Men and women gain strength from receiving truth at Fayetteville State University.

by Jacqueline Hawkins

Our Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) always makes a special impact on students.  For some, it is a baby saved.  For others, it is hope and healing that comes only from confession and repentance.

Another baby saved.  “This is so ironic that you are talking to me, that this exhibit is here, and that you have asked me about this.  This is a divine appointment!  I am in this situation right now.  My girlfriend is pregnant and we go back and forth on what to do.  Thank you.”  Nuff said.

Manning up.  When asked about his thoughts, a young man replied, “Well I did this (abortion), so it’s hard to look at.  But I have to deal with it…”  Here is a young man confessing and taking responsibility for his actions.

Hope and healing.  A young woman also realized the gravity of her actions.  After speaking with volunteer Marie Bastone for awhile, she confirmed that she was post-abortive.  At the time, she felt abortion was the only way.  Her father is a very pro-life minister and she was embarrassed to be pregnant.  However, after seeing GAP, she realized that she had rushed into abortion without thinking.  She was starting to accept what she had done.  Here is a strong woman honestly facing herself and her actions.  It’s the first step to healing.

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

Enraged professor confronts CBR personnel and police.

by Jacqueline Hawkins

She shouted, screamed and profanely vented her anger.  East Carolina University (ECU) police officers were forced to intervene, stepping between this professor and CBR personnel.  Students could see the uncivil, vitriolic reaction of this pro-abort, in living color.

“Why did you come to this University?” another female professor asked.  Her reaction was completely different.  At first she was surprised.  After hearing more about our Genocide Awareness Project, she was thrilled beyond measure.  She thanked us for coming to ECU because of her great concerns over self-destructive student behaviors, including Satanism, abortions, and fornication.  She knew that great evil lurked on the campus, but that our presence helped to combat that evil.

Please help us do more of this.

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

An angry woman confronts CBR’s Maggie Egger.

by Jacqueline Hawkins

“You should have been aborted!” a male Grand Valley State University student shouted at CBR’s Jane Bullington.  While it hurts to be told these things, it could be taken as a good sign.

First and foremost, their anger shows that the images have pricked their consciences.  The images are disturbing, but Dr. Martin Luther King taught us that until people are disturbed by the status quo, there is no pressure for change.

When they say, “You should have been aborted,” they show that they understand, on some level, that abortion does take a human life.  They wish that our lives had been taken.  They sometimes follow up with, “I hope you die!”  Note the connection.  In other words, “I wish you were dead; preferably sooner than later, but better late than never.”

Granted, this is not a well-thought-out reaction.  But it’s often the knee-jerk reaction that reveals a person’s true thoughts.

We happily continue our work because some of these students will take their own words to heart.  One day, they will know that killing is killing, whether later or sooner.

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

A crowd gathers at Georgia Southern University.

At Georgia Southern, Bert had been speaking with CBR’s Maggie Egger for a while when he asked, “What if the woman is an addict, and she’s going to have a baby that’s really handicapped?”

Maggie trotted out the ever-present, imaginary, 2-year-old toddler.  This particular toddler was handicapped, to match the circumstance that Burt described.

Maggie asked, “Would it be OK to kill this toddler because of his handicap?”  Bert, of course, said not.

Then he revealed the reason he asked, “My sister is an addict and she’s pregnant right now.”

But now reflecting on what he had seen and heard, he said thoughtfully, “I think having this baby might help her.  I bet when people in her situation have abortions instead, it’s very easy for them just to go back to their old bad habits, and they’ll eventually kill themselves, slowly.”

Maggie talked about her experiences helping women in New York City, how some of them had huge obstacles to overcome.  But many of them were much more motivated to work once they realized that other people (to be specific, their own children) were counting on them.

[This all reminded us of the student at Middle Tennessee State whose mom was waiting tables when she got pregnant with him.  She didn’t abort (obviously, since the child was now grown up and speaking with us).  He said, “After she had me, she got serious about her life and went back to school.  She got her nursing degree and now she’s the head nurse at a hospital, making about 80 or 90 grand a year.”  He thought a minute and then said, “You know, I think if my mother had aborted me, she would still be back there waiting tables.”]

Bert thanked Maggie and walked on. GAP may have saved his little niece or nephew.  He or she wouldn’t be the first one.  Here is another (link).

“You’re really making me think about this.”

At Georgia Southern University (GSU), Okie told our Jackie Hawkins that his father had aided (forced?) the abortion of two older siblings, before raising three successful boys.

Okie looked both shocked and confused as he studied the pictures.  He was ambivalent about the concept of abortion … or at least he tried to be.  His blasé statements were interrupted with curses, betraying his shock at seeing abortion for the first time:

Well it should be legal. … Oh, s***!!!

