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March 18, 2025Mike Hurney stands on the frontline of the fight for life, regularly leading others in prayers for the unborn on the streets outside Planned Parenthood facilities.
“We are a peaceful, prayerful group,” Hurney said. “We pray rosaries, Divine Mercy chaplets, other prayers in the hopes that we can end abortion, or at least close one of the facilities that we are praying in front of.”
During the season of Lent, the internationally-recognized 40 Days for Life campaign will be active in central Oklahoma – and around the world – with the goal of ending abortion, peacefully, through prayer, fasting and community outreach.
For 40 days, from March 5 to April 13 this year, all-day vigils will be visible in front of abortion businesses, where “sidewalk advocates” hold pro-life signs, pray the Rosary and offer help and guidance to women considering abortion.
Hurney will be there, as he was on a recent late-winer morning, standing in front of the Planned Parenthood on NW 23 Street. He’s been leading two campaigns a year since 2020, a time that’s seen a drop in the number of women seeking out the abortion services offered there.
“We did close the Edmond one for about a year-and-a-half, it reopened,” he said.
However, due to its proximity to his home parish, Saint John the Baptist Catholic Church, Hurney said “it gets more (prayer warriors) than the one here on 23rd Street.
“I think this particular area is an ominous environment,” he said, when asked why more pro-life supporters do not gather with their group. “It’s tamed down a bit.”
Five years on the sidewalk
Hurney, and his wife Renee, who was with him during Sunday’s vigil, said seeing a decrease in the number of women walking into the abortion business is very encouraging. Participants in 40 Days for Life have increased with each passing year, during the spring and fall campaigns.
“I was involved in Tulsa for about nine years and then we moved here to Edmond in 2020, during the pandemic,” Mike said. “The Holy Spirit put it on my heart to check into 40 Days for Life in Oklahoma City and the Edmond area and so I looked and there wasn’t one.
“Long story short, my wife came in after she prayed and she said, ‘Mike, we have to do something to end abortion.’ I had been looking at the 40 Days for Life website and the leadership application was still up, so I went ahead and applied and I was accepted.”
His introduction was eye-opening.
“Year one, it was pretty hostile,” he said of a time in 2020 when he began walking the sidewalk outside the Planned Parenthood. “The first year, I would say most of our responses were very negative. People honking, cussing, things like that.
Hurney said he’s “had people in my space. I’ve been spit on. I’ve had a drink thrown on me.”
At a later vigil, pro-abortion passersby yelled curses and epithets at the quietly praying group of men, women and children.
“I think deep down they know that (abortion) is not right and somebody standing here and standing up for those who cannot speak for themselves strikes them in their heart and touches them a little bit,” he said. “So they respond either with support or the exact opposite.”
Students For Life working hard
Another national organization, Students for Life Action, noted its Oklahoma chapter was working with Oklahoma State Rep. Denise Crosswhite Hader (R-Piedmont) on pro-life legislation. It was during this legislative session that Crosswhite Hader introduced HB 1168, which is being promoted to stop the “Chemical Abortion Pill” industry from “pushing death by mail,” according to SFLAction President Kristan Hawkins.
It is this group that is promoting a “Make America Pro-Life Again” effort in state legislatures.
Oklahoma SFLAction representative Mikayla Simpson told Sooner Catholic: “Students for Life Action has been the driving force behind cutting-edge legislation that was (just) introduced that will save countless preborn lives from the violence of Chemical Abortion Pills.”
Spiritual battle
Noting a car in the Planned Parenthood parking lot with satanic and occult symbols plastered on the back, Mike noted a “spiritual battle” taking place.
“Absolutely,” he said. “And you can ask anyone here … the first campaign we did here, there was an aura, a dark heaviness. I’m not going to say it’s completely gone, because it’s not. But it’s been lifted and I think it’s directly attributable to the campaigns we’ve run here and our prayers.”
Asked about the steps now needed to end abortion, Hurney said it’s not impossible.
“At this point, the Supreme Court in our state is not as conservative as we would like it to be. And so that’s an area. But to truly end abortion we have to change hearts and minds and that begins with prayer,” he said.
At the later Sunday afternoon vigil, Deacon Larry Germann, with Saint John Nepomuk Catholic Church in Yukon, led the recitation of the Rosary at the corner of NW 23 and N. Lee Avenue, under a deep, blue sky.
When the Rosary concluded, a few of the 25 participants shared their thoughts on 40 Days for Life.
“We need some more young people (involved),” Germann said, nodding at the half-dozen children holding signs that included positive phrases including; “Choose Life” and “We Will Help You.”
Bing Martin is a long-time sidewalk advocate, having started over two decades ago protesting abortion down in Norman.
“I remember one time the FBI was on the roof (of the Planned Parenthood) and took pictures,” Martin said. Asked why they were photographing a peaceful vigil, Martin replied: “They never talked to us.”
No FBI on the roof during these recent strolls on the sidewalk. It was actually pretty quiet along the normally bustling Uptown 23rd commercial district.
“This is a battle that we as men and women cannot win,” Mike said, “but we can have God and the Holy Spirit conquer this evil by doing what he has asked us to do, and that is to be out here, be a presence on the sidewalks and be a resource for anybody who wants to come over and talk with us.
“And just show up and pray.”
Andrew W. Griffin is a freelance writer for the Sooner Catholic.
For more information:
Join in for the 40 Days for Life daily prayers 7 a.m. - 7 p.m., Monday - Saturday, March 5 – April 13.
Sign up for daily prayer times at:
40daysforlife.com/Edmond or 40daysforlife.com/oklahomacity23rd
Also join in for Sunday Rosaries:
Edmond Sunday Rosaries with a priest or deacon at 3 p.m.
Location: 1601 S. Blvd., Edmond
Leader: Contact Mike Hurney at (918) 625-7619, [email protected] or [email protected]
Oklahoma City Sunday Rosaries with a priest or deacon at 2 p.m.
Location: 619 N.W. 23 St., Oklahoma City
Leader: Contact Mike Hurney at (918) 625-7619 or [email protected]
Photo: For 40 days, from March 5 to April 13 this year, all-day vigils will be visible in front of abortion businesses, where “sidewalk advocates” hold pro-life signs, pray the Rosary and offer help and guidance to women considering abortion. Photos provided.
