Virginia Director Nicole Cooley can speak of her experience; the photos speak of the baby's experience.

On Thursday, we wrapped up our trip to Radford University in Radford, Virginia.  CBR Virginia Project Director Nicole Cooley spoke with many students who asked questions and concluded by saying that we had changed their minds.  She said she told her story of rape, abortion, and healing more often than ever before.

We were covered by the Roanoke Times, both here and here.

WDBJ-TV, which had reported earlier in the week on our visit to Liberty U, did a very slanted hit piece on our visit to Radford.  Although one-sided reporting is SOP for the national media, local media are usually much more even-handed in their reporting.  In all our years of being covered by local media, this was only the second story that could easily have been written by Planned Parenthood.  The other was in Des Moines, Iowa, in 2004, where a TV station covering our Key States Initiative referred to us as “anti-choice extremists.”

Perhaps we are naive at FAB, but we give you the benefit of the doubt.  You have to be really bad for us to notice.  This time, we noticed.  Not one of our people were interviewed for the WDBJ-TV story about our visit to Radford; only the pro-aborts were interviewed.  We offered to speak with them; they weren’t interested.  They also didn’t take note of our poll table, in which the results were fairly evenly divided between pro-life and pro-abortion.  Not good reporting … good comedy, though.

Meanwhile, back at Liberty U, we continued to reach students.  WSET-TV covered our continuing presence.  We placed several of our Scripture signs along a pedestrian route from dorms to the main part of campus.  More to come!

Signs at Liberty University Bookstore expose the reality of abortion.

GAP at Radford University

On Wednesday (yesterday), some of us slipped away from Lynchburg to take our Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) to Radford University.  We were invited by the Radford College Republicans.

This GAP was a bit unusual because we displayed during the very first week of classes.  We’ve never visited a school in August before, let alone two.  We have two more scheduled for week after next.

This is important for a couple of reasons.  First, we are reaching so many freshmen before they’ve even had a chance to get (or get a girlfriend) pregnant.  Also, by completing 4 GAPs this early, we still have time to visit even more schools later this semester … but only if we get the funding.  We depend solely on you, so please give generously; a baby’s life depends on it.

At Radford, nearly 30 pro-life students declared their support at our poll table.  We hope some of them will start a Students for Life club on campus.  The College Republicans were also busy, signing up at least 20 new members on Day 1.  GAP is an excellent membership recruiting platform, because it gets the attention of the most serious students and lets them know they can make a huge difference in the lives of others.

Work at Liberty University continues.  We’ve been joined by the Hardin Family GAP Team from White House, Tennessee, and the Hardwick Family GAP Team from Columbus, Ohio.  Darius Hardwick is CBR’s Midwest Region Director.  Several Liberty students have commented on earlier FAB postings.

More to come!  Please keep those cards and letters coming!

Pro Life on Campus at the University of Delaware

Here is the media coverage from our recent GAP excursion to Maryland and Delaware.

GAP at Johns Hopkins University

Johns Hopkins News-Letter

• Pro-life activists stage protest (4-page item)
• Freedom of speech and expression (2-page item)

True Blue Conservative

• Pro-life activists stage protest

GAP at the University of Delaware

• Abortion protest to return to The Green
• Group’s comparison of abortion, genocide draws ire
• Pushing one’s ideas will never initiate logical debate
• Abortion display is misleading

GAP photo in the Eastern Progress

Check out the media coverage at Eastern Kentukcy and the Univesity of Kentucky.  You think they knew we were there?

The Eastern Progress at Eastern Kentucky University:

• Abortion murals met with mixed reactions
• Debate looks into legality of abortion
• Abortion debate is a stalemate

The Kentucky Kernel at the University of Kentucky:

• Abortion display fuels debate
• Letter: Signs present inaccurate information
• Abortion signs depict genocide, breast cancer in false light
• Letter: In response to ..
• Offending social justice with social justice
• GAP uses shock tactics to effectively achieve goal
• Letter from Daniel Sparks

Blue Coast Live:

• CBR brings graphic pictures to UK campus
• Planned Parenthood support group VOX combats graphic display at UK

A crowd gathers in front of GAP and CBR "Choice" signs at Johns Hopkins University.

On Tuesday, CBR brought the Genocide Awareness Project to Johns Hopkins University (JHU).  This is a private school, and we had no student sponsorship, so we actually set up our display in a grass strip at the front entrance.

About mid-day, a handful of pro-abortion students showed up to provide a stark contrast between reasoned debate and juvenile buffoonery.  Fortunately, we were able to bring the truth about abortion to a steady stream of students entering the JHU front gate.

