We are thrilled to welcome Cody and Amanda Levi of Knoxville, Tenn. to the CBR family! A newly married couple, they will both be serving as Student Outreach Coordinators, helping college students be more effective pro-life advocates.

Amanda just graduated from Liberty University with a Bachelor’s degree in Law and  Policy. Cody is a graduate of The University of Tennessee with Bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience and Psychology.

Amanda was raised pro-life and has always been passionate about the cause ever since finding out what abortion is and does to little human beings. Cody grew up in Dayton, Tenn., in a family where abortion was never really discussed or even mentioned.

After meeting at the speech and debate club at the University of Tennessee, Cody and Amanda had many conversations centering around the underpinnings of the Christian worldview, which included abortion.  When he understood that abortion violently and intentionally kills an innocent, preborn child, Cody knew that nothing could justify that act of murder.

While at UT, they noticed that there was no pro-life voice on campus, so Amanda and Cody co-founded the Vols for Life to teach students the scientific and philosophical arguments against abortion, so that they could defend the pro-life position more effectively.

Cody’s and Amanda’s goals at CBR are to (1) expose abortion for what it is, and (2) motivate, train, and equip college students to work with CBR to change public opinion in society, because we can never change public policy until we change public opinion.

We are so excited to have Amanda & Cody on our CBR team!

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 peacefully confronts a crowd of 350,000 with the truth. What an honor to bring light to this darkened place! What a tragedy more pro-lifers don’t do it.

FAB is grateful to CBR Maryland Operations for filing this report.

Pro-life activism at it’s best — Artscape 2013

Again this year, CBR rocked the Baltimore art scene to its core with three days of non-consentual, anti-abortion witnessing.  Twenty volunteers helped reveal the truth of child-killing to a crowd of 350,000.  Many of them were willing to see and hear the pro-life message.  Reactions ranged from extremely hostile to enthusiastically supportive.  In fact, four people came out of the crowd and joined our demonstration!

On Friday, a woman who had protested against us last year turned up again, this time with spray paint.  She defaced one of our signs and violently assaulted a volunteer before being apprehended by Baltimore police officers.  There were many more incidents of vitriol and rage, but this was the only physical assault, thanks to the diligence of the Baltimore Police Department.

Two volunteers abandon their plans for the day to help save babies. Will you abandon your plans for the day and help? Whether you hold a sign yourself or buy a sign for somebody else to hold, your contribution saves lives.

Saturday and Sunday gave us greater exposure, as the size and density of the crowd increased.  Our headline banner could be read seen from the other end of the fairway, so we attracted a great deal of attention.  People of all races, ages, and backgrounds passed by to read our messages and see the reality of abortion.  We spoke to Satanists, eugenicists, homosexuals, atheists, Christians, post-abortive women, adopted children, and a self-described socially liberal, gay, pro-life young woman running for state delegate.  The diversity of human emotions and reactions was incredible.

It is often saddening to see how absolutely the pro-abortion narrative dominates people’s thinking, despite their pro-life instincts.  Over and over, they confirm what CBR Executive Director Gregg Cunningham has long said,

When the topic of abortion comes up, the average IQ in the room drops by about 40 points.

People have taught themselves to believe really stupid things about abortion that they don’t … well … things they don’t really believe.

We met several who did not believe late term abortions were performed in Maryland.  The assumption that the world is overpopulated was almost universal.  Few people, even the most intelligent, had a coherent idea of what constitutes a “person,” almost as if they had never considered the question before — which most probably hadn’t.  As always, many had simply never seen what an abortion looks like.

What an honor to bring light to this darkened place!  What a tragedy more pro-lifers don’t do it.

As we departed for the last time Sunday afternoon, a police officer quietly shared with one volunteer that his parents had considered aborting his younger brother, yet chose life instead.  This same brother is now designing satellite systems.  What a testimony!  If only every unborn child were given the same chance!

The pro-life movement cannot afford to overlook opportunities like Artscape.  Everywhere we turn, there are people whose pro-abortion assumptions have never been challenged.  How can we expect to win without converting people to our side?  Babies are being murdered even as you read this.  To save them, we must reach our fellow citizens … where they are … and make them see.  Please help us do it.  There is no time to waste.

Did you see The Alamo (2004), starring Dennis Quaid and Billy Bob Thornton?  Check it out; it’s a great movie.  Thornton’s portrayal of US Congressman David Crockett is stellar.

