by Maggie Ferrara

Two years ago today, when I was 6 weeks pregnant, I was assaulted for speaking out against abortion.

My colleague Jackie and I were displaying pictures of aborted babies on the campus of Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) when a girl walked up to us and started pouring orange juice over the sign I was holding. Before I even realized what was happening, she raised her arm and poured the remainder of the bottle over my head and face. Then she quickly turned and walked away. Shocked, we called out after her, “Hey, what are you doing?” But she remained silent. As my eyes stung and my face dripped, Jackie dropped her sign and flagged down the nearby policeman. The girl was arrested immediately.

Thankfully, we were each wearing a GoPro video camera, which captured the entire incident and made it all extremely easy for the Commonwealth’s Attorney assigned to my case. (See above.) The arresting officer, who was a VCU Policeman, mentioned later that the school was considering expelling her for her actions. That seemed harsh to me, but I didn’t know what an appropriate punishment should be.

Several weeks later, in a Richmond City court room, the judge gave her sentence: 100 hours of community service and a verbal apology to me (which she completed immediately). But that wasn’t all. My orange juice assailant, Rachel, had to write a three-page paper about the importance of The First Amendment and return to court to read it into the record. I couldn’t have come up with any better punishment!

Sometimes I think back to this incident and wonder about Rachel. I don’t really know anything about her except her name. But I wonder. What motivated her to pour orange juice on me? Why was she silent during her attack? Did she regret her actions immediately, or when she was arrested, or maybe not until much later? I assume she does now. These and many other questions come to mind. I also wonder if she still thinks about it. Does she think about me? She didn’t know any more about me than I did about her. She didn’t know I was pregnant when she attacked me. If she had known, would that have mattered to her?

I will probably never know the answers to these questions. But I can pray for Rachel, and so I will.

Maggie Ferrara is the Communications Director for The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform. She has been a pro-life missionary for almost 9 years. She lives in Virginia with her husband and daughter.

Annie Whaley, our youngest 2020 Summer Intern, had been apprehensive about talking to strangers about abortion. Thanks to the training and mentoring she received, Annie was able to overcome that fear. She shared, “Doing [pro-life] activism is something I wanted to do, but I never really pictured myself doing it. But it pushed me out of my comfort zone and made me realize it’s not about me…it’s about sharing the truth.”

To hear more about Annie’s powerful experience as a CBR Intern, check out the video below.

We’re still accepting applications for our 2021 Internship, until February 28th! (The internship runs from May 17 to August 6 in Knoxville, Tennessee.) For more information and to submit an application, click here.

Already active in the pro-life movement, Britt Huddleston was a little skeptical that using abortion victim images would really make that much of a difference. Looking back, she said “I was definitely converted that first time we did activism…It got to the heart of the issue…You can’t deny the reality of abortion, that it’s killing a person, when you’re sitting there looking at it.”

To hear more about Britt’s powerful experience as a CBR Intern, check out the video below.

We’re still accepting applications for our 2021 Internship, until February 28th! (The internship runs from May 17 to August 6 in Knoxville, Tennessee.) For more information and to submit an application, click here.

Heidi Whaley had always been pro-life, but thought of abortion as a “distant problem” for which she had no personal responsibility. During CBR’s Summer Intern Program, Heidi’s view changed. “Through this experience, I’ve come to view abortion for what it really is: a bloody, ghastly war. I haven’t been asked to help fight in this war, I’ve been called by God.”

To hear more about Heidi’s powerful experience as a CBR Intern, check out the video below.

We’re still accepting applications for our 2021 Internship, until February 28th! (The internship runs from May 17 to August 6 in Knoxville, Tennessee.) For more information and to submit an application, click here.

When asked what she would say to fellow pro-life Christians, 2020 Intern Maggie Groover had this to say: “Why are you being silent? We know that this is going on. It’s not a secret. How can you ignore this any longer? It’s our responsibility to stand up.” 

To hear more about Maggie’s powerful experience as a CBR Intern, check out the video below. 

