by Jacqueline Hawkins

At UNC Greensboro, a young woman told Deeper Still and GAP volunteer Debbie Picarello that she was a Christian who believed God gave her a “choice.”  In her mind, God was fine with whatever she wanted to do with her own body, even if it meant destroying her baby’s body.

She was failing the “choice” test, the test of life and death.

Debbie pulled out the ultimate life “cheat sheet,” the Bible.  This is pretty good: In the most important test we will ever take, the test of life and death, God gave us the answers!  Debbie showed her the answers she needed to know:

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful.”  (Psalm 139:13,14)

In other words, God made us.  He put us together Himself.

“For you are bought with a great price.  Glorify and bear God in your body.”  (1 Cor 6:20.)

Our bodies are not our own; they belong to God.  This is especially true for Christians purchased by the Blood of the Lamb.

“Consider that I have set before thee this day life and good, and on the other hand death and evil …  I call heaven and earth to witness this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing.  Choose therefore life, that both thou and thy seed may live.”  (Duet 30:15;19)

The choice should be clear.

This was not what the young woman wanted to hear.  She told Debbie she felt judged.  Debbie assured her that she was not judging her, but was giving her the Word of the very God she claimed to worship.  Her belief, that she could do whatever she wanted with her own body and the body of her child, was wrong.  Her assertions directly contradicted the Bible.

It was indeed her choice to follow the Bible or not.  But it was clear how God saw our choices.  There are right choices and wrong choices.  As followers of Christ, our choices are intended to be conformed to His likeness so that the whole world can know him.  Pro-abortion Christians aren’t just dangerous for themselves and their children; they are dangerous for everyone on the planet.

God gives us the answers to the test, so that we can correct our course and pass with flying colors.

Understanding what Debbie was saying, the young woman shook Debbie’s hand and thanked her for speaking with her.

This is so important.  Our most important outreach is not to the pagan world; we are taking truth to confused Christians led astray by complacent church leaders who work harder than Planned Parenthood to cover up the truth.  Over and over again, your support is the difference between life and death.  When you support CBR, you choose life.

Jackie Hawkins is a CBR Project Director and regular FAB contributor.

by Jacqueline Hawkins

We don’t know his name … so we’ll just call him Egg Boy (not to be confused with Humpty Dumpty).  At NC State, Egg Boy tried to champion the pro-abortion cause with a raw egg.

“I tell you, chemically speaking, there is no difference between this 2-week-old chicken fetus and a 2-week-old human fetus,” he declared resolutely, again and again.

In his hand was an unfertilized chicken egg (not even a chick-in-a-shell), so it was hard to figure out just what his vehement, triumphantly-stated argument was.

So I finally had to tell him and his approving friends, “Sir, at the end of the day, that chicken fetus will grow up, have it’s head chopped off, turned into chicken tenders, and served at the Chick-fil-A right over there.  Meanwhile, the human fetus will grow up, become a student at NC State, and eat the former chicken fetus-turned-tenders.  Does that answer your question?”

With that, Mr. Egg Boy scratched his head and looked dubiously at his visual aid.  “I don’t know … I’m not really sure why I have this anymore …”  At least he was honest.

Egg Boy was stumped.  But, if at first you don’t succeed, …

So Egg Boy took his visual aid and tried again.  He was so confident that his new angle would deliver a glorious victory, he brought his own camera(phone) man.  He would be a YouTube star!

Holding up the egg, he asked CBR volunteer Patti Shanley, “Can you eat this human fetus?”

“That’s not a human fetus; that’s a chicken egg.”  Patti is pretty smart for a pro-lifer.

“How do you know this isn’t a fetus?  Wouldn’t you have to open it up and kill it to find out?”  The phone was brought closer and closer, to record the overwhelming domination of this intellectual giant over the mentally-deficient pro-life bigot.

“Seriously?  You’re a student at NC State and you are asking me if this chicken egg could possibly be a human fetus?  Is that the best you have?  I’m disappointed.”

“But, but, couldn’t this be a fetus?” he insisted.

