This Liberty student is hungry … but, for what? His answer may not be as creepy as it seems.  Read on to find out why.

by Nicole W. Cooley

I got my first collegiate baseball cap at Liberty University in August 2011.

But at Liberty, we weren’t actually on the campus.  Despite requests by Student Government and CBR, the Liberty Administration repeatedly denied permission for our GAP display.  First Amendment rights don’t exist at private schools.

That is very creepy, I thought.  But then I saw the fine print at the bottom of his sign.

But we came anyway.  We used the streets, sidewalks, and public spaces just off campus.  We displayed GAP signs at the campus entrances and drove Truth Trucks around the perimeter of campus.  Five Truth Trucks.  For an entire week.

I lost count how many times students asked me, “Why are you here?  Everyone at Liberty is pro-life already.  Why don’t you go somewhere else?”  Many were annoyed at our presence.

Over and over I replied, “I’m so glad you are pro-life.  What are you doing about it?  Do you vote pro-life?  Do you sidewalk counsel outside of abortion clinics?  We’re here because you are attending the largest Christian university in the United States.  If we can’t get Christians to care about abortion, we have no hope of ending it.”

One conversation stood out.  On the fourth day, a young man came up to me in tears.  “Why are you doing this?  I can’t get those pictures out of my head!”

I gently replied to him in the same way as I did the others, “We had to break your heart about abortion – otherwise you’d continue in ignorant apathy like the rest of America.”

On the last day at Liberty, we finally got a protester … or so I thought.  A student stood along the side of the road with his sign which read, “Looking at dead babies just makes me hungry.”

That is very creepy, I thought.  But then I saw the fine print at the bottom of his sign, “…for change.”  Because he saw the pictures, he was hungry for change.

Amen!  So are we.

Nicole Cooley is a CBR project director and a FAB contributor.  This is the second in a series of “hat blogs” about memorable conversations gleaned from her experiences with GAP.

This public space near the bookstore allowed CBR to overcome the Liberty University’s censorship of the pro-life message.

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by Nicole W. Cooley

At the Shenandoah Valley Soap Box Derby, a complete stranger asked, “Did you go to Tennessee?”

He seemed really excited about my orange Tennessee hat.  I hated to disappoint him, but “No, my boss did.”

Furrowed eyebrows.

I continued, “I am a pro-life activist.  We travel all over the country with our Genocide Awareness Project (GAP), and I always get a hat from each campus.”

Who knew a simple baseball cap could spark a conversation about abortion with a complete stranger?

… he carefully dismantled each [fallacy] in a patient way, not acting superior, but as if he were merely suggesting another way to look at it.

I’ve been a collector all my life.  I collected Longaberger baskets for years.  I still buy a new basket on occasion, but at over 200 baskets, I’m pretty satisfied there.

As a child, I collected rocks from the different places we lived.  We were a military family that traveled all over the world, so I have lots of rocks, including some neat limestone from England and large round rocks from a beach in Scotland.

But of all my collections, my current one is the most meaningful to me.  You see, every hat has a story.

At the University of Tennessee, I spoke at length with a student who used to be pro-life, but changed her mind in college.  Veteran pro-life apologist Mick Hunt took the lead.  I call him “the philosopher” because he’s great at talking with students who are wrestling with higher-level questions.  Her struggles centered around “bodily autonomy” arguments like the “famous violinist” who could be saved by an unwilling kidney donor.  We sat on the grassy knoll across from the display for over an hour.

Mick gently explained how a mother’s relationship to her own child is different from a person being forced to offer his kidney to a complete stranger.  I took note of his probing questions to specifically identify the fallacies in her thinking.  I also saw how he carefully dismantled each one in a patient way, not acting superior, but as if he were merely suggesting another way to look at it.

I’m not sure if that young lady is pro-life today or not. But, I do know she must have wrestled with the things we talked about for some time.  Most people are not solidly pro-life without having first wrestled a bit.

