Philip Hamilton

CBR is pleased to announce the appointment of Philip Hamilton as our newest project director in Virginia!

Philip was born in Norman, Oklahoma and spent part of his childhood in Germantown, Maryland while his father worked at NASA.  Philip currently resides in Springfield, Virginia.

He has a Bachelor’s of Science in Administration of Justice from George Mason University (GMU), a Paralegal Certification from GMU, an advanced Paralegal Certification from Virginia Tech, and a Master’s of Science in Administration of Justice and Security from the University of Phoenix.

He has been active in politics for more than a decade, with a growing emphasis on the pro-life movement after joining the GMU Students for Life (SFL).  This illustrates the effect that CBR is having on campus.  CBR started the GMU SFL, recruited and trained the founding president, and continue to bring abortion photos to the GMU campus every two weeks.  All of this influenced Philip to join the pro-life movement full-time!

Recently, Philip has written several pro-life articles for The Fairfax Free Citizen.  Philip has also written articles supporting the Unborn Child Pain Capable Act, promoting counseling for women considering abortion, and supporting the GMU SFL.

He looks forward to winning hearts, changing minds, and saving lives at CBR.  Welcome aboard, Philip!  We’re expecting great things from you!

If you’d like to support Philip (or any of our staff members), it’s quick, easy, and secure to support CBR online.  Whatever you can do will make a huge difference.  To support Philip’s work, designate your gift for “Virginia Project Director (SE-PAH).”

Kendra Wright

The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform (CBR), Southeast Region Operations, is pleased to announce the appointment of Kendra Wright as our newest (and youngest) Project Director in Virginia.

Kendra resides in Staunton, Virginia.  (That’s pronounced STAN-ton, not STAWN-ton, for all you people in Rio Linda.)

Kendra’s family moved from Denver, Colorado to Staunton when she was 4.  She told FAB,

Four-year old Kendra was a strong-willed rebel and continued to live in her stubborn ways until God grabbed her heart 9 years later.  The Lord is now using my strong will for His glory.

[Side note:  Some might say that, in fact, God grabbed her heart before the foundation of the world was laid.  You see, although some of us at FAB were predestined to be Arminian, others chose to be Calvinist of their own free will.  But, I digress.  Anyway, …]

Kendra finished high school a year early and then graduated from Thomas Edison State College in New Jersey in less than two years … at only nineteen years old!  She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communications.

In her spare time, Kendra enjoys strumming her guitar, singing, and spending time with friends and her five siblings.  Active in her church, she leads worship and leads children to the Lord as well.

Kendra’s passion for pro-life activism stems from her own personal testimony of narrowly escaping abortion at five weeks gestation.  Her mother was a rare case of a woman walking out of her abortion appointment.  God spared Kendra’s life so she could rescue others!

Kendra is a big-picture person who appreciates CBR’s vision of ending abortion altogether by exposing the truth of it.  She is excited to win hearts, change minds, and save lives, by God’s grace and with your help.

Welcome aboard, Kendra! We’re expecting great things from you and and the rest of the Virginia staff!

If you’d like to support Kendra (or any of our staff members), it’s quick, easy, and secure to support CBR online.  Whatever you can do will make a huge difference.  To support Kendra’s work in Virginia, designate your gift for “Virginia Projects (SE-KPW).”

Ruby Nicdao and one of the babies she helped save at the largest abortion mill in Virginia. Through Ruby’s work, this mill has been permanently closed!

The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform (CBR), Southeast Region Operations, is pleased to announce the appointment of Ruby Nicdao as our newest Project Director in Virginia.

Ruby started pro-life activism as an engineering student at the University of Florida, when she was invited by a friend to pray near a local abortion mill.  Soon, she was counseling women on the sidewalk.  After graduating, Ruby continued sidewalk counseling on Saturdays while working full-time as an electronics engineer for the Department of Defense.

Ruby moved to Northern Virginia to study theology at the Notre Dame Graduate School of Christendom College and worked as a systems engineer on missile defense systems.  She told FAB

It’s ironic that while our country spends billions to protect our people from ballistic missile attacks, millions of children are unjustly killed in the womb, under the radar.