“No, it couldn’t, but I think you should take it to the agriculture school and ask someone over there.  I’d love to see the look on that professor’s face when you ask.”

Foiled again!  “Stop recording!” Egg Boy commanded.

With that, he slinked away.  We actually saw Egg Boy the next day.  He rode by on his skateboard … no egg and no arguments.

He is actually smarter than many of his peers.  He at least knew his argument had been beaten.

Jacqueline Hawkins is a CBR Project Director and a regular FAB contributor.

The leftist media agrees … CBR is changing the nature of the abortion debate.

As part of a series on the pro-life advances across Europe, NBC News devoted an entire article to the growing use of abortion pictures.  They wrote,

“Graphic pictures of aborted fetuses, prayer vigils and protesters.  It’s no coincidence that the anti-abortion movement looks the same from London to Dublin to Warsaw.”

The other side knows the times, they are a-changin’.  Pro-abort activist Goretti Horgan of Northern Ireland said it this way:

“We knew that they were being supported by the U.S. because of their tactics — they were very, very aggressive whereas the anti-abortion people before that had been very respectable.”

By aggressive, she means “effective”.  By respectable, she means “easy to ignore”.

The article credits Gregg Cunningham of CBR as the driving force behind this strategic advance.  NBC’s article created a fantastic platform in which Cunningham and leaders of European pro-life organizations could discuss the history of social reform and the reasoning behind our strategy and tactics.  It also gives an overview of the scope of CBR’s reach, stating that,

“Pro-abortion activists, providers and seekers in Finland, Sweden, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Ireland, England and beyond have been confronted with the same photos of dismembered fetuses as American women from Austin to Buffalo.”

NBC News agrees … because you support CBR, the times, they are a-changin’.

At UNC Greensboro, reactions ranged from furious, to calm, to … kind of weird.

by Jacqueline Hawkins

As you can read here, the response to GAP at UNC Greensboro was quite animated.  CBR Project Director Lincoln Brandenburg said that many of the students were like hyenas descending upon a scrap of meat.  Between the bloodthirsty vitriol and the stealth appreciation, there was a wide range of reactions.

The man who almost wasn’t
Based on his expression and the way he spoke, it was obvious he wasn’t out for blood like his schoolmates in the crowd.  He made neutral inquiries concerning the life of the mother.  I gently answered his question, mentioning cases such as toxemia and ectopic pregnancies.  I made sure to stress to him and those listening that saving the life of the mother did not involve Planned Parenthood and ripping children apart.  It was a matter of administering medical treatment to BOTH patients.  Unfortunately, in the case of ectopic pregnancy, saving the child is impossible, given current medical technologies.  Satisfied with my answer, he then told me he was almost an ectopic pregnancy.  He had implanted very close to the fallopian tube.  I told him just how happy I was he had survived and was there to speak with me.  He thanked me and disappeared into the crowd.

Maternal instinct
A young woman walked by, just as Bill offered a pamphlet.  “I’m pregnant!  I don’t want to see this!” she exclaimed.  She was determined but not antagonistic.  She didn’t want to see pictures of what she could have had done to her own child.  “I’m not doing this!  I’m keeping my baby!”  This young woman already had a healthy level of maternal instinct.  The pictures will help her to encourage the same instincts in her friends and family.

Best argument on campus
The grand prize for best pro-abortion argument goes to the young man who came to within 6 inches of Jane Bullington’s face and shouted, “You are STUPID.”  Jane stood toe-to-toe and eye-to-eye with this learned scholar until he backed off and went to make his prize-winning argument with someone else.

Enlightened pro-abort musings
At the height of the rowdiness, four young women from a protest group came over to Jane Bullington to talk.  They had the usual lack of knowledge that facilitated the usual objections.  But because they were somewhat open to what Jane had to say, they were able to learn a few things they hadn’t known before.  At the end, one girl mused, “It is sad that we don’t have discussions when we have difference of opinions.  We shouldn’t just try to shout people down when we could talk to them.”  Amen to that.

