Choice sign exhibiting “1st Trimester (10-week) Aborted Fetus”

We often hear from pro-lifers who question our use of the word “fetus” on our GAP signs, Choice signs, and RCC truth trucks.  “Fetus” is the word used by pro-aborts to dehumanize the preborn child, so why would we want to use their word?

First, it is critical to restore meaning to the words that pro-aborts are fond of using, so that when they use their words in public, our side gets the benefit.   The other side is quite fond of the word “fetus,” because it conjures up something subhuman in the minds of so many people.  They will never agree to use our word, so we must restore meaning to their word.  When pro-aborts say the word “fetus,” people who have seen our signs won’t think of a formless lump of cells; they will remember the picture of a human being with arms and legs and fingers and toes.  If we restore meaning to the word, the other side can’t use it to confuse people.

Second, we only have a few seconds with people as we pass them with our trucks.  When they see the truck, we want them to say something like, “Wow, I didn’t know killing a fetus meant killing a being with arms and legs and fingers and toes.”  If we flash the word “child” instead, people might think of infanticide, not abortion.  It won’t make sense to them.  By using the word that they are most familiar with, we reduce the amount of time necessary to convey the message.

Third, we want to reinforce in people that the word “fetus” is just another stage of life … as in embryo, fetus, infant, toddler, adolescent, teenager, young adult, middle aged adult, senior citizen, geezer, etc.

Fourth, we can’t force them to use our word, so perhaps a form of jujutsu might be more effective.  The other side has all the worldly power behind it (the media, the education system, the news media, the entertainment industry, etc.).   Jujutsu is a martial art in which one seeks to manipulate the opponent’s force against himself rather than confronting him with one’s own force.  We want to take over their words so that when pro-aborts try to use them, it turns to our benefit.

Bottom line:  The other side dehumanized the word “fetus;” we are restoring its humanity.

Can we ever use the word, “child?”  Yes, of course!  Suppose  I am talking to a pro-abort who asserts that abortion may be justified based on poverty, personal choice, etc.  I would first show him a photo of a 1st-trimester abortion.  We have to define that word “abortion.”   Then I would trot out the toddler, i.e., ask if it would be OK to kill a 2-year old child for the same reason.   That way, I can focus his attention on the real issue, which is not poverty, choice, etc.  The real issue is “What is the unborn?”

But later in the conversation, when he goes back to “choice” and “rights,” I might force him back to the main point by saying something like, “A parent does not have a right to kill his own child.”  When I use the word “child,” he cannot dispute the statement, so he has to dispute the notion that the fetus is a child.  But our signs use the word “fetus” because this word, juxstaposed with the photos, helps us make our case that the fetus is, in fact, a human child.

In this way, I am using the word “child” in conversation to do the same thing that we used the word “fetus” to do on our signs.  In both cases, we are refocusing our audience on the key point, “What is the unborn?”

RCC truth truck sign exhibiting “1st Trimester (10-week) Aborted Fetus”

Just now found this in my “Draft” folder.  For the record, here is the media coverage from our Fall 2011 Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) excursions to Liberty University, Radford University, and the U of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

GAP at Liberty University

• Abortion demonstrators share graphic message with local college students
• Pro-life group gets banned from Liberty University
• Anti-Abortion Group Demonstrates near LU
• Thinking Christian: Christians condemning Christians

Radford University

• Students react to graphic anti-abortion demonstration at Radford University
• Abortion protests manifest at Radford, Liberty
• Graphic abortion protest at Radford U
• Letter to Editor: Big images, big impact
• Feelings toward protest from Republican perspective
• Letter to the Editor: New student overwhelmed by club presentation
• Letter to the Editor: Demonstration opens eyes to opposite sex

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

• Abortion group at UTC draws demonstrators
• GAP Photo
• Anti-abortion images spark debate
• Students protest use of grotesque images
• Students defend use of disturbing photos
• Letter to the Editor

A group of young women learn the two facts that are most important to abortion attitudes. They are (1) the humanity of the preborn child and (2) the inhumanity of abortion.