Beginning in 2009, Ruby led 40 Days for Life campaigns at NOVA Women’s Healthcare, the largest abortion mill in Virginia.  The campaigners at this mill not only prayed to end abortion, they also exposed abortion using CBR “Choice” signs.

As a result of Ruby’s leadership, the number of abortions at NOVA dropped by 28 percent over four years.  In 2013, this abortion mill close forever!  Her most memorable pro-life experience came in 2014, when she held for the first time a baby she helped rescue from this death camp.

A resident of Fairfax, Ruby will work in close collaboration with Nicole Cooley of Churchville and Maggie Egger of Front Royal, CBR’s other Project Directors in Virginia.

If you’d like to support Ruby (or any of our staff members), it’s quick, easy, and secure to support CBR online.  Whatever you can do will make a huge difference.  To support Ruby’s work in Virginia, designate your gift for “Virginia Projects (SE-RMN).”

Maggie Egger

The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform (CBR), Southeast Region Operations, is pleased to announce the appointment of Maggie Egger as our newest Project Director in Virginia.

Maggie currently resides in Front Royal, but once her support team is in place, she plans to relocate to Richmond.  She will be working in close collaboration with Nicole Cooley of Churchville, CBR’s other Project Director in Virginia.

Maggie received her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Richmond (UR) in 2012, majoring in political science and minoring in dance.

[Political science and dance?  We suppose it’s multidisciplinary program for politicians … they learn how to dance around the truth!  But we don’t want to get into that.  Anyway … ]

Maggie has been active in the pro-life movement since childhood, when her mother took her to pray outside abortion facilities.  Her father was a rescuer in the 1980s and 90s.  At UR, she founded and led the UR Spiders for Life.  In the summers, she directed Face the Truth tours for Defend Life.  In her final semester at UR, she hosted a CBR Choice Chain on campus.

Maggie spent the summer of 2012 as an intern at Expectant Mother Care, a chain of crisis pregnancy centers in New York City.  By counseling women and girls in crisis, many of whom had aborted children in the past, Maggie saw their pain and suffering.  She saw how ignorance left them vulnerable to the lies of Satan; most of them were completely unaware what abortion is and does.  But once they came face to face with the truth of abortion, many choose life for their children, even amid difficult circumstances.

After seeing what the truth can do, Maggie is very excited to be joining the team at CBR Southeast. She told FAB:

If everyone knew that the result of abortion is the bloody, dismembered little babies on the pictures that we show, they would be talking about it and telling others about it, and hopefully doing something to end it.  But, if one is never told the truth (or, in this case, never shown the truth), how will they know any different?  They will continue to believe abortion is just another safe, medical procedure, until we show them differently.  As William Wilberforce said during his struggle against the slave trade, “You may choose to look the other way, but you can never again say you did not know.”

Welcome aboard, Maggie!  We’re expecting great things from you and Nicole!

If you’d like to support Maggie (or any of our staff members), it’s quick, easy, and secure to support CBR online.  Whatever you can do will make a huge difference.  To support Maggie’s work in Virginia, designate your gift for “Virginia Projects (SE-MTE).”

“Abortion Mobile” as seen on WAVY-TV website.

CBR truth trucks hit Virginia Beach this week.  (That’s in Virginia, for all you people in Rio Linda.)

Here’s more media coverage:

• Graphic trucks make political statement (see video)

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

.

On the road again!  We’ve been in Virginia the past week, meeting with University officials and activists alike, gearing up for the continuation of our huge I-95 Spring GAP Tour!

Earlier, we took GAP to 4 schools in Florida.  Next week, we’ll be at George Mason University and Virginia Commonwealth University in Virginia.  After that, we’ll be in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Maine.  As interstate highways go, there is none more influential than I-95; it connects Washgington, DC with some of the most important swing states, including Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, and Maine!

Strategic pro-life activism means being at the right place, at the right time, with the right message.  That’s what we do at CBR.

