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CBR Executive Director Gregg Cunningham shows abortion video during worship service at Calvary Chapel Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

Abortion, which was sold to the American people as a way of liberating women, has become a tool of oppression that men use to victimize women.

The question returns, “Are we taking abortion as seriously as God takes child sacrifice in the Old Testament?”

We start by talking about forgiveness, because [abortion] is an incredibly easy mistake to make … when they are being lied to and they are under a great deal of pressure.

God forgives sin, if we repent of that sin.  That’s what the Gospel is about.

Abortion, which was sold to the American people as a way of liberating women, has become a tool of oppression that men use to victimize women.

Psalm 139 describes our being formed in a secret place, and God has now opened up that secret place and allowed us the technology to actually see what’s going on.

Abortion is happening with the permission of the Body of Christ, in the sense that God has given His people dominion over resources more than adequate to stop abortion, and abortion florishes because the Church is doing little or nothing to stop it.

It’s ironic beyond imagining that our pastors in churches around America dispute that abortion can be analogized to Old Testament child sacrifice at the very time when pagans are outspokenly saying abortion is not analygous to child sacrifice, abortion is child sacrifice.

The question returns, “Are we taking abortion as seriously as God takes child sacrifice in the Old Testament?”  And the answer for most of us is, “No, not really.”

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Catholic school chaperones tell us that the pictures of abortion we show had more influence on their students than any other speaker or event.

If Simcha Fisher shows up today for the March for Life in DC, she’ll be sorely disappointed when she passes E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse on Constitution Avenue.  That’s where we will be with our billboard-sized photos of aborted babies.  In her blog at the National Catholic Register, Ms. Fisher advanced “Eight Reasons Not to Use Graphic Abortion Images at the March for Life.”  We beg to differ.  Read her blog here.  Below, FAB resonds to each of her assertions.

There will be children at the march.  First of all, children as young as nine do become pregnant and they do get abortions (we have press clippings to prove it).  In America, a school nurse can take a pregnant child out of class and to a judge who can certify that this little girl is sufficiently mature to make an abortion decision behind her parents’ backs.  It happens all the time.

Even parents who don’t allow their children to watch violence on television often take them to the grocery store, where check-out lines are flanked with magazine covers depicting dead and dying victims of violence, terrorism, natural disasters, etc., some of them as gruesome as anything we use.  They have been seen by countless children whose clueless parents never even noticed.

We have had countless women tell us that nothing less shocking than our abortion photos would have sufficed to dissuade them from killing their children.  So we have to ask ourselves, “Which is worse, children being upset by a picture of abortion or other children being killed by the act of abortion?”

When Christians complain, we ask “Would Jesus use bloody pictures to show people the result of sin?”  Jesus controlled every aspect of his capture, trial, and execution.  He arranged to have Himself beaten so badly, He didn’t even look human (Isaiah 52:14).  His beard was torn off of his face (Isaiah 50:6).  In this condition, He walked through the most crowed part of Jerusalem on the most crowded day of the year.  His bloody body horrified throngs of Passover pilgrims, including large numbers of young children.

He made this disturbing spectacle as public as possible, because he wanted to disturb us with the gravity of our sin (but also bless us with the grace of His forgiveness), despite the fact that many children would be traumatized in the process.  Did He get this wrong?

There will be post-abortive women at the March.  If there are post-abortive women all around us, there are also pre-abortive women around us.  And with as many high-school students as come to the March for Life by the busload, you can bet there are pre-abortive women (and men) in the crowd.  The most compassionate thing we can do for pre-abortive women (and men) is to show them the truth so that abortion is no longer a temptation.

Furthermore, the history of social reform demonstrates that we can never end abortion by covering it up.  So we have to ask ourselves, “Which is worse, women feeling sorrow over past abortions, or the killing never ends?”

Mothers will be there.  Yes, mothers will be at the March for Life with their children.  We will be on the left-hand side of the parade route.  There is ample opportunity for parents to redirect their children’s attention away from the display.  Parents do it all the time.

Other parents don’t try to hide uncomfortable truth from their children.  They use our pictures as a teaching moment, so that their children will know the truth and will not be entrapped by the twin evils of complicity and complacency.

Those are real babies.  At the Holocaust museum and in any book on the Holocaust, you will see pictures of dead people, and those people are very real.  Their bodies are stacked up like chord wood.  Victims of injustice want their plight to be known, and they want injustice to end.  If it is wrong to show pictures of dead victims at the March for Life, it is equally wrong to show pictures of dead victims at the Holocaust Museum.