We returned to Market Square in Knoxville earlier this week for another edition of Urban GAP.  It was hot hot, with a temperature in the 90s and a wind-chill of nearly 100 degrees.

Media coverage.  All day long, passersby studied the abortion photos intently.  WBIR-TV ran a story on TV.  The video version is not available online, but you can read the text version here.  There were a number of comments, and you can see that I have responded to many of them.

Monument to Motherhood.  My favorite part of Urban GAP at Market Square is to go over to the monument to leaders of the woman’s suffrage movement in Tennessee (story here).  I figure that the ACLU will have it removed the first chance they get, but for now, we get to enjoy Knoxville’s very own City-owned, pro-life, pro-family, pro-God monument.  On it, you can read the words of suffragette Lizzie Crozier French (1851-1926):

Thanks be to God that in giving Woman the crown of motherhood He made her the giver not the taker of life.  Woman has no greater claim to the rights of the ballot than that she is the producer not a destroyer of life.

Is that awesome or what?  My interest in motherhood is not just professional, but  personal as well.  I’m not a mother myself, but I have one and so does my son.  I’ve watched them both work and they’re pretty good.

GAP at University of Cincinnati

Day 1 at the University of Cincinnati was awesome, as always.  We encountered a steady stream of students willing to ask the typical questions and thoughtfully consider the case against abortion.  Time after time, students told us, “That really makes sense” and “I can see your point.”

This will be our last GAP for the 2011-2013 academic year, and I have to telly ou that the cupboard is empty.  I already have invitations for the Fall, but can I keep them.  Only you can decide.  When you support us, we can visit the largest and most influential universities.  Say YES to pro-life students by supporting their work … Click here.

CBR Volunteer Bryan McKinney speaks to a group of students.

Day 1 of the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) at Ohio State University (OSU) is in the books!  Great day with awesome opportunities to share the pro-life message.  Several students told us that they could not rebut our arguments and would seriously consider changing their minds.

One international student said he wanted to go back to his homeland and change minds there  (name of country withheld intentionally).

Many pro-life students and faculty members approached us and thanked us for coming!

Awesome day!  More to come!

Marie Bastone is one of our favorite GAP volunteers. Here she is at the University of Massachusetts.

Marie Bastone, one of our favorite GAP volunteers, e-mailed me about her experience at UConn and UMass.

I had a stimulating & challenging 4 days with GAP.  UConn s were out vigorously protesting the display with some students coming quietly to say that appreciated that we were there.  The next 2 days at UMass at Lowell almost made the gang at UConn look like lambs.

On the morning of Day 2 at UMass, one Asian student very, very respectfully and humbly came to say that he was a pro-life,  pre-med major who volunteered at a nursing and pediatric clinic.  He said he had thought hard about the pictures and their message and took it home with him the previous night.   This morning,  asking his peers to listen to what he had to say, he got down on his knees and begged us to please take down the pictures, because they had hurt one female student who had been sexually assaulted.  The kids cheered.

In response, Frank Diorio got down on his knees and beautifully and eloquently begged this young man to consider how the pictures save lives.  This student listened with his head down, eyes closed and nodded quietly …

I can almost hear Frank telling this young man how a second assault (abortion) can never undo the first one.  Many women who are raped and then abort will tell you that they now regret their abortions, and that healing from the abortion was more difficult than healing from the rape.  This is because they had no control over the rape, but the abortion was an act of barbarity that they themselves consented to.  Marie went on …

I myself had some serious exchanges with students.  The funny thing is that the ones who were most hostile and resistant were the ones who kept coming back, both days and both morning and afternoon.  There was some intense emotional shouting and rage.  It was interesting, and, as always, a privilege.

Actually, Marie, the privilege is ours.  We can’t wait to do it with you.  For those who can’t come do this in person, why not help another way?  Would you be willing to support this work at $100/month, $50/month, or $25/month?  Whatever you can do will make a huge difference in the lives of mothers and children.