We are still accepting applications for our 2021 Internship, until February 28th! (The internship runs from May 17 to August 6 in Knoxville, Tennessee.) For more information and to submit an application, click here.

by Annie Whaley

“Why don’t you just go back to where you came from?  We don’t need any more @$$#*!=$ around here; we have enough as it is!” The abortion clinic volunteer snarled as she fastened her COVID mask.  She had intentionally parked her car in front of the abortion photo I was holding.  This was not an uncommon reaction to our presence outside the Preferred Women’s Health Center in Charlotte, N.C.

This was my first time standing outside an abortion clinic.  All summer, we had targeted motorists and their passengers at busy intersections, and in their faces we could see that our signs affected them.  But today, we watched as women were escorted from their cars into the child-killing center, and this had a profound effect on us.

I was overwhelmed with horror as I watched each woman enter that building with a tiny baby inside, knowing that either the baby would be killed immediately or the mother would be given poison to kill the child later.

My horror was heightened by the coldness and brashness with which the clinic volunteers carried out their duties.  At the entrance, they ordered the women not to stop for the Cities for Life missionaries.  They ushered the women from their cars into the clinic with colorful umbrellas and loud music to drown out the pleading  voices of the Cities for Life sidewalk counselors.

My immediate reaction was revulsion, rage, and disgust, but then God convicted me of my own pride.  I realized that these clinic volunteers and abortion-minded women probably do not know God and have not been  convicted by the Truth.  It is only because of God’s mercy and grace that I am not blind myself.

I pray that the Lord will continue to soften my heart toward them.  I pray that He will convict them to turn from the path of spiritual darkness, death, and destruction, to the path of light, life, and love!

Annie Whaley is a freshman at East Tennessee State University and was one of our outstanding 2020 summer interns.

As our summer interns were leaving in August, another kind of internship was just beginning. CBR has partnered with Thrive Ministry Leadership Residency, an integrative, 10-month Christian ministry training program for college graduates who sense that God is calling them into pastoral or non-profit leadership. Thrive Residency partners with local church ministries and non-profits in the Knoxville area and each Thrive Resident works 30 hours per week at one of these partner organizations. CBR is now blessed by Kennedy Harless, our very own Thrive Resident intern, for ten whole months (half of which have already passed, if you can believe it)!

Kennedy grew up in Indiana in a conservative Southern Baptist family. However, Kennedy herself only truly became pro-life during her freshman year of college. She learned how abortions are performed and realized that abortion is never acceptable.

Kennedy graduated in 2020 from Cedarville University with a Bachelor of Arts in Christian Education and Youth Ministry, with the intent to pursue Ethics/Apologetics/urban ministry in the future. Her desire to be an agent of light and healing draws her to ministries that deal with “real people and tough situations.” She has already proven herself to be a winsome advocate for the lives of the preborn by engaging with students at Liberty & Lee during our campus visits this fall.

Kennedy’s primary responsibility at CBR is our 2021 Summer Intern Program. She has been working tirelessly to identify and recruit potential intern candidates and guide them through the application process. She has also lent her hand to some of our new social media design, for which she has a particular talent. It really helps to have young people around, so they can teach me how to do the SnapFace thing.

When asked why she wanted to intern with CBR, Kennedy had this to say:

I like being involved with ministries that are raw and CBR deals with the darkest part of human depravity. Willingness to correctly educate the general public on abortion brings the pivotal question of life and death to the forefront of our conversation. Accepting ignorance, particularly willful ignorance, keeps us enslaved to our practice of sacrificing others on the altar of self.

Welcome aboard, Kennedy! We are so grateful to have you!

CBR was blessed with four fabulous interns here in Knoxville this summer. From a taekwondo black belt, to an artist, they brought many skills to the table.

CBR 2020 Interns: Maggie, Britt, Heidi, & Annie

Sisters Annie and Heidi Whaley hail from East Tennessee, just like another one of CBR’s favorite people! Growing up in a strong Christian family, Heidi remembers her dad telling stories of martyrs for the faith, “I’ve always heard standing up for righteousness is hard, but after this summer, I know it firsthand. I’ve felt God’s presence this summer like never before. He has given me boldness in my insecurity, peace in my fear, and strength in my weakness.”