I mean it’s just a choice. … What the f***!!!

The images were forcing their way into his conscience.

Okie is a black student, so Jackie told him about the abortion industry’s racist history.  He continued to look at the pictures with a confused and horrified expression.  He finally said, “You’re really making me think about this.”

Amen!  That’s what we came for!

Beth Fox and I exhort Liberty students to be pro-life with their actions as well as their thoughts.

by Kendra Wright

Who needs to see abortion photos?  Everyone?  Even those that are already pro-life?

Absolutely.

This point can seem confusing.  If you already believe something, you don’t need to be convinced of it.  Right?

Yet, it is clear that Christians are doing almost nothing to stop the killing in the culture.  They are even killing their own children at staggering rates.  One in five women who abort identifies herself as a born-again or evangelical Christian.

Secular universities devote massive resources to training advocates for the abortion industry, but Christian universities like Liberty University have zero training programs to prepare Christians students for the pro-life mission field.  Zip, zero, nada.

In fact, Liberty has even forbidden pro-life students from displaying abortion victim photos on campus.

It is a tragedy every time a savable baby at Liberty is killed by abortion.  But CBR is working to change all that.

Beth Fox is one Liberty student who is willing to stand up and be counted.  On several occasions, Beth, (CBR Project Director) Maggie Egger, and I have stood in front of the Liberty library with a sign showing an abortion victim photo.  The sign first asks if Jesus would use a bloody picture, then answers that question with a picture of the Crucifixion.

Many student studied this sign and discussed it with their friends as they walked by.  Two students that gave us a thumbs up.

As we were packing up to leave, a professor came up and asked why we were there.  He wasn’t against the use of the pictures, but he was confused about their use at Liberty.  He asked, “But why are you here on a Christian campus?  Isn’t everybody here already pro-life?”

Maggie stopped him with her reply, “Are they doing anything about it?”

Good question.  The pictures challenge Christian complacency.

Kendra Wright is a CBR project director and a regular FAB contributor.

CBR’s Jackie Hawkins boldly showing the truth

by Kendra Wright

Sometimes people say we would be more effective if we “just passed out brochures.”  One student at East Carolina University (ECU) suggested we  “take it down a notch.”

Martin Luther King and William Wilberforce were not afraid to be bold …  and they didn’t conquer social injustice with informational brochures.  Several at ECU realized the effectiveness of our strategy and the need for boldness.

At ECU, one man stopped and faced the truth.  He exclaimed, “Wow, I had no idea this is what abortion was!  They are so tiny … and that is a hand!” He would not have known if we had not showed him.

Another student claimed that the display was “”too much.“” CBR’s Jane Bullington explained the history behind using pictures and how we focus on changing minds.  He said, “I see what you are doing and respect your right to do it.  If this had just been a brochure handed out, you and I wouldn’t be talking.”

A gentleman who regularly walks the ECU campus and prays scripture over it was so glad we were there.  He too had used abortion photos and had stood his ground when told to stop.  Other Christians and pro-lifers had told him to tamp it down, and he said NO!

CBR also says NO!  We will not stop giving the unborn a voice!

Kendra Wright is a CBR project director and a regular FAB contributor.

Becoming informed about abortion.

by Kendra Wright

When we showed abortion victim photos at Georgia Southern University, students wanted to know more.

One student cried out, “Please, somebody, tell me what this is all about!”  That is exactly what we want them to ask.  The pictures create opportunities to bring life-saving information to students who know very little about abortion.

Another student exclaimed, “I don’t know how abortions are done. Please tell me!”

Yet another wanted more information about the local pro-life pregnancy help center.

A biology student told us that she knew the facts about the preborn.  She said, “While this is hard to see, I am glad you are here.  People need to see and people need to know what the word means.”

That’s why you sent us … to give life-saving information to the people who need it most.  Please consider a generous investment in the lives of babies and moms.

Kendra Wright is a CBR project director and a regular FAB contributor.

Diana Jimenez speaks with a student at Cal State Long Beach.

The Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) returned to California State University Long Beach (CSULB) in April, hosted by the Catholic Newman Club.  What a rare thrill to work with a Christian group with the courage of their convictions!

Media coverage:

• CSULB Catholics bring pro-life advocates to campus
• Bio-Ethical Reform should not be allowed to display graphic photos for its anti-abortion campaign on campus
• Letter to the editor: Genocide Awareness Project
• Letter from the editor: the ‘Genocide Awareness Project’
• Letter to the editor: Ban the Abortion Fort

Notable responses:

“Our goal is to get them banned from campus because of how uncomfortable it makes people feel.” (Karina Sarabia, sophomore English major)  [Translation: “Messages and people who make me uncomfortable must be banned.”]

