Liberty University students expose the truth to their classmates.

by Jacqueline Hawkins

It may seem counter-intuitive to display abortion victim photos at Liberty University (LU), the world’s largest evangelical university.  But these students need the truth, just like everyone else.

Eye-witnesses confirm that cars with LU parking stickers are often seen in nearby abortion mill parking lots.  Obviously, LU people are having abortions.  That doesn’t surprise us, because 1 in 5 women who aborts her child identifies herself as a born again or evangelical Christian.

But when Christians see abortion, they are much less likely to abort their own children.

They are also more likely to understand God’s commandment to be a witness against evil in their own communities.  God’s law mandates that we intervene in defense of its victims (Isaiah 59:15-16, Proverbs 24:11-12).  Ephesians 5:11 proscribes intervention by “exposing” the deeds of darkness, not covering up those deeds.

Despite all this, abortion victim photo (AVP) displays are prohibited on the LU campus.

However, courageous students at LU are displaying them anyway.  At the encouragement of CBR, they have displayed AVPs on several occasions over the past 2 years, most recently during the Fall 2015 semester.  All of these events have been peaceful and quiet.  Compared to their public university counterparts, LU students are less inclined to curse and carry on.  However the students’ most recent display provoked more than one visit from unhappy administrators.

Near the end of the event, the students were approached by the LU police and asked to meet with administrators to discuss their pro-life activism.

Stay tuned.

In a future post, Lord willing, FAB will examine the question of whether it is permissible to break rules in order to save lives.

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

On the Brickyard at NC State

CBR staffers Bill, Jeanette, and Edie recently joined up with Aubry, Ruth, Catherine, and Stephen, all members of the Students for Life (SFL), for an afternoon of exposing abortion at North Carolina State University.

We displayed CBR “Choice” signs on the Brickyard, not far from where we had displayed GAP last Spring.

We handed out CBR’s Unmasking Choice brochure, along with copies of How to Keep Your Mushrooms Happy!!, a new handout from Human Life Alliance.

As students walk by, our standard ice-breaker is to ask a simple question, “What do you think?”  This opened many opportunities for dialogue with respectful students on both sides of the issue.  We got many positive affirmations from pro-life students, and at least 15 passersby signed up to be members of SFL.

“For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. If anyone has ears to hear let him hear.”  (Mark 4:22-23)

Cristina Lauria displays a “Choice” sign at the U at Buffalo, which creates more opportunities to discuss abortion with her classmates than anything else she can do. What’s more, the pictures make the discussions productive because they force students to see the brutal truth of what abortion is and does.

Because you support CBR. the University at Buffalo Students for Life (UB SFL) are displaying abortion victim photos at strategic locations around campus.

UB SFL member Cristina Lauria reports

We get lots of positive comments from people walking by. Although, of course, there are those who get angry at the pictures and stomp on by them. Interesting how they won’t look at what they support.

Way to go!!!!  Keep up the good work!

To support Cristina and other brave pro-life students, please partner with CBR to give them strategies and tools that work!!!!  Link here to support CBR.

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.

Choice Chain at George Mason University. (Click to enlarge photo.)

by Maggie Egger

A young woman approached me and as she got closer I could see she was breathing very heavily; she seemed upset. She looked at our signs for just a moment and then quickly voiced her complaint: “I would call myself pro-life, but was about rape? I think it’s kind of insensitive for someone to tell a woman who’s been raped that she has to carry that baby.”

“First, I want to say that we as individuals, and as a society, need to do everything we can to help women who have been raped. We don’t do enough. We don’t do enough to punish rapists, and we don’t do enough to help women deal with the trauma. You would agree, right?”

“Yeah, absolutely.”

“Okay, then let me ask you a question. Would you be in favor of giving rapists the death penalty?”

She looked a little uncomfortable….I waited a bit. Trying to coax her, I said, “I don’t support the death penalty at all, so I would say ‘no.’”

“Yeah, I don’t support it either.”

