Nicole is interviewed by WUSA news anchor Peggy Fox.

CBR’s Key States Initiative (KSI) was the lead story on WUSA-TV in Washington, DC on Monday night.  Virginia Project Director (and truck-driver extraordinaire) Nicole Cooley was interviewed on-camera by news anchor Peggy Fox.  It was the lead story on the evening news!  Links:

• News Story on WUSA-TV (awesome video)
• Text version (same video)
• WUSA-TV Facebook Page (130+ comments so far)
• Photo of truck on Twitter page

Nicole gave an excellent interview.  WUSA highlighted some of the comments on their Facebook page.  Amanda Reyes wrote:

I don’t want my children seeing this.

But Claire Lauderdale Gardner said:

These pro-lifers are showing the truth of what abortion does.  It is tough to explain to kids because it is the gruesome murder of an unborn baby.  And most kids git that it’s killing a baby no matter what a parent’s views are.

Another story popped up on our KSI trucks in Iowa.

News coverage helps expand our audience and bring more people to our website.

A group of young women learn the two facts that are most important to abortion attitudes. They are (1) the humanity of the preborn child and (2) the inhumanity of abortion.

We returned to Market Square in Knoxville earlier this week for another edition of Urban GAP.  It was hot hot, with a temperature in the 90s and a wind-chill of nearly 100 degrees.

Media coverage.  All day long, passersby studied the abortion photos intently.  WBIR-TV ran a story on TV.  The video version is not available online, but you can read the text version here.  There were a number of comments, and you can see that I have responded to many of them.

Monument to Motherhood.  My favorite part of Urban GAP at Market Square is to go over to the monument to leaders of the woman’s suffrage movement in Tennessee (story here).  I figure that the ACLU will have it removed the first chance they get, but for now, we get to enjoy Knoxville’s very own City-owned, pro-life, pro-family, pro-God monument.  On it, you can read the words of suffragette Lizzie Crozier French (1851-1926):

Thanks be to God that in giving Woman the crown of motherhood He made her the giver not the taker of life.  Woman has no greater claim to the rights of the ballot than that she is the producer not a destroyer of life.

Is that awesome or what?  My interest in motherhood is not just professional, but  personal as well.  I’m not a mother myself, but I have one and so does my son.  I’ve watched them both work and they’re pretty good.

From CBR’s Seth Gruber:

ANSWERED PRAYER!  We made a mocking parody (watch video here) of Northland Family Planning Centers infomercial and they sued us for copyright infringement.  The judge just issued a final ruling in our favor, holding that our Fair Use defense was so strong that he was granting us a Summary Judgment victory without even allowing the case to go to trial! He wrote that “Though Northland [abortion clinics] may have suffered pecuniary or reputational losses as a result of the accused [CBR] Videos, those injuries are not recognized under the Copyright Act. On balance, Defendants’ use of the Northland Video was fair.”  The order itself read “For the foregoing reasons, Defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment is GRANTED, and Northland’s Motion for Summary Judgment is DENIED.

In an email message we forced Renee Chilean, owner of Northland abortion clinics, to release pursuant to her lawsuit against us, she told another abortionist that “I know that they [CBR] preach to their own choir but I am worried about this

.” Then she admits that the source of her worry is the possibility that we will use our video to lobby for “… anti-D&E legislation.” The term “D&E” refers to dilatation and extraction (or evacuation) abortions in which the arms and legs of babies are torn off and removed one appendage at a time. The baby goes into shock and bleeds to death. She explains that “They [anti-abortion activists] are looking for new ammunition since PBA [partial-birth-abortion] is pretty much done.”

We thank God and our two stellar lawyers, Rob Muise and David Yerusalmi, for this win, which is an important victory for the entire pro-life movement.  We plan to make a lot more videos of this sort!  Northland will most likely appeal this ruling and God willing we will crush them on appeal as well!

CBR press release here.

Watch video here.

Register and vote pro-life

CBR is at it again!  We are launching our 2012 Key States Initiative (KSI) for 2012, perhaps the most dramatic and effective pro-life voter education project every conceived!  And you can be a key part of this historic event!