“Everyone has the right to demonstrate his or her beliefs, but … these pictures should not be displayed in the center of campus ever again.”  (Tuyen Dinh, junior journalism major)  [Translation: “The US Constitution is a living, breathing document, so we can make it mean whatever we want it to mean at the time.  My friends and I get to decide who has rights and who does not.”]

“[Their signs said], ‘Do not engage’ or ‘Want to help? Just walk away. Do not engage.’  Were they attempting to silence GAP because the pro-life side was actually making sense and was more compelling than theirs?”  (Meredith Amon, CSULB Sophomore)  [Answer:  Yes!]

“A university is a place for learning, so there is simply no excuse for the ignorance that was on display two weeks ago.”  (Ariana Sawyer, Opinions Editor)  [Translation: “Ignorance = any knowledge I wish to avoid.”]

“If the pictures are scarring and viewers are uncomfortable, wouldn’t your next thought be ‘why?’  Why the negative reactions?  There must be something disturbing about what is being photographed.  A picture is nothing but a neutral, unbiased portrayal of what is on the other side of the lens.”  (Dyanne Roper)

GAP commands the attention of all. Only by reaching the unwilling audience can we ever hope to reform culture. When the culture embraces our message, our work is done.

by Lincoln Brandenburg

Pro-life students at Western Kentucky University (WKU) were trepid about using victim images, so we brought the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) under the university’s vendor policy.

Rather than participate in GAP, they set up a free-speech board about 100 feet away, with the question “How can we help pregnant women on campus?”  According to their president, they wanted to gauge the responses of students to GAP before committing to using victim images.

We acknowledged that many students would not be thrilled about it!  But we also guaranteed that GAP would be more effective than anything else they have ever seen.

But they didn’t have to just take our word for it.  They saw it with their own eyes and heard it with their own ears.  Near the end of a fruitful first day of GAP, one of the SFL members approached.  He said, “We’ve had a lot of people tell us they changed their mind on abortion because they saw your pictures!”

During our conversation, I mentioned that the most outspoken students tend to be those who are upset by abortion victim images.  He assured me that, “Oh, the students who’ve talked to us were upset, but they realized that abortion is wrong.”  They had been upset because they realized that abortion, by it’s very nature, is upsetting.

Social reformers are never popular until after they achieve their goal.  Martin Luther King got thrown in jail.  But reformers don’t wait for the culture to approve; they act against the evils that society tolerates and celebrates.

According to Fr. Frank Pavone of Priests for Life, “Perhaps the most important principle … for the pro-life movement to adopt at this point in time, is that pro-life activity which relies on the voluntary consent of the audience is insufficient. … To put it rather bluntly, effective social reform requires forcing the message on an unwilling audience.  It means confronting the culture with what it does not want to hear.”  (Source: The Unwilling Audience)

Lincoln Brandenburg is a CBR project director and a regular FAB contributor.

Justin Brown explains to a group of students how abortion advocates dehumanize their intended victims. It is amazing how much influence one student can have.

This was different, but in a good way.  At Tennessee Tech University (TTU), official policy allows individual students (not just student groups) to host events on campus.  So when national pro-life award-winner and TTU student Justin Brown contacted us about bringing GAP, we were eager to go.

It is amazing how much influence one student can have, by God’s grace and with your support.  Thank you for making our work possible!

As it turns out, every public university student has the same right that Justin exercised at TTU; their universities just don’t know it … yet.  The rights of free speech and equal access to university grounds are individual rights, not group rights.  They cannot be denied to an individual student simply because he hasn’t identified others willing to join him in that speech.  TTU has figured this out, and they deserve credit for that.

There were some complications, however, because several TTU administrators didn’t understand their own policies.  To make matters worse, they were not very cooperative when we tried to speak with them.  It’s a good thing we got those issues resolved, however, because the last thing TTU wanted was for CBR to start flying airplane tow banners bearing abortion photos over their campus on a regular basis!  They can ask Notre Dame what that’s like.  TTU hosts many activities for high school students throughout the summer (Boys State, cheerleading camps, etc.), so the last thing they want to see is abortion photos flying overhead.  Fortunately, they read their own policy manual in time, so we can save the nasty version of ourselves for somebody else.

Justin did an outstanding job of hosting GAP at TTU, and we look forward to working with him for many years to come.  We set up in front of the Library, a very good location in the middle of campus.

Media Coverage:

• Anti-abortion display creates conversation by library

The GAP display and Reproductive Choice Campaign (RCC) truth trucks are a powerful combination.