For most people, being pro-life or pro-abortion is a continuum; few are truly 100% pro-life or pro-abortion.  Most get hung up somewhere along the line because of those pesky “exceptions” to the rules.  They struggle with the idea of telling a rape victim she should carry to term or with preventing abortion in the case of fetal abnormalities.  That’s why GAP is such a great tool for college campuses.  We help students wrestle with the hard questions.  We challenge the status quo of their own opinions.  We put pebbles in their shoes and force them to think.

After watching Mick Hunt at work, I vowed to be ready next time.  I went home and studied the bodily autonomy arguments in depth.  At the next GAP, I would be ready to plant a few pebbles of my own.

Nicole Cooley is a CBR project director and a new FAB contributor.  This is the first in a series of “hat blogs” about memorable conversations gleaned from her experiences with GAP.

CBR volunteer, supporter, and presumed woman-hater Ruby Nicdao shows pro-aborts and passersby what is being chosen. (photo from GAYRVA.com)

Annually, a consortium of pro-life and pro-family organizations from across the Commonwealth of Virginia hold a Rally for Life near the Capitol.  This year, however, the actual purpose for the Rally was revealed when CBR Virginia brought a set of “Choice” signs (3-ft by 4-ft abortion photos) to display at the event.  CBR Project Director Nicole Cooley positioned her team where they could be seen by three different audiences: Rally attendees, pro-abortion protesters, and passersby.

“I don’t know what is more inspiring, listenting to the speakers at the Rally or watching your witness to the pro-aborts.”

After setting up “Choice” signs, the CBR team was joined by a number of Rally attenedees who had brought their own signs to the event.

Also nearby was a group of 30 pro-aborts had come to protest the Rally.  Their signs were the usual silly stuff, e.g., [Virginia Attorney General Ken] Cuccinelli “hates women,” etc.  However, on this day, their wrath against pro-lifers was muted to a great extent, compared to previous outbursts.  Three reasons:

1. the pictures of abortion,
2. the sight of two CBR ladies wearing sweatshirts that said “I regreat my abortion,” and
3. the presence of a CBR security videographer who was filming the CBR team at all times, making it clear that any pro-abort initiating a violent confrontation against peaceful pro-lifers would be held accountable for unlawful acts.

One of the Rally attendees walked over to Nicole and remarked, “I don’t know what is more inspiring, listenting to the speakers at the Rally or watching your witness to the pro-aborts.”

Nicole was quoted by GAYRVA.com: “I was raped when I was 23 years old and chose to have an abortion and found out the hard way that abortion doesn’t help anyone, least of all rape victims, overcome assault. It just compounded the trauma for me and made healing from both events much more difficult.”

Link to GAYRVA.com story here.

To support pro-life activism in Virginia, click here and select either of these options:

• Virginia Projects (SE-NWC) (Nicole Cooley), or
• Virginia Projects (SE-MTE) (Maggie Egger)

Nicole is interviewed by WUSA news anchor Peggy Fox.

CBR’s Key States Initiative (KSI) was the lead story on WUSA-TV in Washington, DC on Monday night.  Virginia Project Director (and truck-driver extraordinaire) Nicole Cooley was interviewed on-camera by news anchor Peggy Fox.  It was the lead story on the evening news!  Links:

• News Story on WUSA-TV (awesome video)
• Text version (same video)
• WUSA-TV Facebook Page (130+ comments so far)
• Photo of truck on Twitter page

Nicole gave an excellent interview.  WUSA highlighted some of the comments on their Facebook page.  Amanda Reyes wrote:

I don’t want my children seeing this.

But Claire Lauderdale Gardner said:

These pro-lifers are showing the truth of what abortion does.  It is tough to explain to kids because it is the gruesome murder of an unborn baby.  And most kids git that it’s killing a baby no matter what a parent’s views are.

Another story popped up on our KSI trucks in Iowa.

News coverage helps expand our audience and bring more people to our website.

Nicole Cooley is Silent No More on the steps of the US Supreme Court. See video below.

Nicole Cooley testified about her story of rape and abortion on the steps of the US Supreme Court building at the 2012 March for Life.  Nicole is the Virginia Project Director for the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform (CBR).