Selling out for consistency
A young black man walked up and asked pointedly, “Why?  Why are you doing this?” After answering him, he reasoned that since people are going to have abortions anyway, there was no reason to try to stop them.  I applied his argument to slavery.  “Would you want them legalize slavery because people are going to traffic humans anyway?”  He shrugged nonchalantly, musing that when push comes to shove, legalizing crimes that already happen wouldn’t be such a bad thing, even if it meant he got shipped off to the nearest cotton field.

Post-liberal dictatorship?
A male student was a pro-abort, but he was by no means pleased with his fellow students. As they demanded GAP leave campus, he exploded.  “F*** all of you!  As liberals, if we can’t defend free speech of those who disagree with us, then liberalism is dead!”  He stormed off continuing to curse at the protesters,  “Are we trying to live in a post-liberal dictatorship?”  Umm, yeah.  We kind of are.

Jacqueline Hawkins is a CBR Project Director and a regular FAB contributor.

Hard-core pro-aborts, when they have no argument, try to change the subject.  Stubborn people are not our target audience, so we aren’t dismayed when they deny the evidence in front of them.  Our target audience is people in the middle who (a) are still open-minded and (b) have a functioning conscience.

At UNC Greensboro, some students complained that we cited sources older than 2010.  Our information about embryology was too old, they said.  Science changes, they said.

Hmmm.  You mean they don’t make babies like they used to?  Really?

Suppose you can’t find a recent publication proving (again) that gravity is real — and you can’t, because nobody would publish a paper proving something we’ve known for centuries — what does that mean?  Maybe pigs can fly?

These same scholars took issue with the definition of genocide we cite, because they claimed the definition has been altered for political reasons.  In this case, they undermined their own argument, because we cite UN Resolution 96, adopted in 1946.  Having no enforcement provisions, Resolution 96 defined genocide as targeting any group of people for destruction.

The 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, however, includes enforcement provisions and thus was limited, for political reasons, to only those genocides committed against national, ethnical, racial, or religious groups.  Genocides against social and political groups, for example, were excluded because the Soviet Union feared Stalin’s mass murders might be considered genocidal if broader language were adopted.  (The Study of Mass Murder and Genocide, Robert Gellately and Ben Kiernan, in The Specter of Genocide: Mass Murder in Historical Perspective, Cambridge University Press, 2003, p. 18)

Some tried to claim that our sign referencing honor killing was invalid because it did not include a photo of each and every group of women subjected to that particular atrocity.  Desperate people say absurd things.

This often happens with GAP.  They have no argument to support decapitating and dismembering little human beings, so they try to change the subject.  If one logical fallacy won’t work, they try another.

In the end, it doesn’t matter.  They only help us, because they give us a chance to juxtapose our good arguments with their logical fallacies.  Our target audience, the mushy middle, gets to hear and compare.

And with time, we’ll pick off even some of the hard-core pro-aborts.  As long as they hang around, they absorb the hard evidence.  Some of them contact us later and tell us how the seeds we planted eventually sprouted and grew.  Julie was a committed pro-abort when we first met her at the University of North Florida, but she told us 3 years later that she had changed her mind.  “The pictures followed me home,” she said.

Deeper Still’s Debbie Picarello at UNC Greensboro.

by Debbie Picarello

When I set up the Deeper Still post-abortion counseling table near the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP), students always ask if I am part of GAP.  They are often angry about the abortion photos and don’t want to speak with GAP volunteers.

I always give the long answer, “I am here with Deeper Still, which is a post abortion healing ministry.  We offer free healing retreats for men and women.  Yes, men hurt from abortion too.  And (pointing to the pictures) we are hurting because we have done that to our children.”

I am also repeatedly asked about the pictures angering or upsetting post-abortive women.  I explain how being upset at the pictures is a telltale sign that something is still wrong.  I point out that healing and counseling is a emotional and messy process.  I always encourage hurting people to seek help.  I say to women and men that if the pictures still cause them extreme distress, it’s a sign they still need healing.  When asked if these pictures “trigger” me now, I say they do not.  That is a product of healing.  They are hard to look at, but not triggering.