VOTER EDUCATION FOR 2012

The media describes pro-life candidates as “ultraconservative” and “extreme,” but they describe pro-abortion candidates as “moderate” on abortion. We will show voters the truth, so they will know that killing babies is extreme.  Saving them is not extreme; it is compassionate.

DRIVER QUALIFICATIONS NEEDED

No special license required.
Must have a good driving record.
Must be 21 years old.

COMING TO A STATE NEAR YOU

Must be available to travel to a nearby state, teeming with voters who need to know what abortion is and does. Immediate need for drivers willing to go to Florida, Virginia, Colorado, and Iowa.  Wisconsin and other states may also be targeted later this year.

INTERESTED IN JOINING US?

Contact Leslie Sneddon
Call 207-607-3488
lsneddon@cbrinfo.org

CBR takes its position along the Komen route. Up to 40,000 people were confronted with Komen's support for abortion, which has been linked to breast cancer in a number of medical studies.

This story was submitted by CBR Maryland Director Kurt Linnemann.

Raining on Komen’s Parade

Sunday, May13th, was a bright and balmy day in Philadelphia, PA, but participants at the Philadelphia Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure may have felt that their parade was being rained upon.  The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform (CBR) Maryland was on scene, holding the Komen Foundation to account for funding Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider.

We deployed an enormous pink banner that called Komen to account for its irresponsible behavior.  CBR volunteers displayed images of aborted children or held signs exposing the link between abortion and breast cancer, which makes Komen’s relationship to Planned Parenthood even more nefarious).  Most of the 40,000 race participants saw us and got the message.  This is Komen’s worst nightmare.

A lot of people, including many pro-lifers, might find such tactics distasteful, and certainly we didn’t make many friends that day, but I’m afraid polite discussion didn’t work.  After all the emails, letters and phone calls earlier this year, the Susan G. Komen Foundation continued to fund baby killing.  This is an outrage that demands a response.

Pro-lifers don’t need to be popular to be effective.  In fact, the most successful reformers are genuinely hated, until public opinion changes.  Confident in this knowledge, we will continue our highly successful campaign of public embarrassment until the Komen Foundation sees the error of its ways.  When that happens, I think a parade will be in order!

Our GAP sign highlights the fact that Komen is likely causing breast cancer deaths by supporting the abortion industry. An estimated 8,000 women die every year from abortion-related breast cancer.

Now that the Susan G. Komen Foundation is again funding the nation’s largest abortion provider, CBR is exposing the link between abortion and breast cancer.  What better venue than Komen for the Cure races in cities across the country?

CBR Maryland attended Komen’s Race for the Cure in Philadelphia just last weekend.

For more information on the statistical link between abortion and breast cancer, click here.  An estimated 8.000 women die from abortion-related breast cancer every year (source).

More photos from the Komen for the Cure race in Philadelphia here.

People passed our signs 3 times: coming to the race from the parking area, at the start line, and at the finish line.

The University of Virginia (UVa) is under fire for killing some of them.

According to the Human Rights and Scientific Honesty Initiative (HRSHI), 309 of them were killed by UVa’s own “Health” System in 1991.  They were aborted, as were 264 the following year (source).

Denied their human rights, there were no first words, first kisses, or first loves for them.  There will be no walk down the lawn for them at graduation either.

Despite their best effort to hide the fact, UVa routinely performs abortions and lies about it.  When not spreading falsehoods, UVa is simply silent about the truth and hopes people won’t ask.

But thanks to our friends Sean Cannan, Kelsey Hazzard, and others at HRSHI, UVa is being exposed and called to account (letter of February 2011).  Most recent letter here.  Excellent radio interview here.

From HRSHI’s most recent letter to UVa, here’s my favorite quotation:

You have yourself attempted to justify these killings by citing the “legal framework” of United States Supreme Court precedent of Roe vs. Wade (1973), and the “compelling personal factors” of the mother only. You completely left out the compelling personal factors of fathers and their children alike. We feel compelled ourselves to remind you that slavery was once an institution that was acceptable within the legal framework as decided by the United States Supreme Court and state laws also, that this institution was also quite popular at UVA, and that slave traders and owners had compelling personal and financial reasons for trading or owning slaves. Throughout history, many such atrocities have been justified by those pretending that the humanity of their victims can simply be removed by decree. We are here to remind you that this is neither a scientifically accurate position, nor a sustainable medical opinion for a President of the public University of Virginia in 2012.

