CBR volunteer Debbie Picarello, who is post-abortive, speaks with a student on campus.

CBR staff and volunteers in Atlanta were holding “Choice” signs at a very busy intersection (near an interstate exit at rush hour).  We reached tens of thousands of motorists with our message!

As we stood on the sidewalk, I was approached by Molly, who asked about our activity.  I explained to her why we display photos of first-trimester abortion victims.  We are used to dealing with every imaginable response, but her’s caught me off guard.  She said, “So, if someone wanted to donate to you guys, how would they go about it?”  (The answer is, “Click right here!”)

I told Molly that our work is based on the work of Martin Luther King, Jr.  Just as American did not reject racism until American saw racism, America will not reject abortion until American sees abortion.

“Which is true!” Molly agreed, “because I’ve had an abortion… I knew it was wrong at the time I had it.  But it wasn’t until I saw this video on the internet called ‘The Silent Scream’ that I realized just how wrong it was.”  As a post-abortive mother, Molly supported our work, and not only with her words.  She made a generous donation as well!

Who knows how many preborn children have been saved from decapitation and dismemberment because we reached their mothers first?  Like Molly, these mothers can easily rationalize this horror, even thought it goes against their maternal instincts.  Seeing victims of abortion can give them the resolve to save their children’s lives.

“What about post-abortive women?” is a common question … and a legitimate concern.  People ask, “How can we do this in a way that is non-condemning?”  It is a question we ask as well.  We answer it by directing hurting people to seek out post-abortion healing ministries like Deeper Still.

Others raise this objection only as a way to suppress the truth.  Their supposed “compassion” serves only to maintain the status quo … death for many and bondage for many more.

“But there are so many other ways to get the pro-life message across that are more positive,” they say.

A post-abortive stranger encouraged us to keep showing these images.

Indeed, there are.  Educating people about prenatal development will save children.  Helping pregnant mothers will save children.  But neither of these activities, as important as they are, will convince millions of Americans that abortion is so evil that it ought to be against the law.

That is our mission, to convince people (like Molly’s former self) that abortion is not just evil, but is so evil that it ought to be against the law.  And because people are so apathetic about our message, we only get about 3 seconds to prove that point.

Abortion is legal because decapitating and dismembering preborn children has been relabeled with an obscure, meaningless word, abortion.  As the main character of “The Giver” aptly states, “We haven’t eliminated murder, we just call it by another name.”

Lincoln Brandenburg is a project director for the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform and a frequent FAB contributor.

Emma Wiltshire (right) with CBR volunteer Kalan Walker.

Emma Wiltshire is a pro-life Christian who labors with the fine folks at the Athens Pregnancy Center in Athens, GA.  She also attended Passion 2014.  In fact, she is the bold young lady who gave an impromptu sidewalk speech to her fellow conference goers, exhorting them to put their faith into action for preborn babies!  (Passion Part 3)

Emma penned some excellent observations about our outreach at Passion:

I have worked at a pregnancy resource center for a little over six months.  But after this weekend, my heart has never been so broken over abortion.

I attended the Passion Conference in Atlanta where 20,000 college students gathered to proclaim the name and fame of Jesus Christ.  I watched people surrender their lives to their maker and accept the love, forgiveness and freedom of being in relationship with Him.  It was an unbelievable experience.  As we flooded the streets of Atlanta for our evening dinner break, I saw extremely graphic pictures of aborted babies at just ten weeks, posted on signs.  The images were disturbing, but what was more disturbing were the reactions of my peers to the people holding the signs.  “No thank you, I’m pro-life already.”  or  “No I don’t want any brochures or papers.”  The majority of students didn’t say anything at all; they simply ignored the display and the people all together.

I spoke with one of the [CBR staffers] and he was astonished by the students lack of participation.  He said,  “Surely students coming out of a Christian conference would be more receptive.”  There is a difference between saying you support a cause and actually doing something to support it.