An abortion photo (CBR business card photo) on each cross helps people know what abortion is.

The Students for Life at Eastern Kentucky are a shining light on a hill.  Here’s what they are doing:

1. Week of March 28:  Crosses for the Unborn, including abortion photos on each cross.
2. Week of April 4:  Genocide Awareness Project, Powell Corner
3. April 7:  Debate between CBR Director and pro-abortion-choice professor
4. Week of April 11:  Crosses for the Unborn, including abortion photos on each cross.  Passersby will recall the GAP photos on the very same spot during the previous week.

So what have you done this week?

Here is another photo of the crosses display, along with photo of a piece of the GAP display.  Can you tell they are on the same spot?

This week, Crosses for the Unborn occupy the same spot as a part of the GAP display occupied last week. The small photos on each cross make the connection even stronger.

Debbie Picarello and Sandie Sendall speak with UK students about their abortion experiences.

We are so thankful for ministry partners like Deeper Still, an outreach to post-abortive women (and soon post-abortive men as well).  Two of their volunteers, Debbie Picarello and Sandie Sendall, both post-abortive themselves, joined us for GAP at the University of Kentucky.  Debbie shares her experience:

Visiting the University of Kentucky was a wonderful experience.  Sandie Sendall, a friend and past Deeper Still participant, helped man the post-abortion healing table.  Both Sandie and I have experienced the negative consequences of having the “choice” to have an abortion.  We came to offer not only our personal experiences with abortion, but also to offer the hope, healing, restoration, and reconciliation only Jesus can offer.

The Deeper Still table, stationed in between the Planned Parenthood table and the GAP display, gave us plenty of opportunities to speak with college students and older adults.  There were two signs on our table.  One said, “I’ve had an abortion. You can ask me anything.”  The other declared “Freeing the abortion wounded heart…Deeper Still.”

Many students stopped by just wanting to know what Deeper Still was, both pro-lifers and pro-choicers alike.  I had numerous opportunities to share that abortion comes with a very high price tag, a price to be paid for many years to come after the procedure that was supposed to help me “get on with my life”.

This table became a place to come and share personal pain.  One male student’s girlfriend aborted their baby a year ago and he was hurting very badly.  We gave him local info for Rachel’s Vineyard which offers ministry for men.  Deeper Still has the vision to offer free healing retreats for men wounded by abortion, yet currently only offers ministry for women.

Another young woman had been raped and was looking for help.  We referred her to Jane, a GAP volunteer who also worked at one of the crisis pregnancy centers in Lexington.  Jane and Sandy were able to pray with her and exchange contact info.

Another young male college student told us how he was almost the victim of abortion, due to his problematic conception.  He was exceptionally glad that we were all out there standing for life.  Many pro-life students said they were so glad we were there.  We had the opportunity to speak with and challenge protesting medical students, as well as several of the Planned Parenthood students.

We were only 2 of the several post abortive women who volunteered to help with GAP at UK.  I am convinced that having post abortive women and men at these GAP’s strengthens the impact it has.  There is power in personal testimony that could not be refuted.  We left the students with a lot to think about.

GAP turns heads at the University of Kentucky.

We always love our time at the University of Kentucky.  It is a very diverse student body, with many students representing every position on abortion.  Students are generally respectful and willing to listen.

Our free speech board was a huge draw, as was our poll table.  I don’t have exact numbers, but the list of students who identified themselves as pro-life was several pages long.

Media coverage already!

Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) at Eastern Kentucky University

We put up our Genocide Awareness Project at Eastern Kentucky University today.  With rain and 30-mph winds in the forecast, we constructed the display in a perfect location, sheltered from the rain and the worst of the wind.  We managed to get the display taken down and loaded up on the truck before the heavy rains came.

The pro-aborts had promised to demonstrate, but only one showed up.  Bummer.

Supervolunteers Gary Johnson and Larry Goad drove the RCC truck around campus.

RCC truck driving through the EKU campus.

Pro-aborts draw huge crowds to GAP, including people who most need to see the signs.

It’s the sound of panic.  Somebody just forwarded me this e-mail:

Hello, My organization, Feminists for Change, a pro-choice, student-led organization at Eastern Kentucky University was recently made aware of a very disturbing turn of events on EKU’s campus. On Monday and Tuesday of this coming week (4/4-4/5), the Genocide Awareness Project will be demonstrating on our campus.