A video of Nicole’s remarks is shown below.  Here is the text:

I am here today because I deeply regret the abortion I had four weeks after being raped.  There is no good reason to have an abortion.  All the logical reasons fail to keep your heart from breaking when it’s over.

If, like me, you were raped, and you think you can’t bear nine months of pregnancy, I can tell you from experience the seventeen years of regret have been worse.  I realized too late that my baby was a gift from a loving God who wanted to give me a purpose for my pain.

I want women facing this decision to know you can carry to term; you can choose the adoptive parents, and set your own terms, if you wish.  You can live without the tears, the regret, and the nights of despair – or worse.

The abortion clinic I went to provided no verbal counseling and instead gave me a handful of papers with words I couldn’t read through my tears and shaking.  The anesthesiologist told me, “It will be over soon.”  She was wrong.   The abortion was the beginning of the real nightmare for me.

I had no idea how the abortion would affect me.  The abortion made healing from the rape infinitely more difficult by compounding the trauma.  Before the abortion I cried daily.  Afterwards, I shut down emotionally.

The rape and abortion made my life a living hell.  I had nightmares beginning the night of the rape.  Countless nights, I have woken up crying.  The anguished tears I have cried are unlike any other despair I’ve ever experienced, including the death of close family members.

The rape and abortion crushed my spirit.  Abortion robbed me not only of my joy, but also the essence of who I am by making me turn against my own child.

Since the rape and abortion, it has been very difficult for me to trust men.  I am only married today because God sent me an incredibly gentle and patient man.  I have difficulty trusting doctors.  Annual exams are often stressful and painful.  The subsequent births of my sons and daughter with my husband have been very difficult because of an unnatural fear of pregnancy and childbirth.

Abortion is not the answer for rape.  It never was.  But God is the answer for the pain.  My faith in Jesus Christ has not only healed me, but given me the courage to speak out and provided a purpose to all that I have suffered.  This is why I choose to be Silent No More!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0qtwb1e4E0

Nicole Cooley speaks with a student at Liberty University.

Nicole Cooley, CBR’s Virginia Project Director, spoke to the pro-life student group at Liberty University last night.  She described her experience with rape and abortion and spent another hour answering questions and speaking with students.

One student wanted to know how to help his girlfriend, who is post-abortive from a previous relationship.

Another student wanted to know about our use of pictures at the entrances to the campus back in August.  He asked how Christians can do more to end abortion, which is exactly the question we hoped to stimulate with our GAP appearance.  Nicole stressed that if we can’t get Christians to care about abortion, we have no hope of ever ending it.

She also spoke to the  issue of how Christian women can feel pressured to abort if they are condemned and punished for getting pregnant out of wedlock.  Notice that men never have to face this.  The irony here is that the sexual revolution was sold to America as an emancipator of women.  In practice, women are pressured to have sex.  Women become pregnant.  Women are threatened with expulsion from school.  In many cases, women bear the more severe symptoms of STDs.  “Men” get sex without responsibility and then they try to transfer their own guilt to the mothers of their own children by saying, “It’s a women’s issue.”  Yeah, right.

Pro-life students told Nicole that we had a huge impact on Liberty when we brought GAP early this semester.  Students were talking about abortion a lot for a month after we were there, and they still talk about it now, months later.  Even though many of them were angry at us, we still succeeded in making abortion a significant and ongoing topic of discussion on campus.  Mission accomplished.

We agree with Martin Luther King.  We don’t care what people think about us; we care what they think about injustice.  Read my letter to Liberty University here.

Nicole Cooley

CBR Virginia Director Nicole Cooley is a frequent speaker on the subject of abortion and rape.  She can tell you from her own experience that abortion does not help the victim of rape, it only compounds the trauma from one act of violence with another.