Help us show UVa what they are really doing.  Help us go to UVa and every other college campus to expose their abortion business.

This just in from SFLA:

With many pro-abortion speakers presenting at commencement ceremonies across the nation, Students for Life of America (SFLA) is proud to offer a respectful way for graduating pro-life students to Stand for Life with the first-ever Pro-Life Grad Cap Stickers.

The stickers simply read “Pro-Life” and are meant to go on the top of the graduation cap. There is a hole cut through the center of the sticker to allow the tassel on the cap to pop through, and they are die cut to look great on any color cap!

These stickers offer a way for graduates to respectfully show their pro-life values during their graduation.  It’s a means to grab the attention of the university, fellow graduates, parents, and media; especially at ceremonies featuring a pro-abortion speaker.

Buy a grad cap sticker for $2 by clicking here!

CBR United Kingdom Director Andy Stephenson was on The Big Question, a program on BBC One, the flagship TV station of the British Broadcasting Company (BBC).   The Big Question on this day was, “Should abortion be a private matter?”

Andy’s answer was “Yes … if …”   Great sound bites you can use:

• There should be unrestricted access to abortion, if the unborn child is not a human being.
• All we’re doing is showing people what they do.
• Why would the truth be intimidating?
• If abortion is such a good idea, why to pictures of it make people so angry?
• It is not a controversial issue that life begins at conception.  If they want to get rid of us, we will leave tomorrow if they can prove to us, with science, that the preborn child being killed is not a human being.
• On filming:  That’s why we film [our own work]; we knew there would be false allegations.  We knew we had to document our displays.  We invite the police to attend every display we do.

Pro-life activists all over the planet are employing CBR-developed methods of legally educating the public about two key facts:  (1) Who this the preborn? and (2) What does abortion do to him or her?

Check out Andy Stephenson on British TV, saying it like it outta to be said:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2NRXWLoA_4

The Students for Life of America (SFLA) is hosting a webcast tonight.   We got this e-mail from SFLA Executive Director Kristan Hawkins:

Pro-Life Friends,

The Obama Administration and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services have launched a massive effort to mandate that all Americans pay for abortion-causing drugs.

The new mandate, which was released last month, will violate our civil liberties and free exercise of religion by forcing every American and every U.S. employer, regardless of religion or conscience, to pay for abortion-causing drugs, like Ella, in health insurance plans.

Just 2 weeks ago, President Obama’s Secretary for the Health and Human Services Department, Kathleen Sebelius, admitting during a Congressional hearing that this Mandate is needed because, “reducing pregnancies will cut health care costs.”

Put bluntly, this mandate, due to take effect this summer, will violate the very principles our nation was founded on – your freedom of religion and conscience!

What could be next?  A one-child per family policy like China or involuntary euthanasia like Europe?  Secret forced sterilizations like those administered in the 1920’s?  The madness needs to end!

This Obama, Abortion Drug Mandate must be STOPPED!

http://www.studentsforlife.org/freedom

Learn what’s at stake — and discover how YOU can help to stop this Obama, Abortion Drug Mandate by joining a one-time-only LIVE webcast event this Tuesday, March 13, at 9 PM Eastern (6 PM Pacific, 7 PM Mountain, 8 PM Central.)

The live event will be approximately 25 minutes long. There’s no charge to participate. If you have access to the Internet — even with a dial-up connection — you can listen in on the live webcast audio and submit questions.

During this nationwide event, you will discover:

• The shocking facts about the Obama, Abortion Drug Mandate that has been forced on the American people, without even a vote in Congress…
• The devastating implications of the Mandate — facts the abortion industry doesn’t want Americans to hear…
• Why respected leaders, national organizations, and pro-life people are joining together in record numbers to challenge this attempted power-grab…
• The exact action steps YOU can take to make a difference at this crucial moment…
• … And much more!

