DETROIT — It’s common for pro-life activists to hold a prayer vigil, but it is unusual for it to be a celebration of a victory won.

Members of Citizens for a Pro-Life Society will, however, celebrate their success in thwarting efforts by Planned Parenthood to open a major abortion clinic in Auburn Hills with a prayer vigil of thanksgiving in front of the vacant building that would have housed the clinic on July 28, from 8:30-9:30 p.m.

It’s not like pro-life activists never have victories to celebrate, “but not a victory like this one,” acknowledged Monica Migliorino Miller, Ph.D., whose Citizens for a Pro-Life Society led the campaign to stop the clinic plan from becoming a reality.

“This is very, very rare — to be able to stop Planned Parenthood from opening an abortion clinic — a very rare victory,” said Miller, a Madonna University theology professor.

The 17,000-square-foot building at 1625 N. Opdyke Road now stands empty, with a sign out front advertising it as available for sale or for lease, after Planned Parenthood of Mid and South Michigan decided not to engage in further legal action to go ahead with its plans for the facility.

The prayer vigil will be preceded by a reception, from 6:30-8:15 p.m. at the Comfort Inn Suites Hotel next door to the thwarted clinic, 1565 N. Opdyke Road, featuring Joe Scheidler, national director of the Pro-Life Action League, and pro-life attorney and speaker Rebecca Kiessling.

It was the owners of the Comfort Inn Suites Hotel who, informed of Planned Parenthood’s intentions by Citizens for a Pro-Life Society, successfully pressed for enforcement of a deed restriction that placed restrictions on the use of the Planned Parenthood building.

The pro-life group has also been prominent as principal organizer of local rallies in support of First Amendment religious liberty in the face of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ mandate requiring Catholic institutions to provide health insurance coverage that includes contraception, abortion-inducing drugs and sterilization. Another rally is being planned for sometime this fall, probably in October, Miller said.

For more information about Citizens for a Pro-Life Society, go to its website, www.prolifesociety.com.