Nicole asks  you to pray for “Kathy,” another victim of rape who was deceived into having an abortion.  Working undercover for the police, Kathy was brutally gang-raped.  Later, after recovering from her extensive injuries in the hospital, she discovered she was also pregnant.  She aborted at 7 weeks, which, according to Kathy, “made everything so much worse.”   She told Nicole, “I am no better than the thugs I tried to put in jail.”  The combination of traumas created a cocktail of deadly emotions.  Like Nicole, Kathy has learned the hard way that abortion doesn’t help rape victims.  Instead it makes healing from both traumas infinitely more difficult.

Kathy was recently admitted to the hospital, where she is in critical condition because she staved herself down to 65 pounds, hoping to kill herself.  She has damaged her heart and kidneys but the doctors are working now to treat her.  In fact, she has already gained 5 pounds, which is good news.

Please pray for Kathy and other post-abortive women who desperately need healing from their abortion traumas.  Post-abortion trauma is real.  And avoidable.   Please help us educate more women (and men) so others can avoid the trauma of abortion in the first place.  Your gift will save women like Kathy.

Please pray for Kathy’s medical team and for Nicole, as she ministers to Kathy’s spirit.

Nicole Cooley

So many students we meet on campus are really hurting.  Most of us have no idea what some of these folks have been put through.  This story is from Nicole Cooley, our Virginia Project Director.  She encountered a student on a recent GAP excursion.  We are changing his name and withholding the name of the school.

A desperate need for healing.

Stewart approached our poll table and declared his belief that abortion should remain legal.  Standing next to a large visual exhibit comparing abortion to other forms of historical genocide, I asked Stewart why he felt that way.

At first, he told me he was a “Darwinian Christian” and said that a person’s inner strength is vitally important.  We explored his views for quite a while as I struggled to understand them.  He admitted to a personal childhood of abuse, and given my own experience with rape, I found a link.

I silently prayed for God to help me reach Stewart and then these words came out:  “Stewart, you don’t believe a woman should have the right to abort her child, you believe an unborn child should have the ability to abort himself.”  He looked at me and the tears began to fall down his face.

He told me, “You don’t understand what I went through … for ten years!”  When I asked him if I could give him a hug, he willingly came into my arms and sobbed while I held him.  I spoke quietly to him until he calmed down and then I looked deep into his eyes.

When he affirmed that he could hear the voice of the Holy Spirit as a born-again believer, I told him how to be healed.  I told him that the only way out of the pit of despair was to allow the “Wonderful Counselor,” Jesus, to peel away the layers one at a time.  I understood that at a moment of trauma, how Satan had lied to him and told him that he would have been better off dead.  That lie, spoken into his subconscious in the midst of abuse, now led him to accept abortion.

I have prayed for Stewart ever since that day and I will never forget him.

CBR Southeast Project Director Nicole Cooley

The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform (CBR), Southeast Region Operations, is pleased to announce the appointment of Nicole Cooley as our newest Project Director, responsible primarily for Virginia projects.

Nicole has been active in pro-life ministry for more than 10 years.  In fact, we first met Nicole when doing our Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) at the University of Louisville in April 2002.  She has publicly shared her story of rape and abortion in both Christian and secular venues, including in the video Choice of a Lifetime, produced by Focus on the Family.  Most recently, her story was featured on the 700 Club, which you can see here.

In her new role, Lord willing, Nicole will be (1) arranging GAPs at the major universities in Virginia, (2) organizing and assisting pro-life campus groups, and (3) working cooperatively with student groups and other pro-lifers in Virginia.

The mother of three boys and one girl on this side of eternity, plus another three in Heaven, Nicole is also a home educator and avid Longaberger Basket collector.  She currently lives with her husband Patrick and family in Churchville, Virginia.  Learn more about her book Into the Light: Rape, Abortion and the Truth that Set Me Free at www.NicoleWCooley.com.

A US Army veteran with 9 years combined active and reserve forces service, Nicole resigned at the rank of Captain to devote herself to her family.  Her husband Patrick is a recently retired Lieutenant Colonel.  His twenty-years of service included two tours in Iraq.  Nicole is very proud of his service and is most grateful to have him home with the family full-time … a most wonderful blessing to all of them!

Welcome aboard, Nicole and all the Cooley’s!