I was tormented for the rest of the dinner break,  just thinking of the students who carelessly walked past the exhibit.  Were they turned off by the graphic images?  Did they not understand that it was a plea for help and not a protest?  My mind was spinning as I walked back into the arena for the last session.  I looked around the enormous room packed full of 18 to 24-year-olds, 20,000 of them to be exact.  Then I had a vision of what it would look like to save an empty seat for every aborted person in the state of Georgia last year alone … 33,000 silenced voices … 33,000 empty chairs.  Even though the room was packed full, all I saw was a vacant building.

I haven’t been able to get this image out of my head since Saturday.  I know that abortion is seen as as political issue that is highly controversial.  But I also know that it robs humans of life and haunts post-abortive men and women.  It doesn’t matter how a person was conceived;  they still have a right to exist.

Please hear me when I say I am in no way condemning those who have had abortions before.  Because I am a Christian I believe there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus and that the blood of the cross can wash away any transgression.  God’s redemption knows no boundaries, and I know many women who are post abortive that He has healed and made new.

That being said, lets put an end to it.  Let’s not tiptoe around the issue anymore, let’s be bold in our faith and our convictions and speak the truth about abortion.  Education is the only way we can shed light into a very dark aspect of our legislation.

If you find value in these words or agree with me, please don’t just like this post.  Share it.  Start a dialogue with friends, classmates, co-workers and family.  Don’t condemn those who have had abortions but love on them and show them that their story can help another person from making the same mistake.  I know my words are probably going to offend and maybe enrage some people, but I just felt I had to speak up for the 1,388,937 people that would have been my age if they hadn’t been aborted in 1991.

Thank God for brave Christians like Emma!  My prayer is that the young people of Passion, like Emma, will rise up and be “in it to end it” for the victims of slavery and for the victims of abortion in their own backyard.  Both are important to God’s heart (Proverbs 24:11-12).

Submitted by: Lincoln Brandenburg

We handed out nearly 4,000 brochures!

Like water gushing around a river rock,  herds of young people swarmed past our signs, on their way into and out of the Passion Conference.  How would they respond?

“I’ve never seen these pictures before…  I didn’t realize abortion was this bad!”  Some were arrested by the pictures of abortion victims.  They stopped and responded with compassion,  wanting to know how they could help.

Our volunteers and staff were glad to speak with them and even prayed with some.  We showed them how to win hearts, change minds, and save lives in their own churches and schools.  One young woman,  herself a pro-life advocate,  was very grateful and moved by our outreach.  After speaking with us at length, she turned to a group of fellow conference-goers and pleaded with them, “We need to pay attention to this message.  This is just as important as human trafficking!”

What does God think about this? CBR volunteers David Harbin and Todd Childers discuss with a passerby.

Some were not so happy to see us, and they told us so!  An Atlanta police officer even rolled down his patrol car window and blared through a bullhorn, “You people are doing a great job scaring folks with these disgusting pictures!”  His negativity was a positive sign … that he needed to see our message!  We pray that his disgust with the exposers of abortion will be transformed into compassion for the victims of abortion.

The most common response we saw was no response.  Many of the young students of Passion had not thought much about abortion before.  It is likely that many of them internalized their thoughts, rather than speak with us.  And that’s OK.  They will remember the images of abortion victims long after the conference.  God will use what they saw to work in their hearts over time.

Sadly though, many of these young Christians were noticeably apathetic about the injustice they were seeing.  One young man, when asked what he thought about the display, replied with disgust, “I’m on my way to dinner right now!”  Many tried to ignore us, declining or throwing away our literature.  Our volunteers were grieved to tears by the scores of Laodicean responses.  How could so many Christians be “neither hot nor cold” about the killing of innocent preborn children?

Was our outreach at Passion effective?  Thousands of Christian’s eyes were opened to the injustice.  The empathetic were galvanized.  The apathetic can no longer trivialize.  And at least one baby was saved (see Passion Part 2).  Decide for yourself, but your humble corespondant would say it was definitely effective!

“You may choose to look the other way, but you can never again say that you did not know.” – William Wilberforce

See Passion Part 3 for one of our most encouraging responses!

Submitted by: Lincoln Brandenburg

We handed out nearly 4,000 brochures in Atlanta. The photo on one of them would save a baby in Nashville.