“Okay then. No death penalty for rapists. Should we give the woman the death penalty because she was raped?”

She looked flabbergasted. “No, of course not!”

“No! Of course not! She’s the victim! But, there are some cultures where a woman who has been raped is killed because she’s seen to have brought dishonor on her family.”

“I know, it’s horrible.”

“You’re right, it is. Okay, so here’s my last question. Should we give the unborn child the death penalty because their father was a rapist?”

A young man standing next to her, who had just a few minutes earlier said he wanted to remain moderate on the issue, suddenly said, “Oh my gosh, I totally get what you’re saying. That’s a good one.” I almost felt like I was watching a cartoon, and a light bulb had just begun to glow above his head.

She smiled sheepishly, knowing that she was stuck. “No, I guess that doesn’t really make sense at all.”

Your support will allow us to do Choice Chains more places, more often.  Please click here and be as generous as you can.

Maggie Egger is a CBR Project Director in Virginia.

Circle of Life

This report was filed by FAB correspondent Maggie Egger, Virginia Project Director, Center for Bio-Ethical Reform.

The Circle of Life at GMU
by Maggie Egger
CBR Project Director

Engaging Passersby

Last week, George Mason University Students for Life held their first Choice Chain of the semester.  I joined five Mason students to form a circle with our signs in front of the student center.  We were seen from every angle; no one could miss us.

Johanna Young:  I regret my abortion.

Soon after we got in to position, there was a class change.  In the swarm of people, a young man briefly paused and said,

“I’ve seen you guys out here before. You’ve really changed my mind about abortion. Thank you.”

Wow!

A little later I spoke to a young man who claimed, among other things, that the preborn are not people and don’t have human rights.  I asked him “Why?”

.

He said because they are not alive.  After we went through all the scientific evidence supporting the fact that they are indeed alive, he claimed that they aren’t human.

I asked him “What are their parents?”  He looked confused.

“What species do this embryo’s parents belong to?” I asked while pointing to my sign.

“They’re human, of course.”

“Okay, then all their offspring are human, right?  Humans can’t reproduce non-humans, can they?”

“Well, no they can’t.”  I could see the wheels start to turn in his head.  I waited a moment and then asked very calmly, “So, if the preborn are alive and human, why aren’t they people with human rights, too?”

He opened his mouth to answer, and then stopped himself.  He paused for a moment, still digesting all that we had just discussed.  Staring at my sign, again he started to speak, but couldn’t find any answer.  Then he said “I’m sorry, I’m gonna be late to class” and abruptly left.

I know he continued to think about it.  Maybe next time he will say, as one did earlier in the day,

“I’ve seen you guys out here before. You’ve really changed my mind about abortion. Thank you.”

Meredith Hunt and the other CBR volunteers are the true reporters and journalists at Berea College.

CBR volunteer Meredith Hunt reports on CBR’s recent Choice Chain at Berea College.  Hunt is a veteran GAPper, having taken our Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) to more than 50 universities.  Read more of his thoughts and works at www.lifeadvocates.blogspot.com and www.chaoticterrain.com.

God Made All Peoples
By Meredith Eugene Hunt

Taking our handheld “Choice” signs to Berea College on Friday, November 8 was a homecoming for me.

When Fletcher told me about the GAPs planned for Northern Kentucky U, Eastern Kentucky U, and the U of Kentucky, it seemed natural to go to nearby Berea on the extra in-between day.   That weekend, quite literally was Homecoming at Berea.  Since my youngest son is now a student there, my wife and I, both of us alums, have special impetus to become involved in the college again.