Maggie Groover also grew up pro-life. “It was never something I wrestled with, but it has grown in importance to me as I’ve grown closer to God.” Coming from a large family in North Carolina, Maggie decided college was not for her and instead entered the workforce after high school.

Unlike the other three, Britt Huddleston was pro-choice through most of high school. She eventually realized that “My body my choice” is an extremely intellectually dishonest argument, and that there is nothing scientific about calling a fetus “a clump of cells.” Britt says, “I literally had nothing to back that position other than selfishness.”

We asked our interns to learn and push themselves in many different areas, but street activism proved to be a highlight of the internship for them. Annie found activism outside Planned Parenthood to be particularly poignant. “As soon as we parked, the atmosphere weighed down on me. You can feel what a spiritually dark place it is. The experience revitalized my passion to speak and act on behalf of these unborn children who are brutally slaughtered.”

Interns & Staff outside Planned Parenthood in Charlotte.

Britt had done some pro-life activism at her college, Miami University, but never used abortion victim images. She now fully understands their key role in ending abortion, “Through this internship, I became comfortable with using abortion victim imagery and learned how to engage people with it. I’ve had more effective conversations in the past 12 weeks than I have in the past couple of years without it. Pro-lifers can’t be scared to use images if they care about ending abortion.”

Maggie also noted the impact abortion victim imagery had on her, saying that watching “Choice Blues” on the first day of the internship was the most noteworthy experience for her. “I had already seen the graphic pictures several times at that point, but that video motivated me to act in a way I had not before.” Maggie is proof of CBR’s belief that it is just as important for pro-life people to see abortion as it is for pro-choice people. It turns beliefs into actions.

Heidi and Annie have now returned to school at East Tennessee State University. Britt has returned to Miami University and Maggie to her full-time job as a nanny. Before the internship, all four of our interns were pro-life. They would never have considered abortion an acceptable solution to an unplanned pregnancy. However, they were not mobilized. CBR’s internship mobilized them. Both Annie and Britt plan to start pro-life clubs at their schools to host GAP, and all four of them are now considering working full-time to end abortion. As Annie said, “There is absolutely no way I can go home and act like none of this happened. I know the truth and, therefore, am responsible for sharing it.”

We are already accepting applications for our summer 2021 internship. Click here for more information and to submit an application.

It had been nearly 10 years since our last trip to Kennesaw State University with the Genocide Awareness Project. Snow and rain kept many students indoors, but the ones who did brave the elements proved to be quite the fiery bunch!

Pictures: a catalyst for healing. Lucy approached CBR volunteer Brad with a question about trimesters, but quickly became incoherent. Then she started crying. Brad said, “I don’t usually ask this, but have you had an abortion?” Lucy nodded. Brad and CBR staffer Joanna Keilson took Lucy away from the display to offer hope and healing resources. They gave her Karen Ellison’s book “Healing the Hurt That Won’t Heal” and directed her to Karen’s ministry, Deeper Still. They parted with a hug.

Who is a token?  A black student screamed and cursed, yelling, “Show me ONE! Just ONE black woman who agrees with you!”  At that moment, CBR staffer Mik’aela Raymond came around the side of the display. He saw her and said, “OK, show me two!”  Just then, CBR volunteer Taheiya walked over. The small group that had gathered was almost on their knees in laughter.  “You are just a token,” he said and walked away. Apparently, it was too difficult for him to believe that not only one, but two black people could disagree with the status quo of abortion. How many tokens does it take?

Verbal abuse is no substitute for a good argument. A middle-aged man walked past the display yelling “Go f*** yourselves.” Volunteer Brad said, “Profanity is not an argument for abortion, but if that’s all you have then I can understand you using it.” The man then walked up to Olivia, our youngest volunteer, and said it again directly to her. We are rarely surprised by profanity, but it’s still discouraging that an older man would resort to verbal abuse of a young female. Pray for strength for our team to endure these attacks!

Well, we weren’t gonna say it… A male student was talking with Mik’aela and a group of his friends walked by yelling, “What are you doing?” “Talking politics!” “But why?” “Because I’m not an uninformed individual like yourself!” the young man retorted. Mik’aela had to keep from laughing.