Public image matters, but changing minds matters even more.  We don’t care what people think about us; we care about what they think about abortion.  Civil rights activists actually wrote Dr. Martin Luther King a letter asking him not to come to Birmingham.  They thought he might undo all the great progress they had made.  They thought his methods were too confrontational.  Maybe they thought his public image was bad for the civil rights movement.

But he went to Birmingham anyway.  He got thrown in jail, and he used his time in jail to write his famous Letter From a Birmingham Jail, perhaps the most important document to emerge out of the Civil Rights Era.  He wrote about the necessity to make people uncomfortable with the status quo.  He said that civil rights moderates were more dangerous to the cause of civil rights than the Ku Klux Klan.

Abortion pictures do not push women into abortion.  We have been told by many, many women that they had decided to abort their babies, but seeing our pictures changed their minds.  We have never heard of any woman who said she had decided not to abort, but seeing our pictures caused her to change her mind and change her mind.

Pictures do not desensitize pro-lifers to the extent that they leave the movement.  Yes, of course we who see the pictures every day don’t react with the same emotion as we used to.  I’m sure that surgeons and emergency room doctors don’t react to blood with the same emotion that they felt when they first entered medical school.  But so what?  Does that make them less effective?  Do they leave the profession?  Are they less committed to saving lives?  Does it make them think that death is not such a big deal?

What people see changes their minds.  To say that pictures don’t force unwilling people to change their minds is simply not supportable by the facts.  When Americans saw pictures of Black men and women being attacked with dogs and water cannons, certainly not all of them changed there minds about racial injustice.  But enough did change their minds to bring about the needed reforms.  When people see abortion photos, certainly not all of them change their minds.  But many do.  Ms. Fisher’s argument is not with us; her argument is with these — women who didn’t abort, people whose minds were changed, people who became more motivated to stand against abortion — and many others who have said that abortion pictures changed their minds.

Last resort?  If people need to see the truth, as Ms. Fisher says, then why should we limit their exposure to once or twice per lifetime?  Why?  Did they broadcast video and publish photos of racial injustice only once or twice?

Finally, Ms. Fisher asserts that we should show abortion pictures only as a last resort.  With more than 50 million dead in this country over 40 years, we have to ask, “If not now, then when?”  I don’t know about Ms. Fisher, but if I am ever kidnapped and my captors are planning my execution, I hope that those who know of my plight won’t wait until I am dead before they decide it’s OK to use every tool in their toolbox to rescue me from death and save my life.

We’ve won the argument but lost where it counts.  So says Meredith Hunt in the Asheville Citizen-Times, responding to the recent cover article by Time magazine.  Link to Hunt’s entire op-ed piece here.  He explains

Time magazine’s Jan. 14 cover story proclaimed, “Abortion-rights activists won an epic victory in Roe v. Wade. They’ve been losing ever since.” This statement is wrong on the only scale that matters. Forty years after Roe, prenatal children are still being aborted legally in our country.

While abortion seems entrenched into our culture, in the realm of reasoned argument, the abortion choice movement has lost the game entirely.  With the advances in observing the life of children in the womb, the work to educate university students on the true nature of abortion, and the logical arguments that demonstrate the humanity and personhood even of an embryo, abortion-choice rhetoric shows itself to be empty.  It’s strong on absurdities, non sequiturs, false history, and demonizing characterizations of pro-lifers.  If you add to our intellectual victory the network of nonprofit agencies that serve women in a crisis pregnancy and confirm the compassionate heart of pro-life ideas, the defeat of the abortion choice position is total.

The problem is, legal abortion isn’t dependent on sound jurisprudence or moral reasoning.  It never was.  “Pro-choice” efforts in those directions have been no more than gauze over the power to kill.  They’re an illusion to make the terrible seem less terrible — to comfort people so they can do what they want, and to mislead the desperate.

Link to Hunt’s piece here.

CBR volunteer, supporter, and presumed woman-hater Ruby Nicdao shows pro-aborts and passersby what is being chosen. (photo from GAYRVA.com)

Annually, a consortium of pro-life and pro-family organizations from across the Commonwealth of Virginia hold a Rally for Life near the Capitol.  This year, however, the actual purpose for the Rally was revealed when CBR Virginia brought a set of “Choice” signs (3-ft by 4-ft abortion photos) to display at the event.  CBR Project Director Nicole Cooley positioned her team where they could be seen by three different audiences: Rally attendees, pro-abortion protesters, and passersby.

