“If you were serious [about ending abortion], you’d be on your knees outside the clinic 24/7.”
Mary Seri remembers reading this challenge posed to the founders of 40 Days for Life, a campaign of prayer and fasting, community outreach, and peaceful presence to end abortion. This same challenge has carried Mary through more than three decades of faithful participation in pro-life work.
Mary’s commitment to the cause began long before she learned about 40 Days for Life. A nurse, wife and mother of seven, she spent years working in hospitals and witnessing the realities of pregnancy and childbirth working in obstetrics and gynecology. She remembers one tragic incident when a patient came in with a severe infection after attempting an at-home abortion.
“She delivered into my hands the body of a beautiful, 4-pound baby girl that had holes poked in her skull,” Mary shares. “I stood there wondering, ‘how can anybody do this?’”
This was one of many experiences that led Mary to pursue pro-life work once she retired from nursing.
After leaving hospital work, Mary helped her parish priest start a program supporting mothers and babies at her local parish. Eventually, she joined Catholics for Life and began to participate in prayer vigils outside abortion clinics.
Over the years, Mary has been grateful for the opportunities to offer material and spiritual aid to pregnant mothers and their babies.
One child that stands out in her memory is young Kaya. When Kaya’s mother learned she was pregnant with Kaya, abortion became a tempting option to the single mother to five children. When she learned that Kaya would be born with a disability, it seemed like the only option. Mary shares that another volunteer talked with the mother and promised to help her.
Kaya’s mother decided to keep her, and when she went into labor she called Wynette, who rallied the community to help her and her children.
“Baby Kaya lived for four years, and the other siblings all stepped up and found that they could help her,” Mary shares. “The oldest daughter, once she graduated high school, went on to become a registered nurse.”
Mary shared other stories where the volunteers could not see the fruits of their work right away. She recalls a homeless couple with two children who were considering abortion. A volunteer helped by finding them temporary housing until the baby was born.
When the volunteer went to the hospital to check on the family, she found out that drugs had been found in the baby’s system and social services had been called.
“The mother was not at all happy,” Mary recalls. “But two years later, here comes the mother with her little ones in tow and tears running down her face. She said, ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you, if it weren’t for you, we’d all be dead.’”
The parents had gone to rehab after losing their children and were now employed and doing well.
“We have been successful at saving a lot of babies — and their moms,” Mary says.
Lisa Galli came to 40 Days for Life through a different path. A Sacramento native, she grew up watching her mother, a nurse, open the family home to pregnant young women who needed somewhere to stay. That’s where she believes her call to pro-life work began.
In her young adult life, Lisa was not a practicing Catholic. She was married, had twins and divorced before returning to her Catholic faith after her mother’s death in 1993 sparked questions about where her own life was headed. She soon married her current husband, Paul Galli, and had her youngest child at age 42.
While helping with religious education at her parish, Lisa saw an announcement about a group going to pray outside a Planned Parenthood facility. She had long wanted to participate in pro-life work, but had been nervous about going alone. Joining a group from her church gave her the confidence to take that first step.
“Once I started, I couldn’t stop,” she shares.
She has now participated in 40 Days for Life for roughly two decades, including periods when she prayed outside abortion facilities throughout the entire year, not just during the designated 40-day campaign.
Lisa has seen many fellow volunteers speak with women and their boyfriends or husbands while praying outside abortion clinics. When she sees these conversations start up, she begins to pray that the men and women talking to the volunteers would have open hearts.
Lisa feels it’s an incredible witness for the people who work at the clinic and the women seeking services to see people praying — as an intercessor, she gets to remind them that there is another choice.
“These women are not alone, we can help them,” she says.
Lisa became involved with 40 Days for Life in the early days, when it was still connected to a small group praying outside an abortion clinic in Texas. Today, it’s an international movement of faithful men and women praying for an end to abortion.
The 40 Days for Life campaign starts today! You can still join Sacramento's campaign at https://www.40daysforlife.com/en/sacramento.