A decisive blow for ObamaCare and other pro-abortion legislation in the US Senate was delivered in the state of Virginia, way back in 2006.  In November of that year, the pro-abortion candidate won a seat in the US Senate by fewer than 10,000 votes.  Had just 5,000 voters switched from pro-abortion to pro-life (just over 2 voters/precinct), then the pro-life candidate would have won in 2006 and ObamaCare would have been rejected in 2009.  Remember the midnight vote in the US Senate two years ago?

Just as Virginia was key to the pro-abort victories of 2009-2010, it is also key to undoing the damage in 2013-2014.  Don’t take our word for it.  Listen to the pro-life former Senator from Virginia, George Allen:

Virginia’s key.  Our U.S. Senate race here in Virginia is one that objective observers say is crucial.  If we win Virginia, the Republicans, the conservatives, take over the majority in the U.S. Senate and everyone recognizes that whoever wins the presidency, they need to win Virginia.

That’s why CBR is focused like a laser on expanding pro-life activism in Virginia and other key states.  CBR can’t endorse any particular candidate or party, of course, but we can put abortion on the election-year agenda by forcing people to see what abortion is and does.

Abortion advocates and their allies in the media portray pro-life candidates as “extreme,” “arch-conservative,” “right-wing,” etc., but they portray pro-abortion candidates as “moderate.”  By helping us take abortion pictures to Virginia, we can show young people that killing babies is an extremist act of terror, whereas saving babies is a rational act of compassion.

In 2011, we took GAP to 3 major universities in Virginia.  We started 2 new pro-life clubs on campus.  These students will constantly remind their classmates that abortion is an act of violence that kills a baby.  We have invitations to take our GAP project to George Mason U and Virginia Commonwealth U in the Spring.  But we can’t do it without your help.  Please help us show voters in Virginia that voting for abortion is absolute evil.  Click here to join us!  No gift is too small; no gift is too large!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEcFozPm3KM

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!

Many, many students at Radford were NOT closed-minded; Virginia Director Nicole Cooley speaks with two of them.

The President of Radford University’s Young Democrats took exception to the presentation of abortion pictures on his campus.  Of course, he agrees with us that abortion is ugly, disgusting, distasteful, etc.  But he believes abortion is perfectly acceptable to do, even though it’s too horrifying to see.  You can read his letter here.

Here is my online response:

Fletcher Armstrong here. I am the Southeast Director of the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform, the human rights advocacy group that brought the Genocide Awareness Group (GAP) to Radford University.

I am heartened to see that you agree with us on the most important aspect of our display. You describe abortion pictures as ugly, disgusting, distasteful, etc. Those are your words and we agree. Abortion is all of those and more. But here is a fundamental question: How can pictures of abortion be too horrific to see, but the act of abortion is OK to do? Please explain that to all of us; we can’t wait to hear your explanation.

I should perhaps clarify for you what we were doing on the Radford campus. You refer to it as a “protest.” Not really. We were merely showing you the violence that you advocate. The Democratic party has for many years advocated that rights of personhood be denied to preborn human beings.

You say that our display was “hate-filled.” You should know that name-calling and ad hominem attacks are no substitutes for reasoned arguments.

You say that Radford University was a “victim” of the pictures, and that we were insulting and disrespectful to show them. Please explain how it is that Radford is more of a victim by seeing pictures of abortion than are the children who are being killed by the act of abortion. Who is more disrespected, the born person who is being confronted with a picture of abortion, or a preborn child who is being killed by the act of abortion?

You ask for dialogue, understanding, and a willingness to respect differing viewpoints. I have to wonder where you were hiding while we were on your campus. For two full days, I observed people on both sides of the abortion debate engaged in civil discourse all around the GAP display.

It is clear that you did not want us to be on the public spaces outside the Student Center. You wanted us to choose another time and place, presumably a location that you and other abortion advocates can avoid. In that regard, you are like those who wanted Dr. Martin Luther King to confine his activities to the Black church. They didn’t mind if he spoke about racism, but he should speak about it only in the Black church, among people who cared about racism. They didn’t want to be bothered with it. But Dr. King knew that in order to effect change, it was necessary to expose evil and thus make people uncomfortable with the status quo. He intended to bother them as much as he could.