“I don’t know what is more inspiring, listenting to the speakers at the Rally or watching your witness to the pro-aborts.”

After setting up “Choice” signs, the CBR team was joined by a number of Rally attenedees who had brought their own signs to the event.

Also nearby was a group of 30 pro-aborts had come to protest the Rally.  Their signs were the usual silly stuff, e.g., [Virginia Attorney General Ken] Cuccinelli “hates women,” etc.  However, on this day, their wrath against pro-lifers was muted to a great extent, compared to previous outbursts.  Three reasons:

1. the pictures of abortion,
2. the sight of two CBR ladies wearing sweatshirts that said “I regreat my abortion,” and
3. the presence of a CBR security videographer who was filming the CBR team at all times, making it clear that any pro-abort initiating a violent confrontation against peaceful pro-lifers would be held accountable for unlawful acts.

One of the Rally attendees walked over to Nicole and remarked, “I don’t know what is more inspiring, listenting to the speakers at the Rally or watching your witness to the pro-aborts.”

Nicole was quoted by GAYRVA.com: “I was raped when I was 23 years old and chose to have an abortion and found out the hard way that abortion doesn’t help anyone, least of all rape victims, overcome assault. It just compounded the trauma for me and made healing from both events much more difficult.”

Link to GAYRVA.com story here.

To support pro-life activism in Virginia, click here and select either of these options:

• Virginia Projects (SE-NWC) (Nicole Cooley), or
• Virginia Projects (SE-MTE) (Maggie Egger)

Great piece by Walter Russell Mead.  You know it’s true.

This is all bad news and very disturbing, but there is a crumb of comfort to be had.  Because these failures happened on President Obama’s watch, the mainstream press isn’t particularly interested in relentless, non-stop scrutiny of the unpleasant news.  If George W. Bush were president now, and had ordered the surge and was responsible for the strategic decisions taken and not taken in Afghanistan over the last four years, the mainstream press would be rubbing our noses in his miserable failures and inexcusable blunders 24/7.  The New York Times and the Washington Post would be treating us to pictures of every fallen soldier.  The PBS Newshour would feature nightly post-mortems on “America’s failed strategies in the Afghan War” and every arm-chair strategist in America would be filling the op-ed pages with the brilliant 20/20 hindsight ideas that our pathetic, clueless, failed president was too dumb and too cocky to have had.

There would be no end to the woes and the recriminations.  There would be the most moving and eloquent examples of hand wringing in the New York Review of Books, elegantly demonstrating that the cretinous assumptions and moral failings that led Bush into his failed Afghan policy weren’t his alone, but reflected broader, deeper failings in America itself.  One is almost sorry for the sake of the authors of these diatribes that Bush is gone; the failure of our Afghan strategy is so sweeping, so unavoidable, that it would be the best possible backdrop against which to paint a stirring portrait of a failed president misleading a flawed people.  What works of polemical literature have been lost, what inspired jeremiads will never be penned, what scalding portraits of America’s inherent flaws will never see the light of day because W left the White House too soon.

Entire piece here.

On this, one of the bleakest days in recent history, I thought it good to share a few quotations from a better, more coherent era.  All of these are attributed to President Ronald Reagan.

Socialism only works in two places, heaven where they don’t need it and hell where they already have it.

Here’s my strategy on the Cold War:  we win, they lose.

The most terrifying words in the English language are, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help you.”

The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they’re ignorant; it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so.

Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the U.S.  was too strong.

The taxpayer: that’s someone who works for the federal government but doesn’t have to take the civil service examination.

Government is like a baby:  an alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.

The nearest thing to eternal life we will ever see on this earth is a government program.

It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession.  I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first.

Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases:  If it moves, tax it.  If it keeps moving, regulate it.  And if it stops moving, subsidize it.

Politics is not a bad profession.  If you succeed, there are many rewards; if you disgrace yourself, you can always write a book.

No arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is as formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women.

The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.  (Originally come from Margaret Thatcher, but we’re betting Ronald Reagan quoted her on it at least once!)

If we ever forget that we’re one nation under GOD, then we will be a nation gone under.

