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Archive for August, 2015

“I have just changed my mind!” at East Carolina University

Lincoln explaining denial of personhood

Photos awaken the moral conscience of our audience, opening their minds to understanding.

by Jane Bullington

Although words may say that abortion is evil, photos actually show just how evil abortion really is.  Big difference.

Made them look.  At our Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) at East Carolina University, a female student said it best, “I didn’t want to look but I had to look.”  She was pro-life but had never seen the evil on display.  Now, when a friend says, “I am pregnant,” she will be more likely to step forward to offer counsel and assistance.

“It (GAP) opened my eyes … ”

I have just changed my mind!  Another student started by saying abortion might be a viable choice for other women, “They are little human beings; I wouldn’t do it, but…”  A few minutes later, after seeing how slavery was a “choice” in the 1800’s, she exclaimed, “Well, when you put it like that, I have just changed my mind!  I understand what you are saying.”

I had no idea.  A male student expressed the sentiments of most college students when he said, “I had no idea this is what abortion was. They are so tiny, and that is a hand!”

College students are a microcosm of Americans in general.  The vast majority have never seen and do not want to see the gruesome reality of abortion.  We must confront that ignorance with real abortion pictures.

The need to see.  Another student said “It’s gruesome.  I didn’t know how developed it is so early.”  She went on to say, “People do need to see this; maybe they will make different decisions.”

Opened my eyes.  A communications major was quoted in the school paper, “It (GAP) opened my eyes to the situation; it gave viewers a different way to see it.  The pictures were graphic but sometimes it may take that to get a point across, especially for something as big as life.”  Common sense from a college student!

The smoking gun.  Do you see a common thread?  Disturbing photos of abortion victims pierce through the lies and deception to inform common sense and conscience.

Victim images have been the smoking gun for every successful social reform movement in our history.  We must continue to put them in front of Americans, over and over and over.

Jane Bullington is a CBR project director and a first-time FAB contributor.

“I’m so glad your mom didn’t abort you.”

by Maggie Egger

Michelle, co-president of SFL at OU, speaks with a fellow student during GAP.

During GAP at Oakland University (OU) in March, a young man approached our display, then quickly became very emotional.  He stepped back from the crowd and started yelling that women should have the choice to abort, because they could be in really terrible situations, and we can’t judge their particular circumstances.

Then it became personal.  He said when his mom was in college, with a promising career ahead of her, she became pregnant by a man who was not much more than a casual hook-up.  She dropped out of school and sacrificed her career to care for him, the unplanned pregnancy.  He said she was miserable because of it.  She married his father, but they went on to have an abusive and dysfunctional marriage and family.  By this point, the young man was crying and his voice started to shake.  He said that he wished that his mom had aborted him, because then maybe she would have had a chance at a better, happier life.

Then Michelle Anderson, co-president of OU Students for Life, stepped forward.  She said, “I’m sorry that you had to go through that as a kid, and that your mom had to go through that.  But I’m so glad she didn’t abort you.  I am so glad that you’re here today.  We value your life, no matter how it came to be.  You are valuable and you are loved.”  They continued talking quietly for a little while.  He calmed down significantly, and before he left I heard Michelle say, “Can I give you a hug?”  He accepted.

I observed several interesting things in this encounter.  First, Michelle’s demeanor was so calm and loving, it completely diffused a very emotionally charged situation.  Second, she didn’t try to debate abortion.  That’s not what this young man needed to hear at that moment.  Third, the reaction of the pro-abortion protesters was perhaps the most depressing and disturbing thing that I’ve seen on campus in a while.

The young man started off with the slogan of “personal choice” and of course the pro-abortion protesters cheered this.  However, when he said he wished his mother had aborted him, most of them took their reasoning to its logical conclusion and continued to agree with him.  In essence they were saying to him, “We wouldn’t care if you were dead.”  That’s the mindset that we encounter in people who have, for decades, reduced the preborn to mere clumps of cells, instead of whole, distinct, living, valuable, human persons.  And while that mindset is depressing, when it is juxtaposed with the pro-life view, the result can be encouraging.  After all, if everyone always valued all life from fertilization to natural death, it would be no big deal for Michelle to tell that young man that she values his life, not only in that moment, but from the very first moment of his existence.

Maggie Egger is a CBR Project Director in Virginia and a regular FAB(ulous) contributor.

The Planned Parenthood videos are changing us

CBR abortion victim photos on trucks and signs

Abortion victim photos on trucks and signs illustrate the main point … that Planned Parenthood chops up little human beings and sells them for parts.

More than 70,000 pro-lifers attended one of the 352 Protest PP rallies held across the nation on Saturday.  Yours truly had the honor of addressing the crowd of about 200-300 who attended the rally in Knoxville; a transcript of my remarks are given below.