Years ago, when I was a Berea student, I attended a convocation at which the speaker spoke on abortion as a silent holocaust, and that presentation, I’m sure, was a factor in leading me into full-time pro-life work.  My son said that the college, having become far more liberal since then, would never have such a speaker now.  Not that they would boast of it, but Berea graduate Dr. Willie J. Parker (class of 1986) is an outspoken abortion advocate and practicing late-term abortionist.  He’s been the “medical director” of Planned Parenthood in Washington, DC and he is the 2013 winner of the “2013 George Tiller, MD, Abortion Provider Award,” whatever that is.  Parker is not only an abortionist but is also a “Christian,” he says.  He explained last year (May 27, 2012) in the New Jersey Star Register (link here),

In listening to a sermon by Dr. Martin Luther King, I came to a deeper understanding of my spirituality, which places a higher value on compassion. King said what made the good Samaritan “good” is that instead of focusing on would happen to him by stopping to help the traveler, he was more concerned about what would happen to the traveler if he didn’t stop to help.  I became more concerned about what would happen to these women if I, as an obstetrician, did not help them.

Parker doesn’t seem to notice that in the Good Samaritan story, he is the violent robber who leaves the traveler in the ditch, naked, and bleeding.

Berea College, too, projects a skewed, incomplete perspective on certain aspects of Christianity.  When college president Roelofs learned of our intention to bring Choice signs for students to see them as they crossed the highway that intersects the campus, he sent out a campus-wide e-mail.   In the e-mail he wrote these words:

“In 2003, our community (persons from Berea College, the City of Berea, local churches, and others) developed the following statement expressing our collective commitment to “love over hate,” and it seems appropriate to revisit this thinking:

“For God so loved the world .. . that’s all of us!  United and Diverse.  We believe all people have been created in the image of God and are loved by God.  We believe this divine origin and love invests each person with an inherent dignity and worth that should be respected and cherished.  We believe God’s love toward us is not dependent upon our condition or actions.  God loves all because God is love.”

It seems clear from the rest of the letter that Berea College does not include children before birth in the human family.  That they are not created in the image of God, are not loved by God, do not have inherent dignity and worth that should be respected and cherished.  That love for pre-natal children is dependent on conditions.

Or maybe they weren’t thinking about abortion at all when they composed their statement.  Perhaps they should have been.  But that’s why we brought the images and printed arguments to Berea.

During our GAP tour I led a short devotional with the team each morning.  Before Berea, my text was, from Philippians 4, “Let your gentleness be known to all.  The Lord is near.”

The students who passed us were respectful.  True, a couple female professor types stood back out of brochure range as they waited for the light to change, but by-and-large everyone else was either friendly or receptive to our presence.  We handed out more than 1000 brochures entitled “Unmasking Choice.”  A black student asked one of our people, “Is this a religious organization?”  The answer essentially was no.  “That’s why your arguments are so cogent!” he said with enthusiasm and waving one of the brochures.  CBR is an organization of Christians, but we primarily make secular and scientific arguments as to why abortion is wrong.

Passersby (that is, drivers in vehicles) often responded, and most indicated strong support.   Berea is a liberal college in the middle of a rural, conservative region, and you could see that clearly.  A few people pulled over to get out and make a comment, or people just gave a thumbs up or called out encouragement.   A few didn’t know if we were for abortion or against it, but it’s hard to imagine how anyone could think  people who supported the choice to abort a child would show pictures of that dead child.  But some people get confused that way.  Innocent unsophistication, I guess.

We also had the Choice Truck driving up and down the road for most of the four hours we were there.  A US Marine Corps medical corpsman in dress uniform and at Berea for homecoming stopped to talk and thank us.  I spent a good deal of time talking with the director of campus safety.  He was my age and had had long experience as a police chief and with security for governmental leaders.

The editor of the student newspaper, The Pinnacle came by for a while.  He wrote an editorial that favorably compared our use of graphic imagery with a similar approach for issues important to him, such as war and mountain-top removal in coal mining.  He did however say that our “protest” was not much newsworthy.  “I didn’t see anything particularly timely or gripping about this demonstration,” he wrote.  “Did this particular group break any new information about abortion?  No they did not.”

Probably he’s right.  But it’s a sad state of affairs when the aborting of children in the womb is so customary, routine, and “old” that it can’t be news.   We are in a sorry condition when cogent arguments against the ongoing legal killing of children don’t break any new information.