Register for the webcast at: http://www.studentsforlife.org/freedom

In an historic display of unity, pro-life and pro-family organizations are joining together for the “Where’s the Freedom?” Webcast. During the event you will hear from nationally known and respected leaders including:

• U.S. Senator Rand Paul
• Kristan Hawkins, Students for Life of America
• U.S. Congressman Jeff Fortenberry
• Tom McClusky, Family Research Council Action
• Helen Alavare, Law Professor at George Mason University
• David Bereit, 40 Days for Life
• …and others!

The announcement of this important webcast is being sent out to thousands of pro-lifers across America, and there is limited space available for this live event, so you are strongly encouraged to register now!

To get on the webcast, go to: http://www.studentsforlife.org/freedom

For Life,

Kristan Hawkins
Executive Director
Students for Life of America

Please forward this announcement to every pro-life college student you know!

Want to learn what it takes to work in the pro-life movement full-time?  Want to find out where you best fit into the pro-life movement?  Want to work to save the unborn for an entire summer?

Be a 2012 Missionary for Life!

Apply now to be selected for a competitive, 9-week rotating pro-life internship this summer!

Nowhere else will you get the one-of-a-kind experience of meeting pro-life and conservative leaders, learning how the pro-life grassroots movement works, and seeing Congress in action!

Selected candidates will start their rotating internship in Manassas, VA in June and finish in August.

Candidates will work for 3 weeks in each of the following offices: Students for Life of America headquarters, another national pro-life organization, and a pro-life Congressional office on Capitol Hill.

As a Missionary for Life, your housing will be provided. Missionaries will stay with selected host families in the D.C. area.

To apply,

• Submit your resume
• Send a short paragraph on why you want to be selected as a 2012 Missionary for Life
• Tell us if you will be able to bring a car (as some host families do not live near public transportation)
• Applications are due March 18, 2012!

Apply now!

What past Missionaries said about the SFLA Missionary for Life Program:

“This experience has given me not only knowledge of the workings of the pro-life movement but as well contacts within the movement.  Networking is key and I feel that the people I have connected with are people that can aide me in being successful in my future pro-life work.”  (Emily Espinola, Franciscan University)

“Spending this summer as a Missionary for Life intern has equipped me with the knowledge, resources, and the inspiration necessary to make me twice as effective as a student leader. Having gained a more comprehensive understanding of the pro-life movement, I now know all the different angles from which I can approach the issue on my campus and am now streaming with new ideas of how I will help bring about a culture of life on my campus.” (Steven McNulty, Clarion University)

“Thanks to my experiences this summer with SFLA, I will now spend a lifetime devoting time to the pro-life movement.  I’ve had the opportunity to work with some of the most devoted pro-life activists in the nation, and they have truly inspired me to work tirelessly for the unborn.” (Jennifer Kacerosky, University of Florida)

.

The Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform (CCBR) has launched a post-card campaign that puts the truth of abortion into Canadian mail-boxes and homes.  Thousands of people in Calgary have received large post-cards bearing photos of abortion, and there are more to come.  This was the lead story on the local TV station!  See all of the CCBR postcards here.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “America will never reject racism until America sees racism.”  His niece, Dr. Alveda King, now says, “America will never reject abortion until America sees abortion.  That’s why we show it to them.

Help help America whareject abortion; please click here here and be as generous as you can.  Please don’t turn away.  We have invitations to bring our campus outreach project to major universities, but we cannot accept those invitations unless we can raise $18,000 this week!  Please help, because a baby’s life is at stake.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnb6AHQr0ho

Front side of one of the postcards from the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform.

Back side of same postcard.

Parkville High School student protests CBR's School "Choice" Project.

This report comes from Kurt Linnemann of CBR Maryland.

They came out with a sign!  A handmade sign!  Finally!  After bringing our School “Choice” Project (the graphic reality of abortion) to nine high schools, we had our first student protest.  Two of them stood beside us holding a handmade sign that said, “It’s easy to talk about MORALITY when you’re not the one getting PREGNANT.”