The Fall 2015 GAP tour was especially evangelistic.  I was repeatedly asked about Deeper Still being Christian.  I say that the only lasting healing from the wounds of abortion come through Jesus Christ alone.  Over and over again, I have shared miraculous stories of healing and deliverance from the Lord Jesus at these campuses.

Are you a post-abortive person who has found healing?  We need you!  Come with us and reach out to students in a way that only you can.

Debbie Picarello is a post-abortion counselor with Deeper Still, an international post-abortion counseling ministry based in Knoxville.

by Jacqueline Hawkins

UNC Greensboro, I suspect I was hearing a fish story.  You know the kind.  The fish just gets bigger and bigger and bigger as the story unfolds.

Unfortunately for the teller of this tale, I had experience with the subject matter, so I wasn’t so easily impressed.

An irate girl brought up the case of child poverty, the oft-repeated circumstance of a mother too poor to take care of her offspring.  The obvious answer to poverty is to kill the youngest (i.e., the most invisible) child, right?

I trotted out the toddler, which means I presented a hypothetical 2-year old and asked if poverty would justify killing the toddler.  She avoided the question, stating that she could never take care of a baby because she was poor.

As someone who has lived in relative (not absolute) poverty, I questioned her statement, trying to get a feel what degree of poverty she was experiencing, so I could frame an appropriate response.  “Of course I’m poor!” she said.  “We’re all poor!  We’re poor college students!”

Hmm.  Poor college students.  Was she talking about the college students who drive late-model cars and spend hundreds of dollars each semester on alcohol?

I explained how poverty is a bad justification for killing a child.  Again she attempted to change the subject, “My family is poor! We have debt!”

Ah, the fish has gotten bigger.

I told her that she seemed to be doing pretty well for herself.  She was alive, well-fed, going to an expensive college.  Then I got personal, “As a card-carrying poor person, I don’t take kindly to people telling me that I’d be better off dead.”  To that she exclaimed, “I was homeless!”

Ah, homeless.  She went from a poor college student, to the daughter of parents with debt, to climbing her way out of homelessness.

And yet, despite being homeless at one point or another (maybe), she hated pregnancy resource centers because, “they push anti-choice propaganda!”  Talk about looking a gift horse in the mouth.

Was she telling the truth?  If she was truly climbing her way out of homelessness, she was condemning those like her simply because they didn’t have much wealth.  Had she forgotten where she came from so quickly?  Was she really so blinded by her success and potential to succeed that she would callously sentence poor children to death?  Did she not realize that she was stealing their opportunity to follow her example and carve out a life for themselves like she was doing?  Did she not grasp that we poor people, past, present, and future, need to stick together and help each other out?

Or was she telling a tall tale to get her point across?  Was she simply ignorant of the fact that poverty, particularly American poverty, isn’t so bad that those living in it are better off dead?  Was she completely unaware that, in many cases, poverty has helped people build character, mental and emotional stamina, and unique life skills (rags to riches, anyone?)?  Was she, dare I say, a privileged young woman who looked down upon those without and easily sentenced them to death because helping them took too much work?

Jacqueline Hawkins is a CBR Project Director and a regular FAB contributor.

Students gather in front of the signs to see the photos, read the messages, and ask their questions.  Although UNC is more intolerant than most places, there are many students who were willing to engage with open minds.

Nothing could be finer than a GAP in Carolina!

At UNC Chapel Hill, we were hosted by the Carolina Students for Life (CSFL), one of the many campus pro-life organizations we’ve had a hand in starting over the years.

We set up at our usual location on Polk Place, in the heart of the campus.  Thousands of students passed by during every class change.

UNC Chapel Hill is a real bastion of intolerance and hate.  Several students vandalized the warning signs we normally place on approach routes to the display.  Because these signs are really a courtesy to students who may not wish to see genocide photos, we had to wonder if these vandals hated us, or did they just want to make sure everyone saw our display?  Not too sure about that.  Anyway, …

We had huge crowds both days. On Day 1, a street preacher stationed himself across the sidewalk from the GAP display and spoke about abortion, relativism, and salvation, to an ever-growing crowd of protesting students.  While the preacher was not a part of our operation, he used a lot of our debate techniques and talking points in his preaching.  The preacher, the protesters, and the crowds of students which gathered, all focused even more attention on our pictures.

