Mixed reactions to one powerful truth at UNC Wilmington.

by Jacqueline Hawkins

Here are an assortment of reactions and comments in response to GAP at UNC Wilmington, ranging from the heartwarming, to the disturbing, to the downright ridiculous.

Tolerant and loving.  Three students walked by and one said, “This is so embarrassing — to call abortion genocide.”  Jane Bullington chimed in and asked, “What would you call one million deaths a year?”  To that, the tolerant, loving student embraced diversity by saying, “Don’t talk to me, or you might get assaulted.”

Determined father.  A 19-year-old father of a pre-born child had his resolve strengthened by the pictures.  “My girlfriend is pregnant,” he told Jane.  “It will be hard but we will not do this.”  Jane spent a long time speaking with the young man.  While both have supportive families, they didn’t plan on being parents so early.  He was very nervous but also very grateful that Jane just listened to him and gave him encouragement.

Informed voter.  A young Republican told us after a long conversation, “I am asking a lot of questions because I need to vote appropriately.”  Music to our ears!  That is one of our goals.  We save babies in the here and now, but we also work to prevent future killing by helping Americans ask questions and “vote appropriately.”

Paradoxical or hypocritical?  A young woman made the standard battle cry, “It’s my body!”  But then she followed up with the paradoxical, “You should be ashamed of yourself!”  Not sure how that works.  Weren’t we displaying abortion photos with our own bodies?

Where have the gentlemen gone?  A male student started cussing Jane Bullington out, calling her a piece of you-know-what over and over.  He left after about ten minutes and Jane kept her cool the entire time.  Half an hour later, he came back and told her that while he didn’t agree with Jane, he respected how she willingly took his abuse.  He decided to consider what Jane told him.  Nice.

Forming personal convictions.  A young woman was starting to formulate her own opinions instead of relying on her parents.  She told volunteer Christy McKinney that during a recent sorority meeting, the co-eds were asked to raise their hands if they had an abortion.  She was surprised by the number of hands that went up.  We gave her more abortion information so that the facts, along with the pictures, could properly inform her opinions.

Idiocy gets folks killed.  One student insisted that abortion was perfectly okay because sex wasn’t enjoyable after pregnancy and birth.  Well I guess that’s the logical conclusion when you are willing to kill your children to preserve your sex life.

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

CBR’s Kendra Wright explaining the pictures to a group of journalism students.

It was by far the best campus Christian organization we have ever encountered.  They are Ratio Christi and they don’t have time for the “pizza for Jesus” tomfoolery that wastes so much time in youth ministry today.  Young Christians are very weak because nobody is preparing them to take a stand.  But Ratio Christi is different; their unofficial motto seems to be, “We’re trying to pick a fight!”  And they are good at it!

The fight we helped them pick was over child sacrifice at the U of North Carolina at Wilmington (UNCW).  Ratio Christi, along with College Republicans (CRs), invited us to bring our Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) and Pro Life Training Academy (PLTA) to UNCW for the very first time.  By God’s grace and your support, we made quite a splash.

Our display location was along the Chancellor’s Walk, which is the primary walkway to get from anywhere at UNCW to just about anywhere else.

Campus newspaper coverage of GAP:

• The Ever-Growing Controversy: Pro-choice or Pro-life? (published about a month before GAP)
• Genocide Awareness Project comes to UNCW
• Controversial Comparison of Genocide and Abortion

Local news coverage of GAP:

• Two UNCW student organizations bring controversial display to campus
• Controversial display has people talking at UNCW

Lightning was an issue both days on campus.  For our GAP displays, CBR has adopted the NCAA protocols for outdoor athletic events (although our staff and volunteers are normally much less exposed than the typical baseball center fielder).  We vacate the site whenever lightning is detected within a 6-mile radius (less than 30 seconds between lightning flash and sound of thunder), and stay in a sheltered location for 30 minutes beyond the last such strike.