MONSEY, N.Y.—The 25 people gathered in prayer outside the Gynecare abortion facility here Dec. 12 had lots of company — nationally.

While the pro-lifers sang hymns and prayed the rosary in this town 30 miles north of New York, thousands elsewhere in the country converged on abortion facilities armed with a replica of the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

The image was taken to at least 606 of the 928 abortion facilities in the United States, according to Dr. Cathy Dowling of Ann Arbor, Mich., one of the three chief organizers of the event.

Dec. 12 was the day chosen because it was the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, whose image is preserved on a cloak of a 16th-century Mexican Indian peasant. She is the patroness of the unborn.

In 25 states there was a prayer vigil at every abortion site, said Dowling, who along with her friends Deanna Aikman and Lorrie Anderberg spearheaded the initiative.

The trio from Michigan had hoped pro-lifers would take a replica of the Guadalupe image to every U.S. abortion clinic as a means to end the killing of the unborn.

Dowling said the initiative intentionally avoided the mainstream media.

“We didn't want to draw attention to it from the secular press,” she told the Register. “We wanted to focus on prayer. We don't want the harassment that I think the secular press might bring.”

Peggy Beirne, who organized the vigil outside the Gynecare facility in Monsey, believes it will be God who ends abortion. “We can't end this as human beings,” she asserted. “We're gonna end this with prayer and fasting.”

Prayer was the reason why an abortion facility in nearby Nanuet, N.Y., was closed, she added.

“It was opened and closed in four months,” Beirne said. “They said, ‘It's because we didn't make any money.’ Yeah, we know why you didn't make any money. There were people praying out there every day.”

Planned Parenthood, the largest entity in the U.S. abortion industry, did not return calls by press time to comment on the group's initiative.