For me, the highlight of the trip was this note left on the free speech board:

My mom was raped.  She didn’t want to have me.  I was almost aborted.  My grandmother saved my life.  When I was born, my mother was grateful.  She then loved me well.

That pretty well says it all.

On Day 2, as we prepared to leave, the protesters blasted us with “music” performed by a woman-hating “artist” who blurted out “f— you, b—-” over and over again.  The pro-aborts who blasted this rant obviously did not value or even respect women, even though most were themselves women.  So often, following Satan leads to to some form of self-loathing behavior.  Fascinating.  Instructive.

Media:

• Anti-abortion group compares abortion to genocide in Polk Place
• Letter: Anti-abortioners have no claim to genocide
• Letter: ​Abortion protesters spoke false narratives
• Letter: Anti-abortionist had no place on campus
• Letter: ​Chapel Hill’s anger is sometimes laughable

Those who survive abortion suffer a unique, tragic pain.  A student wrote on our free speech board, “I lost a brother and sister to abortions. Remember Hitler’s Final Solution? Same result.”

by Jacqueline Hawkins

As a newbie pro-life missionary, I didn’t quite grasp the emotional damage done to abortion survivors.  I had, perhaps foolishly, assumed that children who just missed the slaughter house by a last-minute decision would be happy that their parents chose life.  I figured they might have a closer relationship with their parents because of their ultimate, life-affirming decision.  That’s a nice thought, right?

But given the testimonies of a few students, I’m starting to realize that things aren’t all happily-ever-afters, smiles and giggles.  The fact that your mother and father — the people that gave you life and hold the sacred duty of protecting and nurturing you — almost killed you …  Well, it’s a revelation that pierces the heart and soul, no matter what the parents’ life-affirming sentiment may be now.

At Tennessee Tech, a young woman told volunteer Christy McKinney that she had recently learned that her mother had wanted to abort her at 6 months.  She felt very hurt and became tearful at times during the conversation.  The only reason she was alive was because her grandmother stepped in and vouched for her.  The pictures really hit home for her.  Who can understand the pain and betrayal this girl felt, besides another survivor?

At Wake Technical Community College, a young woman stared at the picture of the first-trimester victim.  “That was almost me,” she told CBR’s Bill and Jeanette Schultz.  “But it was a botched abortion and I survived.”  The student was not angry about the photos, but she was extremely angry and bitter about what her mother tried to do to her.  This wasn’t a change of heart at the last minute.  Her mother made her choice, the hit man was hired and the execution was completed.  By the grace of God, the young woman escaped with her life.

Throughout the conversation, the girl never smiled and her demeanor was one of disgust and hardness.  She told Bill and Jeanette that she has no relationship at all with her mother and did not want one, ever.  They spoke with her about the need for forgiveness — if only for her own peace of mind.  On this day, it was not possible for her.  However, her pain and anger gave her empathy for her suffering brothers and sisters.  As she departed, she said she would never want this to happen to anyone and that it was good that we were there with the pictures.

How sickening it must be for survivors to live in a society that promoted and even now celebrates their own attempted murder.

Jacqueline Hawkins is a CBR Project Director and a regular FAB contributor.

All-star pro-life student Aubrey Griffin exposes the deeds of darkness.

by Jacqueline Hawkins

North Carolina State University student Aubrey Griffin is a pro-life all-star!  The industrious young woman is the President of the NCSU Students for Life (SFL).  Having seen how effective GAP was when we came in 2014, she and her comrades brought us back for an encore performance.

Both days were filled with intellectual discussion and debate.  There was a pro-abort protest group, but they seemed rather halfhearted about the whole thing.  Their presence, although perfunctory, brought even more attention to the pictures!

I love it when a plan comes together!

Jacqueline Hawkins is a CBR Project Director and a regular FAB contributor.