The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform (CBR) is pleased to announce the appointment of Joshua Lindsey as Research Analyst.  Joshua has already played key roles in several important CBR projects, including compiling data on Christian colleges for our Revival Project, gathering news stories about our activism, and training our 2020 interns.  And did we mention he is also a fierce pro-life apologist when he’s on campus?

Joshua holds a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from St. Andrews University in Laurinburg, North Carolina.  After taking several graduate courses in counseling that taught that religion is a personal weakness, Joshua decided to find other ways to help people without compromising his faith.  That led to Joshua volunteer for a nonprofit that helped students receive a quality education and then work to improve socioeconomic conditions in Guatemala.

Growing up in a Catholic family in North Carolina, Joshua’s parents taught him that his life was precious and that his potential, despite his cerebral palsy, was limitless.  They took him to pro-life rallies and to the March for Life in Washington, DC.  After attending the March several times, Joshua began to think that something more should be done.  He quickly saw it for the echo chamber/pep rally it is and knew it wasn’t making enough of an impact.

In high school, his public speaking class was assigned “controversial issues” to debate, and Joshua was struck by the particularly callous pro-abortion arguments.  Afterward, he searched online for abortion pictures and then went to his local voting precinct to hand them out to voters.  He wanted to distribute the same picture to his youth group, but the Director of Religious Education at his parish deemed them inappropriate for his age group (high school!) and threw them away.

After college, Joshua was attending a new parish and met Bill and Jeanette Schultz, CBR Project Directors in Raleigh, and then Joanna Keilson, CBR Internship Director.  He began volunteering at CBR’s college outreaches in North Carolina.  Though the work was demanding, Joshua felt God’s calling to be there.  Soon after, he found out that the abortion picture he had printed and distributed in high school was a CBR picture.  His call to action from God had come full circle.

Joshua told FAB:

Working at CBR is very significant for me because it enables me to use my background in psychology to give back to my community and help vulnerable people to have a voice, people to whom I can especially relate because of my disability (cerebral palsy).  Because of my background, I can understand people at a more personal level.  I believe we can empathize with people who contemplate or have abortions without agreeing that abortion is the right decision.

Joshua lives outside Raleigh with his parents.  Though his primary duties are research related, Joshua joins the rest of the team on the road whenever he can.  If you would like to support Joshua (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 Joshua’s work, designate your gift for “Carolina Project Director (SE-JTL).”

Welcome aboard, Joshua!  We’re happy to have you!

A student attempts to cover-up the truth about abortion.

In Fall 2019, CBR also visited Campbell University in Buies Creek, North Carolina during our Revival Project Tour. We spent three days engaging with the campus community about abortion and ultimately, the Gospel.

Check out press coverage of our visit:

•  Abortion protestors visit our campus recently – Campbell Now News
•  Campbell Now News – October 16th, 2019

Our first visit to Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (SEBTS) was eye-opening. One would hope that on a Christian campus there would be more students and professors who were encouraging than unsupportive. That was not the case at SEBTS. Folks, we are losing the abortion war in the Church, in large part because our Christian colleges and seminaries are graduating pro-abortion students. However, not all hope is lost. Mixed in with the ugly, we saw glimmers of God’s grace at SEBTS.

Seminary students see how abortion grieves the heart of God.

“Babies go to heaven anyway.” Joanna was taken aback by this student’s comments, but started asking questions, hoping for a meaningful conversation. At the end, he said he appreciated her and felt like, “God was speaking to me through you.”

Save a child’s life by ending it? Logic and reasoning are not a strong point amongst today’s college students. Regardless of whether it is a secular campus or a Christian one, students argue that children should be aborted in the womb because they “will die anyway from a hard life.” CBR Staffer Mik’aela Raymond was ready when one student made such a bold presumption: “We don’t believe in killing children so that they won’t die.”

Mom mystery. A mom walked up with her elementary school aged child and began showing her daughter the photos. We were sure she was on our side and wanted her daughter to know the truth of abortion. But in fact, “I used to be pro-life until I grew up and got smarter. I’ve had an abortion. I know friends who wish they had aborted their disabled child.” We need to be praying for this mom and her young family.