CBR volunteer April Pearson explains how perpetrators of injustice always frame their arguments in the language of "choice."

CBR’s Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) made it’s first appearance at the University of Missouri (Mizzou) last week.  Story here.

Students for Life member Teresa Fricke explained why they wanted us to bring GAP to Mizzou:

The reason we are doing this [on] campus is because on a given day, there could be 140 pregnant women who are on the border [about] whether to abort their baby or not, according to the numbers we have seen.

CBR volunteer April Pearson describes a conversation with a couple who could face that question at any time:

The couple both agreed that they would consider abortion if they found out tomorrow that they were expecting.  After discussing abortion with them for a long time, the young man told me, “I don’t know if I agree with everything here, but you’ve definitely changed my mind.  I think I’d want us to adopt now instead of abort.”  His girlfriend said, “I’ve always seen this kind of thing (pro-life viewpoint/activism) as pushy, but this has been really different.  You’ve made me think a lot, and I’ve appreciated talking with you.” 

MU student Brianna Blackmon supported the message of GAP:

I believe the comparison between the abortion and KKK and Nazi Germany is valid because murder is murder.

 Medical student Robby Jones disagreed, according to The Maneater, the student newspaper:

MU medical student Robby Jones said he hates the pro-abortion rights and anti-abortion rights dichotomy in the first place, but said he is pro-abortion rights because people in desperate situations will seek abortions whether they are medically accessible or not.

Using that logic, if somebody is desperate to get his cotton picked, then slavery should be legal.  Not only should it be legal for the guy with the unpicked-cotton crisis, but for anybody.

A crowd gathers at the University of Massachusetts as Bryan McKinney (blue baseball cap) explains how the systematic killing of 1.2 million unwanted preborn children every year amounts to genocide.

The Spring 2012 I-95 Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) tour made its final stop last week at the University of Massachusetts (UMass).  We are indebted to Bill Cotter of Operation Rescue: Boston for filing this report:

Students wandered by all day, with a dozen to as many as fifty students gathered at any one time to look at the posters and debate with the GAP staffers.

Reason was in recession while conditioned reflex responses abounded: “What about rape?” “What if the woman lives in poverty?” “It’s not genocide!” “Perverts!”

Sometimes it bordered on the hysterical. “It’s not 24 weeks!” shrieked one woman in response to a poster of a 24-week abortion. Meaning what? That an older (or younger) abortion would not be OK? Why? Why not?

While the insults and hyper-emotional defenses of abortion suggest a society on its last legs (which may be true) they may also be symptoms of people being redeemed. The strength of the GAP exhibit can be summed up in one word: truth.  And truth is more than facts.  Truth is a Person … a victorious, conquered-sin-and-death Person … who has been known to incite shrieks and hysteria in people afflicted with Darkness.

When the exhibit is long gone from the campus, and emotions have quieted, the images will remain burned into the minds of observers, relentlessly bringing to light the self-evident truth about our national sin. The blessed ones will yield to that truth. The rest will remain at war.

GAP display and RCC truck at UConn. The RCC truck helps project the message to all corners of campus and into the surrounding community.

Our I-95 GAP tour continues this week in Connecticut and Massachusetts.  On Monday and Tuesday, we were at the University of Connecticut (UConn).  Kudos to CBR Maine Director Leslie Sneddon for setting up this phase of the tour and CBR Midwest Director Darius Hardwick for bringing the display and several volunteers.

Day 1 was uneventful, except for the normal pro-abortion angst that we were exposing their deeds.

But on Day 2, several protesters showed up and attempted to stop our team from setting up.  The UConn Administration refused to give in to thuggish behavior and required the protesters to move aside so that our space reservation could be honored.  All moved to adjacent space except two, and those two were arrested.  Story here and here and here (good video) and here and here and here.

Now, on to the University of Massachusetts!

Pro-abort protesters attempt to block GAP at UConn on Day 2.

GAP at the University of Maine

Lots of media coverage at the University of Maine (UM) and the University of Southern Maine (USM).