In the instance of us bringing the graphic images to Berea College, we were the true reporters and journalists.  We were the media, the “guardian of the student’s right to know,” (echoing the byline of The Pinnacle).  This information about abortion was new to most of those students.  We brought that missing convocation out on the sidewalk, and hopefully some student will make a decision for life for her baby, or will someday become a pro-life activist, or won’t become another misguided Dr. Willie J. Jackson.  By advocating for children in the womb, we represent a missing element in the fulfillment of Berea’s motto, taken from the Bible, “God made of one blood all peoples of the earth.”

Let’s go back again soon.

We passed out more than 1,000 pro-life brochures in just a few hours at Berea College.

A Choice Truck at Berea College expands our reach many-fold.

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

RCC Director John Stair and North Carolina Director Brooke McGowan expose Komen’s support of abortion in full view of the starting line. Komen balloons and pom-poms only draw attention to our presence.

Note: Posting revised November 7 to reflect new information regarding assaults on CBR staff and possible Komen harassment.

We took our message of life to the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in Knoxville on October 27.  As you may be aware, Komen gives grants of nearly $1 million dollars annually to Planned Parenthood (PP), the nation’s largest abortion provider.

We were a small group of folks, enough to hold a couple of warning signs, several abortion photos, and a large sign asking the Komen Foundation to quit funding PP.  We’ll be more numerous next year, Lord willing.

CBR is just like an STD.  You get in bed with Planned Parenthood, you get us.

“Choice” signs along race course. Note parental warning sign in foreground. Some of the “Choice” signs are out of view of the camera, but rest assured they were visible to Race participants.

We didn’t interfere with their event, but our act of good faith was not reciprocated.  Several of the Komen volunteers were apparently instructed to block our signs with shakers, balloons, and the occasional body.  They succeeded only in drawing more attention to our huge pink sign (upper right photo).  We appreciate it.

One guy tried to stare me down.  Most amusing.  One young man challenged me on the fact that the Knoxville Komen affiliate doesn’t support PP.  I told him it didn’t matter where babies were being killed, they were just as dead.

I didn’t get to use the sound-byte I had prepared especially for the occasion: “CBR is just like an STD.  You get in bed with Planned Parenthood, you get us.”  Maybe next year.

As usual, we had notified the Knoxville Police Department of our intention to picket this event (link here).  They were obviously briefed to leave us alone (as long as we respected the law and did not interfere with the rights of others), which they did.

When the Race was about to begin, we deployed several signs along the route.  Komen volunteers followed our staff across the street and again attempted to shield our signs.  But again, they only succeeded in drawing attention to our message.  One woman screamed at CBR Advisory Board member Kathy Proctor that we didn’t have our facts straight, that the local group kept all their donations local, and that Komen only gave money to PP for mammograms.  She was not interested in the fact that PP does not perform mammograms.  She apparently did not hear the PA announcer say that only 75% of donations support local work.

Several Race participants ran over to yell at us.  One man ran up and screamed at about our f***ing signs and that we had no right to be there.  Another person hit one sign and tried to pull it down.  One woman said she was a Christian and she thanked us for being there.  Another said she was a Christian and was crying and yelling at us to go away.  Someone tried to hit CBR staffer Brooke McGowan on the back of her knee in an attempt to buckle her knee and make her fall.

Next year, we will bring additional volunteers with video cameras to film any criminal misconduct against CBR staff or property.  We will prosecute any criminal act to the fullest extent of the law.

Support the fight against breast cancer.  There are other organizations who fight breast cancer and do not fund abortion providers.  Georgia Right to Life recommends the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

Abortion and Breast Cancer.  Of course, the Komen Foundation’s support for Planned Parenthood is enough to warrant our presense at their fundraising events, but we also noted the very real possibility that abortion itself (indirectly funded by the Komen Foundation) causes breast cancer. FAB has noted previously that (1) there is an undeniable statistical relationship between abortion and breast cancer, and (2) the existence of a causal link between abortion and breast cancer is still a matter of debate. (Earlier this week, this article reported a new study that showed abortion to cause a 55% increase in cancer risk among Chinese women, independent of all confounding factors.)