Your letter suggests that abortion pictures bother you plenty. Congratulations, you still have a functioning conscience. Prepare to see these pictures over and over again, because we won’t stop showing pictures of abortion until the killing stops.

You say that “less controversial slogans could have been chanted.” I can assure you that we have no interest in chanting slogans. But please tell me, why is saving babies so controversial, and killing them is not?

You say that we should have found less troublesome ways of “adequately express[ing]” our views. Please let me clarify one point. Our views about abortion are really of little importance. What is much more important are the facts about abortion. The photos of abortion demonstrate for all to see that the preborn child is really a baby, even in the first trimester, and abortion is an act of violence. It is these facts about abortion that will lead many people to change their views, and that is much more important than us simply expressing our own views.

Regarding the First Amendment, you are correct that Radford University fully respected the First Amendment rights of the College Republicans. But it would be incorrect to say that Radford understands the First Amendment “better than a majority of other institutions of higher education.” We have displayed this project nearly 200 times at more than 50 public universities around the country. Only 2 universities resisted, both were sued, and both were forced to back down.

Liberty University is a unique case because they are a private university, and the students give up some of their expressive rights by attending a private school. It is true that the Liberty administration did not allow us to set up on campus. The students invited us and the administration cancelled our visit. CBR comes in many different sizes and shapes. There’s the 5-minute version, the 2-day version, and the “we-never-quit-coming” version. Liberty has chosen the “we-never-quit-coming” version, which is their prerogative.

If you really seek dialogue and differing viewpoints, may I suggest a debate on your campus?

For those of you who did not see the display, may I suggest you visit http://www.AbortionNo.org.

By the way, I will retract everything I have said and abandon my pro-life postion if you can provide compelling scientific and philosophic evidence to show that the preborn child is not human.  I look forward to hearing that evidence.

GAP at Radford University

Does the possibility of adverse economic circumstances justify killing your child?  One student at Radford University thought so.  Read his letter here.

Here is my response:

Responding to Mr. Schall, would you be stunned to learn that millions and millions of Americans have children and don’t go on welfare?

A few years ago, a student asked me “What about a woman who gets pregnant and has to drop out of school, so she and her baby are doomed to a life of poverty?”

Another student overheard and jumped in, “Hey, I know a woman just like that. She was waiting tables and got pregnant and had that baby.” He paused, then said, “And boy am I glad, because I’m the baby.” He said that after his mother had him, she got serious about her life, went back to school, and got a nursing degree. Now she’s the head nurse at a hospital and makes $90,000 per year. He made one final observation, “You know, I think that if my mother had aborted me, she’d still be waiting tables.”

Mr Schall, this student’s mother was not a weakling, and you don’t have to be, either. Part of being an adult is taking care of your responsibilities.

You are justifying killing another human being—your own child, in fact—because that child will be inconvenient to you. You might have to rearrange your life a bit. Yes, parenthood does have it’s responsibilities. It’s always been like that. Others have done it; you can, too.

Fear of poverty is no excuse for killing your child. If you think that’s a good justification, imagine what the judge and jury would say if you tried it on your born child. Tell the judge that your child was getting in the way of your career. If he’s not sympathetic, say “I feel really bad about my choice.” See if that works.

Look, if you can’t take care of your child, there are many couples willing to adopt her and provide the loving home that you are unable (or unwilling) to provide. I speak for many pro-lifers all over the country when I say, “Bring that child to me; I’ll take care of her.”

We never said a woman should be forced to have a child; we said a woman shouldn’t kill a child she already has. If you don’t want to have a baby, that is your choice. Don’t get drunk and don’t have sex. Millions of people wait until marriage to have sex. It doesn’t ruin their lives.

Bottom line: Grow up.

If anybody wants to see what Mr. Schall thinks is such a great idea, see the video at http://www.AbortionNo.org.

GAP stimulates informed dialogue.