Women need to see before it’s too late. “I had two abortions without seeing pictures in the womb. I was on my way to abort my 3^rd but decided to have my son.” CBR Staffer Joanna asked her if these pictures would have stopped her from aborting her first two children. “Probably,” she said.

So much for “love your neighbor.” On our second day a man approached and yelled, “You people are what is wrong with the world. Someone needs to punch you all in the face.”

“Scripture is enough; people don’t need these graphic pictures.” After talking about the history of social reform and Christians continuing to have abortions in spite of pastors who talk about abortion, CBR volunteer Laurice encouraged the man who claimed this to show the truth in conjunction with his preaching, so lives would be saved. He softened and walked away, saying he would do his research.

A mom stops to show her daughter the hand of an aborted child. She later told us, “I used to be pro-life, but then I grew up and got smarter.”

As part of our Revival Project Tour in Fall 2019, CBR stopped by the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary to talk to Christian students about modern-day child sacrifice. Though not on the campus grounds, our location on the sidewalks directly in front of the main entrance allowed us ample visibility.

Check out press coverage of our visit:

• NC town warns residents of graphic anti-abortion photos as demonstrators arrive.
•  Group to display ‘graphic pictures of aborted children’ in Wake Forest, town says

CBR sets up along Wall Street for the morning rush hour

New York legislators passed a diabolical law legalizing abortion through birth, and it was signed by Governor Cuomo on January 22, 2019. Consequently, we traveled to New York City in May to show the public exactly what their government had approved. One of our signs showed Gov. Cuomo’s photo next to that of an aborted baby with the caption “Gov. Andrew Cuomo 3261 weeks following fertilization. Baby Jane Doe 24 weeks following fertilization.” We hoped that by exposing the insanity of aborting a viable, third trimester baby (something most people already agree is wrong), we could make people consider the possibility that aborting younger babies is just as wrong.

CBR shows the face of infanticide to university students in NY.

We began our activism in New York City at Focus on the Family’s Times Square event. Focus staff members were so unhappy they told us they did not want us displaying abortion victim images near their event. We politely ignored their request. We were able to reach thousands of pro-lifers, as well as countless tourists who frequent Times Square.
Our NYC tour continued at Fordham University in the Bronx, New York University in Greenwich Village, and Columbia University in the Upper West Side. We received the typical span of reactions from these college students, even at Fordham, which still claims to be a Catholic (albeit Jesuit) institution. At NYU, one passerby was so angry he defaced our “All Black Lives Matter, Born and Unborn” sign with a permanent marker.

Our next target was the New York Stock Exchange. Not only could we reach some of the most influential policy makers in the country, we could reach people from all over the world. Wall Street was a steady stream of people, from the moment we arrived until the moment we left. It is safe to say they had never seen such graphically disruptive imagery as passersby seemed stunned and speechless.

We ended our Big Apple expedition back near Times Square outside Fox News Headquarters. NYPD sent out their Counter-Terrorism officers, but they were respectful and, in some instances, even helpful. New York City is a particularly dangerous place for preborn babies; it has the highest abortion rate in the entire nation, with 37% of pregnancies ending in abortion. Gov. Cuomo has declared that there is no place in New York for opponents of abortion, but with your help, we proved him wrong. We can’t allow any public official to advocate infanticide and then tell us we have no right to call him out for promoting such atrocities.

If one good thing came out of this evil law, it was that many “fence sitters” now see the other side for what it really is: pro-abortion, on demand, until birth (and maybe even after birth), for any reason, or no reason at all. Join us in praying that God, in His mercy, will convict the hard-hearted legislators and others who celebrate and promote abortion. God hears the prayers of repentant sinners, and as He promised to the Israelites, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” Ezekiel 36:26

Students flocked to GAP in between classes. Many had never seen what it is that abortion does to a baby.

Fall 2019 was full to the brim with eventful campus visits…to say the least. We hosted the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in October, where the student body came out in swarms to see our display.

Check out press coverage of our visit:

•  Anti-abortion exhibit spurs counter-protests from campus activists
•  Maya Little arrested Monday after group protesting abortion came to campus
•  Doctoral student Maya Little arrested by UNC Police