We will leave the debate about causality to medical professionals, but we will point out that there are many in the medical community who believe there is more evidence for the link than against it.  Dr. Angela Lanfranchi, professor of surgery at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, and Dr. Joel Brind, professor of human biology and endocrinology at Baruch College of the city of New York, are among those who believe that abortion increases risk of breast cancer, independent of other factors.

The ambient cancer risk among women is about 10%. If abortion increases cancer risk from 10% to only 13% (a 30% increase), we could estimate that more than 300,000 women have died from abortion-related cancer since Roe (source), which is about 8,000 women per year.

Maggie Egger and Kristine Kruszelnicki get ready for the students to arrive. Abortion photos allow just a few people to have a huge impact.

Maggie Egger of Spiders for Life and Nicole Cooley of CBR organized a Choice Chain at the University of Richmond (UR) on Monday.

The abortion pictures are what the military calls a force multiplier.  They allow us to take a small amount of resources and create a huge effect.

One student tried the “famous violinist” argument on Nicole.  Of course, we are all veterans of the Pro Life Training Academy, so we know exactly how to answer that question.  Nicole pointed out that the famous violinist is not analogous to the preborn child because

• The violinist is not the offspring of the host.
• We all recognize that we have responsibilities to our own children that are greater than our responsibilities to a random stranger.  For example, we are required by law to support and care for our born children.

That seemed to be enough; the young man just turned and walked away.  Nicole could have added:

• The child is not an intruder.  He is exactly where he naturally belongs.
• Withholding support is not the same as dismembering, poisoning, and/or crushing.
• Except in the case of rape, the host actively participated in the act that created the pregnancy.

This being a private school, the normal First Amendment protections did not apply.  For example, CBR staff and volunteers were not permitted to speak to a UR student unless first approached.  However, when the UR students began chalking messages on the plaza (a common activity on college campuses), CBR volunteer Jonathan Darnel got his own chalk and started to respond.  It was just like our Free Speech Board.  The pro-aborts complained, but UR administrators allowed him to continue.

Media coverage here.

Jonathan Darnel awaits a ruling on whether he could continue chalking messages on the plaza. He had started to write a quote from Dr. Alveda King: "America will not reject abortion until America sees abortion."

Abortion photos help students see what "choice" really means.

CBR organized a Choice Chain at East Tennessee State University (ETSU) last week.  Jane Bullington and Renee Weber from Knoxville met up with Mick and Edie Hunt from Asheville at the Borchauck Plaza on the ETSU campus for a day of pro-life outreach.  Hand-held “Choice” signs show passersby what “choice” really means (a dead baby) and draw a crowd.  We handed out hundreds of our “Unmasking Choice” brochures and spoke with students all day long.

It was a beautiful day; students continually crossed the Plaza.  Some saw and quickly turned their heads.  They were trying to ignore the reality of abortion, but it didn’t work … a glance is enough.  Others wanted to talk.  No matter how big or small the exhibit, the debate is always the same.

Chelsey was so upset, she whimpered that she is pro-life, has not had an abortion, but wanted us to know that we were “doing this the wrong way, in case no one has ever told you.”  (If Chelsey only knew!)  Chelsey is studying to be a counselor and she is sure abortion photos will traumatize women … that women will not be able to recover from seeing them.  She didn’t seem to realize that women won’t recover from the abortion unless something compels them to repentance.  Chelsey may not have had an abortion herself, but it was apparent that someone in her life has been personally affected by abortion.

Three young women were passionate about educating their fellow students and gave us their contact information, so we may help them continue the battle on campus … including more Choice Chains and the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP).

A class was coming across the lawn when the teacher spotted the signs.  They were high achievers, very polite, and very interested in what we were doing.

Jane speaks to high school honor students; the photo tells a story her words never could.