After our appearance at Radford University earlier this fall, Radford freshman Joan Laguzza wrote a letter to the RU Tartan, the student newspaper, commenting on GAP.  In her letter, she complained about our presence, but actually agreed with us about one of the most important aspects of the project.  Read her letter here.

Here is my response:

Responding to Ms. Laguzza, my name is Fletcher Armstrong and I am the Southeast Director of the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform, the group that brought the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) to Radford University.

First of all, we agree with you about the most important aspect of the project. You say that the photos were assaulting, violent, difficult to look at, nauseating, shocking, traumatizing, etc. Those are your words and we agree. Abortion is all of those things. But here is a fundamental question: How is it that pictures of abortion are too horrific to see, but the act of abortion is OK to do?

You say that the pictures “assaulted” you, and that you had no choice but to look at them. I would point out that had you desired, you could have turned your head away from the pictures and walked right on by. We watched many people doing exactly that. Apparently, you didn’t turn your head; in fact, the details in your letter suggest that you studied the images very carefully. We’re glad you decided to study the images, but it was clearly your choice to study them or not.

You apparently claim the right not to be offended by anything you see, that Radford University should prevent you from seeing anything that offends you. Have you considered the implications of your claim? Would you grant to pro-life students the power to remove anything on campus that offends them?

You wonder if Radford is anti-abortion. No, they are not. But as a public institution, Radford has no ability to censor the speech of its students. The right of pro-life students to present their views and, just as importantly, their right to present the facts upon which those views are based, are protected by the US Constitution. That right extends to all citizens, not just those who go along with the ideology of those in power. During your time at Radford, you will be exposed to many ideas. Some of them will offend you; some of them will offend others who disagree with those ideas. That’s just part of living in a free society.

Pro-lifers and conservatives have the right to get their message to those who want to receive it. You have the equal right to get your message out. You and everyone else also have the right to listen or not. What you don’t have is the right to interfere with people who want to offer a message, nor with those who want to receive it. What you witnessed earlier this month was an interchange of information from people who had a message they wanted to offer and other people who wanted to examine that message and consider its meaning.

You said you wanted a more balanced approach. You said you want more diversity. You should confer with your pro-choice friends on the faculty before you say that again, because that’s the last thing they want. In much of academia today, college professors represent the “full range” of political views, from the far left to the extreme far left. The Washington Post reported that on college faculty today, 72% are “liberal” and only 15% are “conservative” (www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8427-2005Mar28.html). In practice, it’s even worse than that, because most of the conservatives are teaching engineering, science, etc., where abortion is not a topic of interest. Trust me, in your time in academia, you will hear more pro-abortion propaganda than most fair-minded people can stomach.

You wanted an opportunity for intelligent and reasoned thought. You wanted inspired debate. I can tell you that we saw debates about abortion taking place all around the GAP display. The difference between those debates and most debates about abortion is that once people have seen abortion pictures, abortion apologists can no longer get away with asserting the myth that the preborn child is not a baby, but just a blob of tissue. People can no longer pretend that abortion is anything less than an act of violence that kills a growing child.

You say you welcome the opportunity to be exposed to different views. Perhaps you found this presentation so disturbing because we pro-lifers not only presented our views, but also the facts about abortion that make those views compelling.

You wanted filers on a table, so that you could ignore them. Your complaint reminds us of what they said to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., when he marched against racial injustice. They wanted him to confine his activities to the Black church, where he could talk about racism among people who cared about racism. Everyone else didn’t want to be bothered. But Dr. King knew that in order to change the status quo, he had to show people that racism was much worse than they imagined. It was pictures of Black men and women being attacked with dogs and water cannons—those picture appearing on TV and in magazines reaching millions of American households—that turned the tide against segregation in the South.

Our operating principle actually comes from the King family. Dr. Martin Luther King said that, “America will not reject racism until America sees racism.” His niece, Dr. Alveda King, now says that “America will not reject abortion until America sees abortion.” That’s why we are working to make sure that every American sees abortion for what it is, an act of violence that destroys a growing child.

For more information about abortion—no matter what you decide, you want your decision to be informed by the facts—visit www.AbortionNo.org.

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!