Engaging the pro-aborts at GAP, because we respect the dignity of every human person.

by Jacqueline Hawkins

They curse.  They celebrate baby-killing.  Some would say they bask in the glow of the fires of Hell in a self-righteous orgy.  But they are still human beings — still people made in the image and likeness of God.  They deserve respect and intellectual engagement.  We keep this in mind when we talk to pro-abort demonstrators at GAP.

Volunteer Marie Bastone approached the die-hard pro-aborts at Tennessee Tech University.  One of them that her church taught about the inherent human dignity of every individual.  Marie readily agreed.  Given they co-ed’s particular schooling in the faith, they had common ground!

On that note, Marie gently spoke to her and her friends about the humanity of the preborn child, hence their inherent human dignity that no one can bestow or revoke because it is inherent.  They didn’t seem to know what to say.  They had been intellectually engaged as equals and couldn’t find a flaw in Marie’s logic.  To top it all off, to show them that they weren’t just a bunch of (poor) arguments with pants on, but actual people with value, Marie asked each of them what they were studying.  By the time Marie left, they clearly saw her respect.  They were quieter and calmer.  And they were thinking.

Marie engaged a pro-abort woman who asked if the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) aimed to make abortion illegal.  To that Marie replied that laws reflect society’s values, as well as shapes them.  Legality is not necessarily morality, as the history of human slavery demonstrates.  Marie explained that GAP was to make abortion unthinkable by showing the results of abortion.  GAP was pointing out the violence against the innocent and asked if we as a society can find a more humane and just way of dealing with unwanted pregnancies.  The young woman questioned Marie for a very long time, trying to make a case for the necessary evil of legal abortion, though she did admit it was horrible.  Marie remained polite, respectful and focused, asking what could possible justify the evil that abortion is.  In the end, the young woman told Marie that she had not expected her to be “so rational and approachable”.

Jacqueline Hawkins is a CBR Project Director and a regular FAB contributor.

Open-area location allowed many ECU students to look, see, and know.

Here are some gems we found at East Carolina University:

Impressed upper classman.  “This is the best thing I have seen on campus in all four years!” said an ECU senior.  Here, here!

Brother-in-arms.  Pro-life activists often share their own stories with us.  A man who frequently walks and prays scripture around campus thanked us for being there.  In the 1970s, soon after Roe v Wade, he used laminated abortion victim images to do his own pro-life activism.  Many Christians and pro-lifers told him to tone it down, but he said “No way!”  He’s our kind of man.

Too much or just enough?  One student told us it was “too much”… at first.  But after speaking with our Jane Bullington, he said, “I see what you are doing and respect your right to do it.”  That was nice but the kicker was: “And yes, if this had just been a pamphlet you handed out, I would not be talking to you.”  Exactly.  Boy, our job would be so much easier if all we did was pass out pamphlets!  But that doesn’t get the work done.  That doesn’t engage the pro-aborts, fence-sitters, and even pro-lifers in a way that makes them want to come and hash it out.

Several African American students were touched by the pictures. Many of them spoke with Jane Bullington:

Look. See. Stop. Help.  “I didn’t want to look, but I had to look,” she said.  Jane asked her if she considered herself pro-life.  She did.  Jane replied, “Then I am glad you looked because when we realize how evil it is we will step into someone’s life and say, “Don’t.  I will help you.”

The “but” gets folks killed.  Another co-ed said, “They are little human beings.  I wouldn’t, but …”  The word “but” in this case is deadly, so Jane gently explained slavery “choice.”  A lightbulb went off!  “Well when you put it like that, I have just changed my mind.  I understand what you are saying.”

Big and tall, small and frail.  A big and tall young man was taken aback by the smallness and frailty of his fellow citizens.  “Wow! I had no that this is what abortion was.  They are so tiny!  And that is a hand!”

Need to see. “It’s gruesome,” she said.  “I didn’t know how developed it is so early. People do need to see.  Maybe they will make different decisions.”  It’s sentiments like that that will help to save the black community from pre-natal annihilation.

