your neighborhood,” she noted. “Maybe, you’re being called to go and pray there and also get trained in sidewalk advocacy in order to reach out to the women there.”
For herself and all the other presenters at the Midwest March for Life, she asked for prayers for safe travel and “for us to lead well in this truly unique moment in the battle, and for our people who are out on the sidewalk each day, to withstand the spiritual attacks that come to them.”