Maggie Egger

The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform (CBR), Southeast Region Operations, is pleased to announce the appointment of Maggie Egger as our newest Project Director in Virginia.

Maggie currently resides in Front Royal, but once her support team is in place, she plans to relocate to Richmond.  She will be working in close collaboration with Nicole Cooley of Churchville, CBR’s other Project Director in Virginia.

Maggie received her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Richmond (UR) in 2012, majoring in political science and minoring in dance.

[Political science and dance?  We suppose it’s multidisciplinary program for politicians … they learn how to dance around the truth!  But we don’t want to get into that.  Anyway … ]

Maggie has been active in the pro-life movement since childhood, when her mother took her to pray outside abortion facilities.  Her father was a rescuer in the 1980s and 90s.  At UR, she founded and led the UR Spiders for Life.  In the summers, she directed Face the Truth tours for Defend Life.  In her final semester at UR, she hosted a CBR Choice Chain on campus.

Maggie spent the summer of 2012 as an intern at Expectant Mother Care, a chain of crisis pregnancy centers in New York City.  By counseling women and girls in crisis, many of whom had aborted children in the past, Maggie saw their pain and suffering.  She saw how ignorance left them vulnerable to the lies of Satan; most of them were completely unaware what abortion is and does.  But once they came face to face with the truth of abortion, many choose life for their children, even amid difficult circumstances.

After seeing what the truth can do, Maggie is very excited to be joining the team at CBR Southeast. She told FAB:

If everyone knew that the result of abortion is the bloody, dismembered little babies on the pictures that we show, they would be talking about it and telling others about it, and hopefully doing something to end it.  But, if one is never told the truth (or, in this case, never shown the truth), how will they know any different?  They will continue to believe abortion is just another safe, medical procedure, until we show them differently.  As William Wilberforce said during his struggle against the slave trade, “You may choose to look the other way, but you can never again say you did not know.”

Welcome aboard, Maggie!  We’re expecting great things from you and Nicole!

If you’d like to support Maggie (or any of our staff members), it’s quick, easy, and secure to support CBR online.  Whatever you can do will make a huge difference.  To support Maggie’s work in Virginia, designate your gift for “Virginia Projects (SE-MTE).”

Renee Kling will lead pro-life activism in Kentucky!

The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform (CBR), Southeast Region Operations, is pleased to announce the appointment of Renee Kling of of Cold Spring, Kentucky, as our newest Project Director, primarily responsible for projects in Kentucky.

Renee is a recent graduate of Eastern Kentucky University (EKU), where she was a founding member and later president of the EKU Students for Life.  During her junior year, the Students for Life hosted CBR’s Genocide Awareness Project (GAP).  She saw how effective it is to simply show people the truth about abortion.

Some of her priorities for the Commonwealth will include

• GAP displays at Kentucky’s largest unviersities,
• Choice Chains all over the state,
• leadership training/mentoring for the next generation of pro-life leaders.

Renee has always been active in Christian and pro-life ministry.  At EKU, she was a leader in the Newman Center campus ministry, and from there joined the effort to rejuvenate pro-life activism on campus.  In addition to hosting GAP, EKU Students for Life hosted CBR’s Pro-Life Training Academy, created a Cemetery of the Innocents (cross display), hosted a debate between CBR Southeast Director Fletcher Armstrong and a pro-abortion faculty member on campus, and conducted many other projects.

Even as a high-school student, Renee was active in pro-life work, participating in such projects as the March for Life and the Cemetery of the Innocents.

She is excited to start her ministry with CBR, but not as thrilled as we are to have her join our staff.  Welcome aboard, Renee!  We’re expecting GREAT!

If you’d like to support Renee (or any of our new staff members), it’s quick, easy, and secure to support CBR online.  Whatever you can do will make a huge difference.  To support Renee’s work in Kentucky, designate your gift for “Kentucky Projects (SE-RMK).”

“Now is a bad time.”

Quote of the week:

I have never heard an abortionist say now is a bad time to kill babies.  But Christian leaders often tell me that now is a bad time to save them.  (Gregg Cunningham, Executive Director, Center for Bio-Ethical Reform)

According to crime statistics reported by The London Telegraph (UK is violent crime capital of Europe, 02 July 2009), the “gun-free” United Kingdom (UK) is 4 times more violent than the USA.  According to the Telegraph:

… there are over 2,000 crimes recorded per 100,000 population in the UK, making it the most violent place in Europe.