Conflicted to concluding.  Another young woman was not so sure as her schoolmate.  “It’s hard to look at, but I’m conflicted because it’s a woman’s body.”  However as she spoke to Jane, she began to understand that it was another’s body and it was murder.  “Abortion is a hard topic that people don’t want to talk about,” she said, “but we need to.”

Jacqueline Hawkins is a CBR Project Director and a regular FAB contributor.

GAP produces victories at every school.

by Jacqueline Hawkins

Here are a few gems from Georgia Southern University.

People need to see.  A female student was glad we were there, “I know the facts and while this is hard to see, I am glad you are here.  People need to know what the word means.”  Exactly.  People need to connect the dots.

Revulsion. A male student exclaimed, “Disgusting. How can people do that?”  The pictures are making more and more people ask that same question.

She looked like the picture.  An administrator came by and told us that while she was pro-life and abortion was never an option, she had never seen or realized that abortion was so atrocious.  “Startling,” she said.  “I have a 21 year old who was born at 24 weeks, and she looked like the picture you have on your poster.”  GAP connects the dots for pro-aborts, fence-sitters and pro-lifers alike.

Power of the pictures. In the Statesboro Herald, the journalist Scott Bryant wrapped it all up nicely when he said, “Photographs have the power to make us smile, laugh and remember the times of our lives.  They also have the power to challenge our assertions and confront our worst fears. And sometimes they have the power to offend our sensibilities and tastes.”  And when people start questioning why something offends their sensibilities and tastes, they start to connect dots and see that maybe things aren’t quite right.

The pictures are an immediate call to action. Will you respond?

by Jacqueline Hawkins

“Where’s the sign-up sheet?  I need to do something!”  He strode toward the GAP display at Georgia Southern U and asked to sign up for the new pro-life club we are starting.  He had watched abortion videos the night before.  “This is horrible.  I have to do something,” he said resolutely as he wrote down his contact information.  Almost as quickly as he came, he left with a firm determination to do more.

Initially, I was pleased, because I thought him to be a pro-lifer now moved to action.  I imagined that his pro-life commitment had been galvanized by the pictures, much as mine had been years ago.

But it was better than that.

I soon learned that just the day before, he had been a committed pro-abort!  But after seeing GAP and speaking with our staff, the photos weighed heavily on his pro-abortion mind.  He went home and watched an actual abortion online (probably a CBR video).  Now he wanted to join our movement!

The pictures work.  They can change a life forever.  Let us pray that God sustains the zeal in this young man.  Let us pray that God will do a mighty work in his life.

Jacqueline Hawkins is a CBR Project Director and a regular FAB contributor.

Lincoln Brandenburg crosses the cultural divide to deliver a basic truth about human rights.

by Jacqueline Hawkins

One of the intriguing aspects of GAP is speaking with students from foreign lands.  Few have seen free speech like we do it.  When we brought GAP to Tennessee Tech University, our team spoke with several students from the Middle East.

CBR staffer Lincoln Brandenburg saw a young Middle Eastern man staring at the GAP signs, so he walked over and asked what the man thought.  Lincoln pointed to the pictures and asked, “Is it moral to have a child decapitated and dismembered like this?”

The young man didn’t think abortion was a good thing but emphasized that “it should still be the woman’s choice; we can’t force her not to.”  To him, it was a simple matter of not violating the rights of others, whether of not we agree with their decisions.

Lincoln and the young man discussed the humanity of the pre-born child and it’s implications.  Brandenburg pointed out that laws against hiring a hitman to kill one’s bothersome spouse also a man’s “rights.”  But such actions are innately at odds with the foundational right, and that is the right to live.  Without that basic human right, all other rights are meaningless.

If, as science confirms, the preborn child is human in the same way that her mother is human, then doesn’t decapitating and dismembering her violate her human rights?

As the men spoke, Lincoln frequently pointed back to the pictures of the abortion victims.  Before heading to class, the student shook his hand and told him: “You’ve really made me change my mind.  I realize that there’s more to this issue than I originally thought.”

Jacqueline Hawkins is a CBR Project Director and a regular FAB contributor.