Many thanks to rally organizers Pastor Cecil Clark of True Vine Baptist Church and Paul Simoneau and Lisa Morris of the Diocese of Knoxville.  This was a truly unifying event for pro-lifers in Knoxville.

FWIW, here is what I had to say:

The Planned Parenthood videos are changing us

Thank you for coming out this morning.

And thank you, Center for Medical Progress!  You caught Planned Parenthood selling baby parts!  You caught ’em red-handed!  You made their barbarity undeniable.  You created video reports that are having a great impact all over this country.  Thank you!

Like all of you here today, I’ve been watching these videos with great interest, and I can tell you that more are coming.  But more important, I’ve been watching the response.  Not just the response of the media and the public, but the way people in our own pro-life movement have reacted.  A couple of observations, if I may.

First, I’m happy to say that we are more unified now than ever before.  In the past, yes, we have disagreed on strategy.  That’s OK; we will some more.  But frankly, we haven’t supported each other like we should.  We haven’t collaborated like we should.  We haven’t shared resources.  Sometimes, we work so hard fighting each other, there was little time to fight the enemy.

Perhaps these videos are galvanizing and unifying us, in the same way that the photos of Emmett Till galvanized and unified a generation of civil rights activists some 60 years ago.

Second, we are unifying behind the only strategy that can work — exposing the evil for all the world to see.  For decades, we tried to win the argument without proving the facts.  We kept our best evidence hidden.  We hogtied ourselves.  We failed to make people see that abortion decapitates and dismembers little human beings.  We may have talked about it with our words, but we did not force people to see it with their eyes.  We allowed abortion to hide behind it’s own horror.

But that’s all changing, now.  All over the country, pro-lifers have unified behind the distribution of these videos.  Earlier this week, Bobby Jindal, governor of Louisiana and a serious candidate for President, played the Planned Parenthood videos, several of which feature abortion victim images, on a huge outdoor screen at the governor’s mansion.

Think of that, a governor put abortion victim images on the lawn in front of the governor’s mansion, for all the world to see.

The times, they are a’changin.

Or are they?

My friend Kristan Hawkins at Students for Life of America wrote, “Game changed.

But is she right?  Has the game changed?

I hope so.

But frankly, it’s too early to tell.  The answer to that question won’t be found in Washington or in the pro-abortion media.  The answer will come from you … and what you do.

Because, you see, a whopping 70% of Americans have heard little or nothing about the videos.  The story is being covered up by the media.  They’ve distracted the low-information crowd with story after story about some dentist who shot a lion in Africa.  They know that eventually, the videos will play out and, they hope, will be forgotten.  And they are just waiting.

But it does no good to complain about them.  We don’t control what they do; we only control what we do.

The game won’t change until we force-feed the ugly facts into the hearts and minds of that other 70% who haven’t seen it yet.

But that will take hard work.  They don’t see our Facebook posts.  They don’t click on our videos.  Too many of them get their news from the Comedy Channel … or maybe MSNBC … which is just a dumbed down version of the Comedy Channel.  They don’t come to us; we have to go to them.  That will take a long-term commitment on our part.

What can you do? Commit to a regular program of giving your time, your treasure, or both.  To paraphrase Mother Teresa, “Live differently, so that others might live.”

And this is cool: your phone can help you.

Would the Lord lead you to help moms in crisis?  What this: “OK Google now; locate Hope Resource Center.”  See, number comes up right on your phone.

Post abortion healing?  “OK Google now; locate Deeper Still.”  There’s the number.  Or maybe “Rachel’s Vineyard.”

Prayer ministry?  “40 Days for Life.”

Political campaigning?  “Tennessee Right to Life.”

Reaching that 70% who won’t come to us?  Reaching college students, high school students, and even apathetic Christians?  “Center for Bio-Ethical Reform.” “OK Google now; locate Center for Bio-Ethical Reform.”

Trust me; many Christians are among that 70%.  But with your help, we can exhort them to repent of complacency and apathy.

Use your phone.  Call today.

Some of you might consider a vocational commitment.  The other side has made killing babies a full-time profession, but we have made saving them a part-time hobby.  Of course we value our faithful volunteers, and everyone here can’t be a full-time missionary, but I bet there are 1 or 2 or 3 who can.  Or maybe you could be a part-time missionary.  Perhaps your kids are mostly grown or you need a part-time retirement job.  I pray you will think about it.  And everyone here can pray for God to raise up the army that will end the killing.  And everyone here can pray for a willing heart.

People like to say, “Let’s make our voices heard!”  And that’s great, but that’s not enough.  The game will change only when we make the weight of our commitment felt, here in Knoxville, all over Tennessee, and across this Land.

I know you’ll be up to the challenge.

CBR abortion victim photos on trucks and signs

CBR’s truth truck put the exclamation point on PP’s practice of chopping up babies and selling the parts.





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