CBR volunteer Julie Thomas reports on a baby saved at the Passion Conference in Atlanta:

Photo in Atlanta Saves a Baby in Nashville

Two young women saw the abortion pictures on display.  They took a flyer as they walked on by.  But then they stopped.  Why?

Something made them turn around.  They looked at each other.  What was it?  Was it the big bold statement on my sweatshirt?  “I regret my abortion.”  Was it the 10-week abortion photo?  I would soon find out.

Every time CBR displays abortion photos, babies’ lives are saved.  But each story is different.  So it was with this one.  These two ladies needed help, but not for themselves.  Their friend “Susie,” a med school student at Vanderbilt, was 7 weeks pregnant.  She was a Christian and had told her mother and boyfriend that she was pregnant.  The boyfriend had convinced her to have an abortion.  Her mother would support her, no matter what decision she made.  That baby’s life was hanging in the balance.

Now these two angels went to work.  Using cell phones, they took photos of the abortion pictures on display and texted them to Susie back in Nashville.  One of them called Susie and brokered a 4-way conference call, right there on the sidewalk.  This went on for several minutes.  I talked about  my abortion regret.  Then the two girls and I prayed for the young mother.  She said she would text in a few minutes and hung up.  We prayed again.  Susie texted back, “Go ahead and start planning a baby shower for me.  I’m keeping the baby.”

Wow!  Praise the Lord!  All the time!

What other victories did God give our team?  The story continues in Passion Part 3!

CBR volunteers show what “family planning” looks like to NEA delegates.

On Monday morning, July 1st, delegates of the National Education Association’s (NEA) annual assembly were in for an eyeful as they made their way to the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta.

CBR volunteers from all over Georgia stood at the intersection of Andrew Young International Boulevard and Marietta Street with CBR’s handheld “Choice” signs, which depict images of early-term aborted fetuses. Our group’s positions were adjusted throughout the morning to adapt to changing traffic patterns.

CBR was working alongside other pro life organizations, including Georgia Right to Life (GRTL) and Pro Life Educators of America (PLEA), to bring a message to the NEA: adopt a neutral position on abortion.

“We are not asking the NEA delegates to do a one-eighty and change our union’s abortion position and activism to being pro-life,” said Bob Pawson, Director of PLEA and  NEA member, “We are asking that our union be verifiably neutral and totally non-involved regarding abortion. And stop hiding their advocacy behind euphemistic language such as ‘reproductive freedom’ or ‘all methods of family planning,’” Pawson said.

CBR works to effectively dismantle such euphemisms. While other pro life advocates used text signs to exhort the NEA to neutralize it’s pro-abortion position, the graphic pictures we used showed exactly what certain methods of “reproductive freedom” and “family planning” do to unborn children (and future students).

The Truth Truck made several rounds in front of the CNN News Center in Atlanta.

NEA members were also shown the true meaning of these genteel phrases by billboard-sized abortion images on CBR’s “Truth Truck.” Our truck made rounds in the Georgia World Congress Center vicinity throughout the mornings and afternoons of July 1 and July 2, insuring that as many NEA delegates as possible would be exposed to the brutality that their union’s official resolution currently supports.

“Normally, in America’s news media, when citizens hear or read press reports about teacher unions and picketing, it is the union DOING the picketing; usually demanding more money. This event is one of those unusual instances in which the NEA Teacher Union is the TARGET OF PICKETING; ironically, by NEA members, taxpayer-parents, and students. The very constituencies which the NEA leadership touts itself as supposedly serving,” said Pawson.

While we received some of the usual irate responses, several passersby paused to observe and ask questions about the images. One driver, a young African-American woman, rolled down her window to address one of our volunteers when stopped at the traffic light:

“Excuse me, is that a real picture?”

“Yes, it is”

“Awe.” She was audibly saddened by what she saw.

Much conversation was overheard among pedestrians regarding abortion and the NEA’s stance on abortion. While some doubted that the NEA took a pro abortion stance, others indicated that they were previously unaware of the fact before encountering the message being shown to them. Pro life NEA members in particular expressed appreciation of CBR’s message and our assistance in reforming the teacher’s union.

For more on the NEA’s position, please see http://www.grtl.org/?q=NEA-pro-abortion-tendencies

Submitted by: Lincoln Brandenburg