In 2009, donations from the organization totaled $151,105,867, $1 million more than the previous year. The organization’s Supreme Council gave $34,627,530 of this total, and $116,477,971 was contributed by the state and local affiliates. As well, the organization gave over 69 million hours of volunteer work to charitable causes, which was some 500,000 more than the previous year. About 228,000 of these hours were given to Habitat for Humanity programs.

Supreme Knight Carl Anderson reported these results of the Catholic fraternal organization’s annual survey in a presentation to its leaders at the international headquarters in New Haven.

He noted that the Knights of Columbus held over 413,000 blood donations last year. Looking at the cumulative figures, Anderson stated that the organization has given more than $1.367 billion to charity over the past decade. In that time period, an estimated 640 million hours of volunteer service were given to charity.

The Knights of Columbus, founded by Father Michael McGivney in 1882, has some 1.8 million lay members worldwide working in North and Central America, the Philippines, Guam, the Caribbean islands, and Poland.

Congratulations to all!

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One of the volunteers stopped praying for a moment to approach the young woman, whom she had never met before, and asked her if she needed a hug. This volunteer assumed that the thought of what was going on inside the abortion facility had simply overcome this woman and brought her to tears.

But that wasn’t the case. To her surprise, she found out this young woman was crying for another reason.

“I’m pregnant right now and don’t want to be,” she said. “I’ve already had four abortions.

She said she didn’t have an abortion scheduled. “But I keep feeling this huge temptation to just go to an abortion clinic, pay my $400 and get it over with. I came to the sidewalk to pray, and to be around people who are like-minded as I am.”

The young woman told one of the sidewalk counselors that she was twelve weeks into her pregnancy. She had already been to a pregnancy resource center, but was still a mess emotionally.

She had become a Christian, she said. “But with this pregnancy, I just feel so depressed. I’m living in a women’s shelter, and the last thing I want right now is to be pregnant.”

The sidewalk counselor took her to dinner, and they sat and talked for hours. “As they developed a long-term plan to get this young woman the help she needs,” said Elizabeth McClung, the local 40 Days for Life coordinator in Austin, “she said something that should serve as an encouragement to every single pro-lifer who has ever thought about going to pray at an abortion facility.”

“If you guys weren’t out there praying,” this woman said, “I would have pulled up to the facility, sat in my car for hours on end — and ended up going inside for a fifth abortion. Since you were on the sidewalk praying, I knew I could find comfort and support there, so I went there to cry instead. Thank you for being there.”

“Her story is the perfect example as to why we not only pray from home and from church, but we also go pray at the very places where lives are being hurt and taken,” Elizabeth said.

She is now on a path to healing from her previous abortions, finding a job and taking her pregnancy one day at a time. And, Elizabeth said, “She is not going to have another abortion!”

Please pray for her, and for all who are desperate to break out of that cycle of abortion.

Today’s devotional is from Carmen Pate, a member of the 40 Days for Life board of directors.

A day before abortion advocates bused into Washington, D.C. to mount a “Day of Action” protest against abortion restrictions in health care reform legislation, they were met with discouraging news.

Senate Democrat Ben Nelson of Nebraska announced that, along with Republican Orrin Hatch of Utah,  he would co-sponsor language similar to the House bill’s Stupak amendment, which explicitly bars federal subsidies for health care plans that include abortion coverage.

Nelson’s announcement rejuvenated pro-life leaders who worked hard to pass the Stupak amendment in the House – up to this point, the Senate situation looked bleak as abortion advocates lobbied hard against any restrictions, and majority leader Harry Reid left out the amendment from the Senate bill.

But now Nelson picks up the pro-life banner that was carried successfully by Stupak.

“It’s as identical to Stupak as it can be,” Nelson explained to reporters about his amendment, which may see a vote next week.

On Thursday, Nelson was further emboldened, calling the Stupak language “non-negotiable” and vowing to filibuster the final health care bill without it.

“I’ve said at the end of the day if it doesn’t have Stupak language on abortion in it, I won’t vote to move it off the floor,” Nelson said.

In the House, Stupak proved that a strict abortion amendment was not only possible, but necessary for a health care reform bill to move forward. The effort in the Senate, however, has drawn more controversy. Pro-choice leaders, who may have been caught off-guard during the House passage of the bill, are determined to block restrictions on abortions in the final bill.

Nelson’s pro-life stand, then, serves as a shot across the bow of the newly enraged abortion activists. The hundreds of attendees at the “Day of Action” protest were whipped into a frenzy.

“The ground troops have arrived,” said Rep. Donna Edwards to raucous applause.

In a Huffington Post article, Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards was delighted to note that a majority of the protesters were born “post-Roe v. Wade.” It was an appalling observation in the shadow of their murdered peers.

California’s Sen. Barbara Boxer alleged that the Stupak amendment is “the biggest rollback to a woman’s right to choose in three decades” and that its goal “is in essence to chip away, chip away and tear away Roe v. Wade.”

But Hatch noted that the Stupak amendment does not threaten existing abortion rights.
“We’re not talking about doing away with abortion. We’re talking about refusing to have federal funds pay for it,” he said.

Both sides are lobbying heavily to win the votes of their senators, and the stakes are much higher this time.  With the margins slim for final passage, each senator holds a significant amount of sway in defining the final language of the bill.

Reid is currently struggling to rally Democratic senators in support of the bill, but the continued postponement of the bill’s final vote signifies significant discord within the Senate.

The abortion restrictions are one of several issues that the Senate must hammer out in order to build a consensus for the health care reform bill. Pro-life senators are about to face a long and arduous task to successfully implement this important language in the final bill.

In the past many Republican leaders have carried the pro-life banner with pride, defining pro-life principals for years. But this year, in a clear Democratic majority, Nelson and Stupak are leading the charge of other pro-life Democrats who are risking backlash from within their own party to impose critical pro-life measures in ground changing legislation.

They deserve our support and, most importantly, our prayers.