When the Mexican army arrived on 23 February 1836, the Alamo defenders numbered only 150 men.  Crockett said to Lt. Col. William Travis, “We’re gonna need more men.”  Later, when he stood on the wall and saw that the army surrounding the Alamo was 1500 strong and growing, he revised his estimate, “We’re gonna need a lot more men.”

Pro-life students on campus are outnumbered and surrounded, just like the Texians at the Alamo.  Their enemies are principalities, powers, and rulers of darkness (Ephesians 6:12).  Opposing artillery are lies that Satan uses to destroy children, mothers, and families.  His foot-soldiers are key faculty members and administrators, who themselves have been deceived and victimized.

Armed with truth, pro-life students are fighting back, but they are gonna need a lot more men (and women).  We can’t just abandon them to fend for themselves.  That’s why I’m traveling all over the Southeast this summer, recruiting and hiring new staff.  Our team of project directors will reinforce, equip, train, and help pro-life students to expose the deeds of darkness (Ephesians 5:11) on campus, where it’s needed most.  Link to job announcement here.

That’s where you come in.  Please put me on the road, so I can recruit and train an army of reinforcements.  Unless I go out, we can’t find the reinforcements we need, and pro-life students will have to go it alone.  Please put me on the road with your special gift of $1,000, $500, or even $100.

If you will send me, I will go.  Please send me, because pro-life students are gonna need a lot more men.

BSFL Vice-President Claire Chretien speaks to the media. Successful social reformers use modulated conflict to focus attention on injustice.

Creating and Exploiting Modulated Conflict

Historically, social reformers have not feared conflict.  They embraced conflict, even created it, to focus public attention on injustice.  They did it knowing their actions would invite persecution from a culture that was complicit or complacent about injustice.

The Bama Students for Life (BSFL) are masters at creating modulated conflict and using that conflict to focus public attention on abortion.

Martin Luther King, Jr. said

… I must confess that I am not afraid of the word “tension.”  I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth.
***
… so must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies [i.e., annoyances or irritants] to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism …  The purpose of our direct action program is to create a situation so crisis packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation.

At the U of Alabama, BSFL and CBR annoyed and irritated people who were complicit or complacent about abortion, people who desperately wanted us to leave them alone.  But we didn’t leave them alone.  We focused their attention on injustice, knowing that they would dislike us for having done so.  Based on the media coverage and the huge crowds of angry people, we certainly succeeded!

Media Coverage for GAP at U of Alabama

Television Coverage

1. Controversial abortion display stirs controversy on UA campus
2. Pro-life display on Univ. of Alabama campus stirs strong emotions
3. Controversial display ignites abortion debate (video report)

Newspaper/Online

1. Student group displays graphic abortion photos on UA campus (poll) (positive poll results!)

Crimson White (student newspaper)

1. Anti-abortion group sponsors ‘extremely graphic’ display on Quad (news article)
2. Anti-abortion groups should back up opinions with facts (op-ed)
3. Our View: Bama Students for Life should examine the language they use (op-ed)
4. Students sound off about abortion displays (news article)
5. BSL’s belief in their own infallibility has cost them credibility in this debate (op-ed)
6. Anti-abortion proponents only restrict freedom of choice for American women (op-ed)
7. BSL, Speer both fail in effectively messaging their case on abortion rights (op-ed)
8. How the pro-life movement can make win-win situations out of abortion debates (op-ed)
9. Consider the issue, not the language (pro-life op-ed)
10. BSFL’s images necessary to change culture (pro-life op-ed)
11. University’s public assembly laws must be re-examined (op-ed)
12. Changing from ‘pro-choice’ to ‘pro-abortion’ (the only coherent pro-abortion op-ed we saw, followed by a flood of name-calling and ad hominem attacks, with lots of comments from FAB)
13. Insulting the public not conducive to campus abortion debate (op-ed)
14. Counter-protesters were told to stop handing out fliers, student says (news article) (Note: CBR opposes restricting the First Amendment rights of people who lawfully protest against our display; the First Amendment is good for everyone.)
15. In response to ‘Examine Language’ (pro-life op-ed)

BSFL Blog

1. GAP Press Release
2. Highlights of Life Week

Can you name one other pro-life project that creates 15 items in the campus paper?