Abortion photos create more opportunity for dialogue than any other pro-life tactic.

It was our very first trip to Western Kentucky University (WKU) with the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP).  We were not invited by a student group, but were able to reserve space as a vendor on Centennial Mall, the most heavily trafficked location on campus.

Although the WKU Students for Life (SFL) did not sponsor GAP, they were willing to host our Pro-Life Training Academy (PLTA), and we are grateful for that.  SFL members learned how to articulate and defend the pro-life position, even in a hostile environment.

GAP proven effective yet again!  Even though the WKU SFL didn’t sponsor or participate in GAP, they did set up an information booth at a different location nearby.  They told us that many students stopped by their booth and said that our GAP display had changed their minds.  Some even signed up to join SFL!  That is why we say that GAP

• neutralizes the opposition,
• converts the neutral,
• activates the converted, and
• energizes the active!

Our Truth Truck carries the pro-life message throughout the campus!

CBR’s Kendra Wright explaining the pictures to a group of journalism students.

It was by far the best campus Christian organization we have ever encountered.  They are Ratio Christi and they don’t have time for the “pizza for Jesus” tomfoolery that wastes so much time in youth ministry today.  Young Christians are very weak because nobody is preparing them to take a stand.  But Ratio Christi is different; their unofficial motto seems to be, “We’re trying to pick a fight!”  And they are good at it!

The fight we helped them pick was over child sacrifice at the U of North Carolina at Wilmington (UNCW).  Ratio Christi, along with College Republicans (CRs), invited us to bring our Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) and Pro Life Training Academy (PLTA) to UNCW for the very first time.  By God’s grace and your support, we made quite a splash.

Our display location was along the Chancellor’s Walk, which is the primary walkway to get from anywhere at UNCW to just about anywhere else.

Campus newspaper coverage of GAP:

• The Ever-Growing Controversy: Pro-choice or Pro-life? (published about a month before GAP)
• Genocide Awareness Project comes to UNCW
• Controversial Comparison of Genocide and Abortion

Local news coverage of GAP:

• Two UNCW student organizations bring controversial display to campus
• Controversial display has people talking at UNCW

Lightning was an issue both days on campus.  For our GAP displays, CBR has adopted the NCAA protocols for outdoor athletic events (although our staff and volunteers are normally much less exposed than the typical baseball center fielder).  We vacate the site whenever lightning is detected within a 6-mile radius (less than 30 seconds between lightning flash and sound of thunder), and stay in a sheltered location for 30 minutes beyond the last such strike.

Patti Shanley of Raleigh, North Carolina traveled with us to Michigan for a week of GAP.

This was our first trip to Grand Valley State University (GVSU).  The GVSU Students for Life did an awesome job of hosting both GAP and our Pro-Life Training Academy (PLTA).

The Quote of the Week came from one of the students who actually came out to protest against GAP:

You saved my future children.  I would have aborted them.  Now I won’t because I know what it looks like.

Media coverage:

• GVSU Lanthorn: Anti-abortion demonstration ignites debate
• Editorial: Civil Conversation
• Letter to the Editor
• Lanthorn response to letter to the editor
• WZZM-TV: Pro-life students host graphic display on GVSU campus

They get snow in Michigan, but that won’t stop us!

On the first day of GAP at Oakland University (OU), Christina Lo Piccolo wrote on her Facebook page:

The cost of my student group hosting the Genocide Awareness Project:  $5,000

The look on my professor’s face when he asked if I saw the disgusting display outside and I told him I helped organize it:  PRICELESS!

What a thrill to work with young heroes like Christina!  The thrill is even sweeter because our trip was paid for by student fee money, just like last year!  Students for Life collaborated with a dozen other campus groups to pay our expenses out of their respective student fee allocations.

But the best part of the week came at the very end, when Christina again posted on Facebook:

This past week was life-changing to say the least.  I was able to participate in 3 days of the Genocide Awareness Project to educate students about abortion.  Hearts were changed and students were motivated to take action.  I can hardly wait to graduate and continue this work as a full-time career.  “Y’all” are like family to me, and working beside you feels like home.

Did she say “Y’all”?  How bout dat.  We get to do GAP and learn a Yankee how to tawk!  It don’t get no better-n-at.

Seriously, we’ll never end abortion if we don’t get folks like Christina to join the battle full-time.  The other side has made killing babies a full-time profession, but we’ve made saving them a part-time hobby.  We can’t do anything without volunteers and financial supporters like you, but we absolutely need more like Christina to do this full-time.  Such a victory is well worth the trip to Michigan!

Thank you for making this possible with your gifts and prayers.