Eric Holloway of Alexandria, VA (in sports-coat), a local 40 Days for Life coordinator, took time off work to help rescue babies and their moms (and dads). Johanna Young, Silent No More advocate and GMU Students for Life officer, stands in the background with a sign that says “I regret my abortion.”

GAP was such a draw at George Mason University (GAP), even Old Man Winter came out to see it!  He brought freezing temperatures, rain, snow, and winds gusting at more than 20 mph.  Yuck.  He made it hard to stand outside for very long, but we were determined to expose abortion in all its grisly reality.

Assisted by a dozen local volunteers, we endured miserable weather for three straight days (March 24- 26), too thrilled to be striking a blow on behalf of the preborn to worry about physical discomfort.  (OK, the Day 1 photo at right doesn’t look so bad, but it was very cold.  And it got much colder, rainier, snowier, and windier over the next 2 days.)

As always happens when GAP comes to town, the campus was saturated with literature, and conversations on the ethics of abortion could be heard continuously in the area surrounding the display and in classrooms all over.  CBR’s truth truck circled the campus, ensuring that no student could miss the message.

GAP prompts thought like nothing else can.  People who otherwise never think about abortion are forced to confront the issue and try to reason out what they think of decapitating and dismembering little human beings.  With the image of abortion’s helpless victims staring them right in the face, it is hard to argue for the primacy of “choice”.  Of course, this doesn’t stop many from trying.

About 10 or so pro-abortion protesters showed up with their own signs to “refute” the logic of the GAP display.  Their presence always works to our advantage.  Where else do we get the chance to engage hard-core pro-aborts, on our terms, for a protracted period of time?  The enthusiasm of many young abortion supporters tends to wane under continuous exposure to powerful pro-life arguments.

And no argument is more powerful than the picture of a little human being who has been decapitated and dismembered.

[Story submitted by Jonathan Darnel of CBR Maryland.]

Jonathan Darnel practicing what he preaches.

Guest column by Jonathan Darnel, Project Director for the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform (CBR) Maryland Operations.  This originally appeared as an online comment to a piece by Gerald Nadal on LifeSiteNews.com.  Dr. Nadal’s piece was in response to a hit piece against the pro-life movement written by Elizabeth Jahr.

Does the March for Life advance or impede the Pro Life Movement?
by Jonathan Darnel

I’m afraid neither Ms. Jahr nor Mr. Nadal is right.  Mr. Nadal has adequately refuted Ms. Jahr in this article, but his belief that the March for Life (MFL) motivates pro-lifers to fight abortion is false.  Rather, the MFL convinces most pro-lifers that all they need to do is march once a year, and spend the rest of the year pursuing their normal lives.

Don’t believe me?  I can prove it.  According to Mr. Nadal, last year’s MFL attracted 600,000 marchers. According to AbortionDocs.com, there are fewer than 800 abortion clinics in America.  Do the arithmetic: 600,000 pro-life marchers divided by 800 abortion clinics equals 750 marches per clinic.  Tell me, are there 750 people targeting each abortion clinic in America?  Are there even 100?  What is the average number of people you see standing outside an abortion clinic on a Saturday morning?

Ask any random pro-life person what they are doing to end abortion and you will hear them say, “I pray, I vote, and I attend the MFL.”  Maybe their church gives a pittance to a nearby crisis pregnancy center.  This is the sum of their dedication.  And they think it’s enough?  Outrageous!  I know plenty of abortion clinics located mere blocks from a Christian church or high school, and nobody seems to notice or care.  It’s the same for both Catholic and Protestant churches.  It is absolutely terrible.

Instead of one large march which gets zero media coverage, we should be conducting thousands of local marches, and maintaining persistent, year-long vigils outside very clinic, every abortionist’s home, every government building, every college campus, and every busy city intersection.  As long as we can do more, we should.  Few of life’s pursuits are more important than ending this wicked Holocaust.

When I attend the MFL, I go there with large banners decrying Christian apathy and calling on marchers to get serious or go home.  Marching once a year is not enough.  It is an insult to the lives we supposedly are there to defend.

CBR Maryland has launched a new project called Run2TheBattle (link here), which aims to help Christians realize that marching once a year is not enough to end the abortion holocaust, and that kids are dying because barely anyone is fighting to save them.  Several other groups around the country are also doing this.  It’s about time.  40 years of apathy is just too long.

Here’s a photo of Jonathan Darnel displaying one of CBR’s GAP signs in the DC metro area.  This was at the Ballston Metro stop.  Your gift of $200 will purchase another sign!

Jonathan Darnel at Ballston metro stop in DC area.

GAP sign at the Christmas Parade in Fredericksburg, Va. (All you Tennessee fans will note the Power T's in the background.)

CBR volunteer and pro-life activist Jonathan Darnel put abortion on display at the Christmas Parade in Fredericksburg, Va. on December 4.

A pro-life mother was escorting about 8 boys (members of a little league team), each between 9-11 years of age.  The kids were shocked to see what an abortion looked like, and expressed concern both for the unborn and born victim depicted on the sign.  They asked, “Why did the parents do something like that?”

We can answer that question with two words: ignorance and selfishness.  Some parents abort because they don’t know that the preborn child really is a baby, even in the first trimester.  That’s why our pictures are so important.  Others abort because they are selfish and don’t care.  Our pictures are not nearly so effective with such people.

You too can order GAP signs and also “Choice” signs from CBR and put them on display in your own community!

When Anna speaks, students take notes.

This is how pro-life activism on campus should work.  For a few hours every week, pro-life student Anna Maher takes an abortion photo out into the center of campus at George Mason University (GMU).  She works with Jonathan Darnel, CBR volunteer and pro-life activist in the DC area.  Anna e-mailed me recently:

[We] have started to do Pro-Life outreach every Monday (and now Friday) at GMU, in the center of campus. We usually have a big sign with graphics, or a message, and ask passers-by what they think.  Let me tell you…it is moving…truly the best part of my week.  Through this outreach I have gained several emails, of mostly GMU students, who are willing to give their support.  I e-mail them every week and let them know of outreach at GMU and of the status of Students For Life …

Pray that God uses her to help me open doors; for my resources are quickly running dry.  Please, Please PRAY! …

Find some time to relax during this special Christmas season and remember who started this all: the Lord Jesus Christ!  Thank you for all you do, and for finding me at GMU last summer.  This has all changed my life.

The future of the pro-life movement.  Anna is saving babies and moms at GMU, but God is at work in her life as well.  I thank Him for young people like Anna.  She will play a key part in overturning Roe v Wade.

Pro-life at GMU on the rise!  A few days after sending this e-mail, Anna called to say that she had found a new faculty sponsor for GMU Students for Life (SFL).  CBR actually started the GMU SFL back in 2003, but the leadership waned and the faculty advisor retired, so there hadn’t been any pro-life activism in a couple of years.  Until now.  It looks like we are back on track at GMU.  This is all part of our strategy to elevate pro-life activism in important swing states like Virginia.

No discrimination against pro-life students is allowed.  The faculty sponsor is important because the rules generally mandate that a student group find one as a condition of “recognition” (i.e., equal access to university facilities).  However, whether the university administrators realize it or not, the courts would never allow such rules to deny equal access for unpopular groups who simply cannot find a faculty sponsor.  Such policies, as written, give university employees (i.e., faculty members) veto power over free speech and equal access.  Even Clinton appointees wouldn’t allow that kind of discrmination.  And we’ll be happy to prove it in court, if it ever comes to that.

Anna Maher reaches students at George Mason University with a GAP sign provided by CBR.