Austria is second, with a rate of 1,677 per 100,000 people, followed by Sweden, Belgium, Finland and Holland.

By comparison, America has an estimated rate of 466 violent crimes per 100,000 population.

France recorded 324,765 violent crimes in 2007 – a 67 per cent increase in the past decade – at a rate of 504 per 100,000 population.

Note that France didn’t even make the top 6 in Europe, yet their violent crime rate is still greater than ours.  Entire article here.

I just remembered that it was the UK’s program to confiscate guns from law-abiding citizens that caused me to become a lifetime member of the NRA, some 15 years ago.

CBR Choice Cards fit in your billfold and are always ready to help you show anybody what abortion is and does.  It might be a friend, a relative, or even the guy sitting next to you on the plane!

We are printing 30,000 “Choice” cards to hand out at the March for Life in DC.  We need help passing them out.  We are willing to pay your group a stipend to get it done.

The purpose of the cards is twofold:

1. Give pro-lifers a tool they can use to explain abortion to their friends, neighbors, acquaintances … even the people sitting next to them on the plane.  Photos make it clear what abortion is and does.  Words are not enough.
2. Encourage pro-lifers to learn more about our life-saving work by visiting our website and/or watching the video linked to the QR code on the front of the card.

You won’t get rich handing out cards, but it is a worthy project and we are glad to provide a stipend to help your group with travel expenses.  We probably need about 10 people, beginning at about 10:00 am and continuing until all the cards are handed out.  If you are attending one of the student rallies that precede the March, that would be a great crowd to work, so we could meet you with the cards earlier in the day.

Can your group help us?  Please contact us here or call us at 865-609-9033.

Will gun control reduce violence against school-children?  We were all horrified by shootings in Connecticut that left 26 dead.  We were indignant when the President of the United States used this tragedy to promote his own leftist political agenda.  And we are fearful of the violence that will descend upon all of us if Pres. Obama and his friends overturn the 2nd Amendment.

Of course, the people who work hardest to take away our right of self-protection (Hollywood leftists, politicians, etc.) are the people who live in gated communities and surround themselves with armed guards.  They don’t have to worry about home invasions.  What do they care about common folk like us?

A few facts to consider:

1. Chicago criminals, protected by some of the most restrictive gun laws in the country, shot 458 school-age children in 2012, killing 62 of them (source).  Another report says that 250 school-children have been killed in Chicago in 3 years (source).
2. Anders Behring Breivik killed 69 people in a single 2011 incident in Norway, which has very restrictive gun laws.  Nobody present was able to shoot back.
3. When selecting the target for his shooting rampage in Aurora, Colorado, gunman James Holmes selected the Cinemark theatre complex because it was the only one that banned guns.  Nobody present was able to shoot back (source).  One nearby theatre boasted “Colorado’s largest auditorium,” certainly a draw for a crazy man trying to kill as many people as he could, but they allowed permitted concealed handguns.
4. People in Russia can tell you what gun control has done to them.  They say “Never give up your guns.“

Never give up your guns.

Debbie Picarello

When talking wasn’t enough, abortion pictures did more than talk.  They saved a baby’s life.  Denise was born just a few weeks ago, but pictures saved her life back in May!

Although grieving a previous abortion, her mother Vicki still planned to abort her child.  Fortunately, CBR volunteer Debbie Picarello (who also volunteers with Deeper Still, a post-abortion recovery ministry) was able to show abortion pictures to Vicki online.  Recalling the conversation, Debbie said it was clear that “talking wasn’t enough.”  With your help, CBR had trained Debbie to use abortion pictures … when “talking wasn’t enough.”

Donna Hebert’s dopted 8-year-old offers passerby a pro-life tract.

They say you can tell a lot about people by the company they keep … and the enemies they make.  Actually, Jesus said it before “they” did.  He said

Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.  Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.  (Matthew 5:11-12)

Kudos to CBR Maine Director Leslie Sneddon for passing this test with flying colors.  Story here.  Leslie and other pro-lifers are a regular presence outside a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Portland, Maine.  As a result, a neighboring restaurant owner is in a panic.

This story clearly demonstrates that abortion photos and other pro-life activities can disrupt business-as-usual and thus are an effective tool for anathematizing abortion clinics and any commercial businesses who support baby-killing.