Although FFC recognizes the right of any group to demonstrate on campus, we cannot support GAP’s message. We also take issue with their delivery. The use of graphic and altered images of abortions along with the distribution of false information to EKU’s students is something FFC cannot accept. Please see the website to understand the distortion of their cause against abortion. http://abortionno.org/index.php/the_genocide_awareness_project_gap

As a result, we need to make signs on Sunday in an effort to counter protest. We need clever ideas that will make a statement! Please if you can help organize, email me back letting me know any ideas or times you can help on Sunday. A few of us have already planned to meet on Sunday at 8:30 but I will meet earlier to any of those who can help make signs.

The other portion of the counter protest I hope to incorporate is a speak out. Readings from http://ourstotell.tumblr.com/-this website has great readings on people who have experienced abortion first-hand. For those of you who have written poetry on this issue, this is the time to take a stance and speak out! I expect the counter-protest will happen on Monday and Tuesday from 11-2.

Please email me back if you can hold signs or participate in the SPEAK OUT! WE REALLY NEED EVERYONE’S INVOLVEMENT AND PARTICIPATION TO MAKE IT CLEAR THAT WE STAND ON THE SIDE OF CHOICE. We hope you will join us.

Please let us know if you will participate in our counter demonstration. Also, feel free to forward this to any departments or others who might be interested in supporting our cause!

We need your assistance! Thank you for your time and support!

Let us praise God that the pictures are so effective.  If the pictrures did not expose the truth of abortion, win hearts, change minds, and save lives, the pro-aborts would ignore us.  They are in a panic because they know that our pictures defeat their most effective strategy, and that is confusing people about the humanity of the preborn child and the inhumanity of abortion.

Please pray that the pro-abortion demonstration will be a huge success, drawing even more people to see GAP.  Pray for opened eyes and peaceful dialogue.

Pro Life on Campus at University of West Florida

On February 14-15, CBR took the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) to the University of West Florida.  The video below features students talking about the project.

Media coverage was extensive:

• Genocide on Display
• Abortion will always exit
• Free speech zones brought into question
• CBR responds

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IscsEjw11E

Seth Drayer

We are indebted to CBR’s Seth Drayer for sharing this encounter with a student at Florida State University.

“She called me up and told me she was pregnant, that she was going to keep the baby. Two weeks later, she called and told me she’d gotten rid of it.”

I looked at the young man standing before me. “How do you feel?” I asked.

“Oh, man . . . I don’t want anyone to feel what I feel.”

Moments before, I had withdrawn from GAP to catch my breath. The verbally violent protestors, the student playing the accordion loudly in front of me to stifle conversation: all of it was choking my love for the students at Florida State University.

After reflection and prayer, I returned to the display. And then I met Chris.

“Do you have pictures of an 18 week-old?” he asked.

Immediately, I knew why he was asking. “Yeah, follow me.” I led him to our prenatal development sign and pointed to the 18 week image: a close up of the baby’s face. “Is that how old your baby was?” I asked cautiously.

Chris nodded. His eyes began to water. “It’s not right,” he said. “I’m the kind of guy who always protects. And here, the one person I was supposed to . . .”

And then he asked me a question I did not want to answer: “Did he feel it?”

I wanted to tell Chris that the baby felt no pain during the abortion, to mask the barbarity of it and lessen Chris’s own suffering. But, he needed the truth. When I shared it with him, he could only shake his head in defeat.

Then, I told him that I know what it feels like to be a father stripped of his duty. I shared with him the empty powerlessness I had felt when Aubrie and I lost our own child by miscarriage. Fathers are meant to protect their children—yet neither Chris nor I had been able to do so.

“Remember this, Chris,” I told him, “you are and always will be a father.”

Chris returned the next day. His countenance had changed completely. He told me he had accepted the reality of his pain. He had brought a friend to show him the picture of “his” 18 week baby. He was even smiling.

Chris had needed someone to validate his pain. I had needed someone to remind me why I was there. I praise God for allowing us to meet.

When CBR goes to school, we not only bring the truth of abortion, we also give a lesson on the First Amendment.  Here is an article that appeared in the aftermath of our visit to the University of West Florida.

The “free-speech” zones, as applied at many universities, is without question unConstitutional, because it restricts speech on 99% of the campus, without any compelling state interest in doing so.  “We like our speech bottled up where we can keep an eye on it” is not a compelling state interest.  Neither is, “We’ve always restricted speech to this location.”  What they are saying, in essence, is this: “We deny everybody’s First Amendment rights equally, so it’s OK.”  Needless to say, that would get the university laughed out of court if they were foolish enough to make that argument.