It was great … and I commended them on their willingness to stand for what they believed.  Flawed as it may be, I was glad to see they had conviction and were willing to act.  And I told them so.  As I took pictures of the students holding the sign, a Baltimore County police officer told me I was not allowed to take their picture.  I asked her why.  She told me that once a child gets on a school bus they become wards of the state and as such they are protected by the state.  I repsonded by saying that as long as they were in public, I had a legal right to take their photo, minor or not, ward of the state or not.  I asked her to call her supervisor.  She did and afterwards told me that her supervisor simply instructed her to encourage the students to leave and get into class.

School "Choice" Project at Parkville High School.

So these students along with others learned of activism and our First Amendment rights, which are both great things.  And the 1600 students at Parkville High School learned what abortion does to a baby.  Through the images of the aborted babies, the plight of the preborn child became a major topic of discussion for the students, faculty, administration, and related families of Parkville High School.

By participating in the School “Choice” Project one morning a week, you can be a hero, save a baby, and get to work on time!  For further information, please contact me at klinnemann@cbrinfo.org or call 410-913-3931.

Awesome!  Kurt’s appeal for help is obviously targeted to the schools in the CBR Maryland region.  We can help you reach high-school students with the truth, no matter where you live!  Go to www.ProLifeOnCampus.com and “Contact us.”

Note: We always follow police directives, but we do ask them why and ask them to clarify with their own supervisors.  If they persist, even with a demand we know to be unlawful, we comply and work it out with their lawyers in the proper venue at the proper time.  On the street is neither the proper venue nor the proper time.

Here’s a photo of Jonathan Darnel displaying one of CBR’s GAP signs in the DC metro area.  This was at the Ballston Metro stop.  Your gift of $200 will purchase another sign!

Jonathan Darnel at Ballston metro stop in DC area.

A police officer threw these signs into the street at Aberdeen (Maryland) High School.

Outside a high school in Maryland, a police officer seized pro-life signage and threw the signs into a public street, creating a traffic hazard.

One morning each week, CBR Maryland Director Kurt Linnemann and a few volunteers take CBR GAP and Choice signs to a nearby high school.  We call it our School “Choice” Project.  (You can do this in your community; we can help.) 

After unloading the signs at Aberdeen High School on the morning of November 18, Linnemann drove his van to a nearby parking lot.  When he returned, he was stunned to see an Aberdeen police officer throwing the signs out into the street.  Linnemann immediately requested that the officer summon his supervisor to the scene.

Shortly thereafter, a police supervisor arrived, along with other officers and the Aberdeen HS principal.  The officers huddled with the principal and got on their phones to see if CBR was on public property or school property.   After about 30 minutes, they all quietly departed the scene, and CBR continued to display the signs.

Following the incident, Linnemann drove to the Aberdeen Police Department and filed a formal complaint against the officer.

There are lessons to be learned in this:

1. Before picketing any street location, do your homework in the city and/or county planning office to determine exact property and right-of-way lines.  Carry your maps with you.  We faced the same question at Liberty University and the maps settled the question.  It’s a waste of time to stand on the street corner and argue with people who have no idea where the property and right-of-way boundaries actually lie.
2. Before arriving at a location, notify the police of your plans and offer a meeting.  Take your maps with you.  Negotiate all the details, including where, when, how, etc.  Ask that the applicable patrol officers be notified of the activity.
3. ALWAYS videotape your work.  Assign a video camera to at least one person, preferably two.  We sometimes put the camera on a tripod and place it under the protection of a nearby tree.  You can even get cameras that mount on your person (link here).  Voice recorders are also an inexpensive way to establish the facts of what was said to whom.
4. NEVER defy a police order, even if you disagree with the police.  When we are asked to leave an area, we say, “We will certainly obey your directive, but may I ask by what law compels us to leave?”  And then, “OK, may I have your name, please?”  Settle the matter in court later, appealing to people who know the law; do not attempt to settle the matter on the street, with people who do not know the law.  Your position in court is much stronger as the plaintiff in a civil action than as a defendant in a criminal action.

Signs on display at Aberdeen (Maryland) High School

Signs on display at Aberdeen (Maryland) High School