The Maine Campus:

• SWA addresses GSS to voice concern over planned protest
• Video: Anti-abortion group Genocide Awareness Project riles emotions at UMaine
• Editorial: GAP gore fest brings out worst for all involved
• Op-ed: GAP’s avowal of abortion as genocide utterly unfounded
• You hurt your own cause: An open letter to the Genocide Awareness Project
• Columnist: GAP’s hyperbolic crusade against women warrants only contempt

Bangor Daily News:

• Anti-abortion demonstrators, gay marriage opponents bring messages to University of Maine

WLBZ TV (Bangor)

• Students talk abortion at U-Maine

USM Free Press

• Anti-abortion group coming to Portland campus Wednesday and Thursday
• Anti-abortion display raises hackles on campus
• Kelley: Anti-abortion agitators ignite a different debate

WCSH TV (Portland)

• Abortion protest stirs strong emotions at USM (very well-done)

WGME TV (Portland)

• Anti-Abortion exhibit set up at USM

Portland Daily Sun

• Anti-abortion mural exhibit triggers USM student reaction
• Anti-abortion exhibit stirs emotions, elicits student reaction at USM
• USM students urge ‘compassion, civility’ in face of anti-abortion installation

In the online comments on the Bangor Daily News website (on the story about our GAP at the U of Maine), I was conversing with ChuckGG about the project and related issues.  Suddenly and with no warning, the Bangor Daily News closed the comments.  So, I’m stuck here with my reply to ChuckGG’s most recent comment, and only my own website to post it.  ChuckGG, if  you are still out there in cyberspace, this post is for you:

ChuckGG, thank you for your thoughtful reply.  I appreciate the opportunity for rational discussion.

I need to make several points, and I guess the best way is to list them, one by one.

Please don’t think I oppose sex education in schools.  There is no virtue in ignorance.  But as a parent and a citizen, I am concerned about who will deliver the educational programs and what the message will be.

I absolutely believe that sex education programs should emphasize and encourage abstinence, even though we know some will have sex anyway.  The NCHS reports that 68% of boys and 67% of girls between the ages of 15 and 17 have never had sexual intercourse.  That number is lower than I’d like to see, but I would hardly call it “rare.”  I can’t really comment on the difference between your high school and the neighboring schools.  That’s anecdotal.  A friend of mine introduced “Sex Respect” in Rhea County, Tennessee a few years ago and the result was a 75% decrease in teen pregnancies.

Yes, the proper use of birth control techniques will reduce the numbers of pregnancies.  The effect of sex education is a bit harder to measure.  If your sex education program has the tendency of dramatically increasing sexual activity, then you might well see an overall increase in pregnancies, even as the use of birth control increases.  As evidence for the existence of unintended consequences, I offered a 2011 paper by Peter Arcidiancono (Duke University), Ahmed Khwaja (Yale University) and Lijing Ouyang (Centers for Disease Control).  They concluded, “Programs that increase access to contraception are found to decrease teen pregnancies in the short run but increase teen pregnancies in the long run.”   (Source)

I also offered the experience of Carol Everett, who was allowed to deliver sex education in several Texas schools.  The result of her “education” program was to increase pregnancy rates by 50%.  A key factor was increasing the frequency at which the children were having sex.  She was delivering her “education” program in full view and with the approval of school authorities who, no doubt, were convinced that her programs were decreasing teen pregnancies.

Sex education in schools?  Yes.  Hand out contraceptives in school?  No.  Invite the abortion industry (e.g., Planned Parenthood) into the schools to deliver sex education programs?  No way!

We got onto this topic because so many commenters suggest that if we want to get rid of abortions, just hand out free birth control and preach their use.  That way (they say) we would never have to talk about abortion again.  I must reject that suggestion for a number of reasons.