After we explain the First Amendment to the most university attorneys, they generally accept our legal reasoning.  Of course, the fact that we are ready and willing to take our case to court, if necessary, also helps them see the light.

Here’s what we say in our standard notification letter to each university to which we take our GAP project:

… pursuant to well-settled law, CBR enjoys an undisputed First Amendment right to conduct educational presentations in any public forum.  “[A] principal purpose of traditional public fora is the free exchange of ideas,” Cornelius v. NAACP Legal Defense & Ed. Fund, 473 U.S. 788, 800 (1985), and other purposes include “assembly, communicating thoughts between citizens, and discussing public questions,” Hague v. Committee for Ind. Organization, 307 U.S. 496, 515 (1939).   A college or university is “peculiarly the ‘marketplace of ideas.’”  Healy v. James, 408 U.S. 169, 180 (1972).   While we do not accept the proposition that free speech can be limited to designated areas, there is no serious doubt that “free speech” areas on your campus are public fora in which CBR’s rights cannot be limited unless certain standards are met.

The standard for content-based restrictions on speech is that any such regulation must be necessary to serve a compelling state interest and be narrowly drawn to achieve that end.  Boos v. Barry, 485 U.S. 312, 321 (1988).  Furthermore, such regulations “must be subjected to the most exacting scrutiny.”  Id.  Only speech such as obscenity, defamation, and fighting words has been found to meet that standard.  See, e.g., R.A.V. v. St. Paul, 505 U.S. 377, 383 (1992).  Your client will have no such “compelling” interests as to CBR’s speech.

The standard for content-neutral restrictions on speech is that any such regulations must be “narrowly tailored to serve a significant government interest, and leave open ample alternative channels of communication.”  Perry Ed. Ass’n v. Perry Local Educator’s Ass’n, 460 U.S. 37, 45 (1983) (emphasis added).  The University undoubtedly has “significant interests” in speech on public property.  Those interests are safety and traffic flow on streets and sidewalks and the opportunity for students to access educational services without substantial interference.  Cf. Widmar v. Vincent, 454 U.S. 263, 277 (1981).

It is axiomatic, however, that the First Amendment is especially protective of speech which is offensive.  In fact, offensive speech is the only speech which requires protection.  See, e.g., Forsyth County v. Nationalist Movement, 505 U.S. 123, 134-35 (1992) (speech cannot be “punished or banned, simply because it might offend a hostile mob”); Cohen v. California, 403 U.S. 15, 21 (1971) (viewers who dislike a message have a responsibility to “avoid further bombardment of their sensibilities simply by averting their eyes”); Terminiello v. City of Chicago, 337 U.S. 1, 4 (1949) (free speech “may indeed best serve its high purpose when it induces a condition of unrest, creates dissatisfaction with conditions as they are, or even stirs people to anger”).  Therefore, the possibility that CBR’s photos or literature or remarks might offend passersby has no legal significance and cannot properly be used as a basis for restricting that speech.

As noted above, CBR is prepared to accept reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions on its expressive activity and will make reasonable efforts to ensure that their conduct does not negatively affect legitimate interests of the university.  But CBR will not accept unreasonable restrictions.  An example of an unreasonable restriction would be any attempt by the university to minimize controversy by relegating CBR’s display to some obscure campus location.

Peter Ascik hosted GAP at U of Georgia in Fall 2010.

One of the best parts of my job is to meet, encourage, and (we hope, at some level) influence young pro-life activists.  One such young pro-life champion is Peter Ascik.  We first met Peter in 2008, when we took our Pro Life on Campus project (GAP) to Appalachian State U, where Peter was an undergraduate.  Now he is in graduate school at the U of Georgia, where he serves as President of the Students for Life.

Peter and his group hosted GAP at the U of Georgia last Fall, and is currently preparing to bring the Justice for All (JFA) display this Spring.  The JFA display features CBR abortion photos.  In preparation for the display, he wrote this column in the U of Georgia student paper.  He wrote:

We understand the pictures of unborn human beings destroyed by abortion are disturbing. But a critical thinker may ask why it is so disturbing to see them.

***

We believe these images are so disturbing because it is inconsistent for us to speak about human rights — while we ignore the rights of the youngest and most vulnerable humans.

For the entire column, click here.

To help us raise up and train more pro-life champions like Peter, click here and make a generous donation.

GAP at Florida Atlantic University

CBR’s Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) tour of Florida concluded at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) on February 23-24.  Media coverage:

• On-line photo gallery
• Letter to the student paper