1. It won’t eliminate abortions.  The Alan Guttmacher Institute reports that 54% of abortions are performed on women who were using birth control in the month they got pregnant.  It might reduce abortion some, but it won’t eliminate it.  And our goal is not to reduce the numbers of abortions, our goal is to get rid of the whole bloody mess, because every abortion takes the life of a living human being.
2. I can never encourage somebody to do something that I know to be dangerous, even potentially deadly.  If I encourage people to use condoms and leave them with the belief that by using the condom, they can safely have sex with the next guy that comes along, and to do it repeatedly, then I have encouraged them to engage in reckless behaviors that will possibly result in a deadly STD.  Condoms fail to prevent pregnancy at an annual cummulative rate of 2% to %15%.  The failure to protect against STDs has to be even higher.  Condoms provide almost no protection against the spread of HPV, the virus that causes cervical cancer.

I note that you and I are about the same age.  Remember when we were growing up, there were really only two STDs that anybody worried about.  It had been that way for centuries.  Now, I’m told there are more than 25.  The Associated Press reports that 1 in 4 teen girls has at least one.  What changed?  More contraceptives?  More Planned-Parenthood-style sex education?  More reckless and deadly behaviors?  Yes, yes, and yes. Of course I don’t oppose truthful education, but I do oppose encouraging teenagers to engage in reckless and self-destructive behaviors.

The Good: George Mason University (GMU) earns an A for handling a number of competing interests in conjunction with our visit earlier this week.  The Bad: We are not happy that it has taken 8 months for Students for Life to become registered as a student group, so that they can enjoy the same rights as other groups on campus.  The Ugly: Because the Students for Life group wasn’t allowed to even discuss event planning for the past 8 months, a conflict was created that could have been avoided.

Organizing a Student Group.  At GMU, recognized student groups can do things that individuals and non-recognized groups can’t do, such as reserve space, host events, etc.  It’s a big deal.  Recognition requires that the students find a faculty sponsor (i.e., a university employee) to sanction their club.  If you can’t find a sponsor from the eligible pool of university employees, you have fewer rights (unless you are willing to challenge the system in court, which we would do if we had to).

Finding a leftist professor is easy.  Although liberals comprise only 20% of the American population, they are 72% of all college professors.  Finding a conservative professor is much harder, especially one that has tenure and isn’t job-scared.

This whole system can create a burden that would never survive a judicial review.  How could any attorney argue that the university doesn’t discriminate against conservative students, it’s the university employees (i.e., the faculty) who discriminate, and the university can’t be held accountable for the actions of their employees!  It would never fly, but how many students really understand how to fight back?

Because the Students for Life couldn’t get registered, they couldn’t even talk to event planning staff about planning GAP, reserving space, or anything else.  Finally, as the end of the school year approached, we were out of options.  We chose a date and notified GMU that we had been invited by students, registered or not, and we were determined to accept.

Space assigned. After receiving our letter, GMU assigned us a location on Central Johnson Plaza to erect the GAP display.  The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered and Questioning (LGBTQ) group had reserved East Johnson Plaza (a better space) for Pride Week 2012 activities, which is fine.  It is common for concurrent activities to share the East Plaza, but the LGBTQ group had reserved the entire East Plaza for their exclusive use, so we were offered the next-most desirable space, which was still visible to most passersby.  (See map below.)

However, the LGBTQ group was none too happy that the pro-life students had been granted space within view of East Plaza.  They needed only part of East Plaza for their activity, but they wanted everything in sight.  We absolutely respect the right of any student group to reserve space for whatever activity they would like to hold, but one group of students shouldn’t be able to reserve their own space and also reserve away everybody else’s rights.

First Amendment good for all. Meanwhile, the Patriots for Choice student group, who came out to protest GAP, were initially assigned space way down on the West Plaza, which might as well have been on another planet.  We lobbied for them to be granted better space.  For the First Amendment to mean anything, it belongs to all of us, so we must defend that freedom for even our fiercest foe.  Eventually, GMU officials allowed the pro-abortion students to move up to a better location.  In fact, they occupied space on the East Plaza, previously reserved by the LGBTQ group.  Seems they are allied in opposition to the pro-lifers.  We welcomed that move.

Sound. On Day 2, we would like to have set up our sound equipment for Open Mike.  This GAP kiosk allows anybody to pose a question to CBR and hear the answer.  Speakers amplify the sound for any crowd that might gather.  Unfortunately, amplified sound tends to disregard space reservations and just fly all over the place.  Being good citizens, we didn’t believe we could broadcast sound that might interfere with the prior reservation held by the LGBTQ group, so we decided not to do it.  We hope that we can return for an Open Mike session during a future Choice Chain event.

What the parties needed, reserved, wanted, and got.

GAP on the Mall at the University of Maine

GAP continues this week in the key state of Maine.  On April 9-10, GAP is at the University of Maine at Orono (UMO).  Coverage by UMO’s student newspaper, The Maine Campus.  Quote from the article:

Amanda Rivers, a second-year social work major, walked out of a morning class and saw the display.

“I’m so glad that they’re here,” she said.

Rivers said she always knew she was pro-life but didn’t understand the extent of her commitment to that mindset until she saw the photos, which she described as “graphic.”

“I came out of class and just did the walk around and honestly started crying,” she said.

Her views on abortion were cemented after she spoke with a GAP protester, and she said she doesn’t believe there are any circumstances in which abortion is a moral decision. She now describes herself as firmly anti-abortion.

“I am now. One-hundred percent,” she said.

She said she understands why the group of students gathered around Hardwick to argue with him. …

Full article here.  Please add your comments online!

George Mason hosts graphic abortion photo wall

Lots of media coverage at George Mason University (GMU) and Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU).

The Washington Post:

• George Mason hosts graphic abortion photo wall 

The Broadside at George Mason University:

• Abortion protest stirs controversy
• Freedom of speech only stretches so far

The Commonwealth Times at Virginia Commonwealth University:

• Graphic images draw criticism from students
• Anti-abortion protesters display, emanate negative values

WTVR-TV in Richmond:

• Students, group hold abortion rallies on VCU campus

.

A crowd gathers at George Mason University

We’re way behind in reporting on our continuing I-95 GAP tour!  It will take weeks to catch up!

The second day of GAP at George Mason University (GMU) was a huge success.  One GMU administrator told us that he had never seen so many people engaged in serious discussion as he observed on the Johnson Plaza in front of our GAP display.

Lily Bolourian, president of Patriots for Choice, was quoted in the paper as saying, “We believe that the whole notion that abortion is genocide is absolutely ludicrous.”  She is, of course, correct … if the preborn child is anything less than a living human being.  The problem for her side is that medical school textbooks, embryologists, and pro-choice philosophers all agree that the preborn child is a living human being.  That means we are killing 1.2 million human beings every year.  What else would she call it?

I had a productive (I think) discussion with Ms. Bolourian.  We actually share a lot in common.  We both want to live justly with our fellow man.   She is just confused about who her fellow man is.  We shouldn’t be too harsh in our judgment on that point; George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and even George Mason himself were similarly confused.  They excluded human beings on the basis of skin color.  Because if it, millions of people had their lives stolen from them.

When Ms. Bolourian brought up the breast cancer link, I was able to show her the latest compilation of studies that address the link.  It is true that some studies have failed to show this link to be statistically significant, but because of my background in experimental statistics (PhD minor), I could explain the difference between (a) failing to show that two populations are different at a statistically significant level and (b) actually proving that they are the same.  I was able to explain that if abortion increases a woman’s chance of breast cancer from an ambient level of 10% to an after-abortion level of 13%, we can estimate that 300,000 women have died from abortion-induced breast cancer since Roe v. Wade (source).

Ms. Bolourian thanked me for the kind of dialogue we were able to have.  She thought respectful dialogue to be a rare commodity between our two sides.  She said that’s why they encouraged their members not to engage with us.  I said, “You mean you told your people not to come and talk to me?”  She admitted that she had.  I replied, “Looks like you broke your own rule!”  We had to laugh as we parted ways.