The "Art" of Abortion display at Artscape 2011 was visible to thousands.

This report from CBR Maryland Directors Kurt and Samantha Linnemann:

Artscape is the largest art festival in the country, bringing 350,000 people to Baltimore over a 3-day weekend.  We were strategically located in the center of the festival, where thousands upon thousands of people walked past our display.  In addition to 4 GAP signs and 3 hand-held “Choice” signs, we also displayed a banner that said, “The Art of Abortion, The Slaughter of The Innocent.”  All of the signs featured graphic pictures of abortion.  CBR volunteers handed out pro-life literature to passersby.

When we showed the signs, the Baltimore City Police threatened to arrest us.  We simply asked what we were going to be arrested for.  Knowing they had nothing to charge us with, they backed down.  Fifteen police officers stood by and watched our display go up and stay up for the following 3 hours.

Our photos precipitated many meaningful conversations.  But more importantly, thousands of young people, many of whom said they support abortion, were faced with the reality of what abortion does to an innocent human being.   Many were challenged to re-evaluate their pro-”choice” position.

Click here to view pictures from Artscape 2011 

The "Art" of Abortion at Artscape 2011 in Baltimore

The Human Rights and Scientific Honesty Initiative

A group of Virginia college students, banded together to form The Human Rights and Scientific Honesty Initiative asked me to pass this story along to you:

Abortion, Medical Honesty Battle Takes Shape at University of Virginia

A national treasure of a building, Thomas Jefferson’s Rotunda at the University of Virginia (UVA), has a leaking roof and crumbling columns.  The University and state government have begun the chess game over how much it will cost to repair, and who will be picking up the tab.  But right across the street in the UVA president’s office, they have much bigger worries about what they have been doing with state, federal, and student funds the last 20 years under the leadership of John Casteen .   New UVA President Theresa Sullivan has been handed a series of shocking allegations from our group, The Human Rights and Scientific Honesty Initiative.

Students for Life of America has already identified the University of Virginia as one of the institutions of higher learning that has been financing elective abortions with student health funds, and not even giving their students and their students’ parents the opportunity to opt out of that.  What most people at UVA and Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) are totally unaware of is that these schools have both been secretly performing thousands of elective abortions right in their own teaching hospitals!  And, yes, these are both state taxpayer funded universities who also receive federal education grants to boot.

Elective abortions being performed secretly at taxpayer-funded universities are bad enough.  On top of that, UVA has been giving misleading information on a wide range of reproductive issues, neglecting the principle of informed consent.   Sadly, it seems one of America’s top universities allowed itself to be sucked into the Planned Parenthood template for misinforming women and keeping them in the dark about numerous threats to their health.  Somebody finally noticed.

The national pro life movement has been overlooking the universities for too long.  Sometimes we forget that it is not all about Planned Parenthood.  Pro-life activists have a lot to contend with in Charlottesville, a city of only 45,000 people that already has two other abortion facilities as it is, and a large pro-abortion cabal that includes City Council.  One of Live Action’s recent stings of Planned Parenthood aiding and abetting child sex trafficking took place at their Charlottesville area facility.  But right there, in such a hostile environment, we have a whole new front opening in the battle for human rights in America.  And what better place to start than Mr. Jefferson’s University.

We are accepting additional endorsements for our document.  If you are a student, faculty, or alumnus of any Virginia college or university, you can add your name by sending an email to co-author Siobhan Casey at siobhan-casey@hotmail.com.  Thomas Jefferson, who founded UVA back in 1819 near his home at Monticello, once wrote that “The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.”

Kurt Linnemann

Believe it or not, CBR Maryland Director Kurt Linnemann was arrested on June 10 because he reported a suspicious-looking cardboard box placed near the entrance of a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic.  This is why you should always videotape your pro-life activites.

In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, how many times were we told that we should report anything suspicious?  In this case, Kurt saw such a package outside the Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Wilmington, Delaware.  So he reported it.  When the package turned out to be an empty box, one of the investigating officers arrested Kurt for reporting the package.  How stupid can you get?  Here’s the story.

Having the opportunity to observe law enforcement personnel over the years, I’ve observed that most of them are faithful public servants who deserve our every respect.  But about 10% of them really do love to throw their weight around.  They love that power and they want you to know they have it.  When you encourter such idiots, it is always best to obey their every command … then come back later and sue them.

You absolutely need to tape your pro-life activities.  You can expect this officer to lie under oath to cover up his stupidity.  Video recordings will go a long way to prevent him from getting away with it.

On Friday, June 17, CBR Maryland hosted a news conference.  Video here:

Canadian high school student shakes hand of Operation School Choice Director Francisco Gomez.

High school children are having abortions.  Others on the fence.  Who will get to them first?  Will it be us?  Will they see the truth?  Or will it be that pro-abortion professor who will lie with impunity?

See what pro-lifers are doing about it in Canada.

This mock-up shows how AbortionSafety.com will look when it is launched later this year.

One of the rising stars in the pro-life movement is Kelsey Hazzard, a law student at the U of Virginia.  She is also the founder and President of Secular Pro-Life.  Her latest project is a new website, AbortionSafety.com, which will target abortion-minded women with malpractice data and other information related to the “safety” of abortion.  Here’s the latest from Secular Pro-Life:

AbortionSafety.com

Secular Pro-Life announces a new women’s health website that will catalogue malpractice complaints against abortionists, and inform women about abortion’s risks and alternatives.  The website, AbortionSafety.com, has already garnered support from key pro-life leaders.

Secular Pro-Life, which encourages cooperation among pro-life people of all faith backgrounds, is organizing the project.

“There is a wealth of information in the public record about abortion providers who have injured or killed women,” said Kelsey Hazzard, the president of Secular Pro-Life.  “But the vast majority of women in crisis pregnancies simply don’t have the time or resources to go digging for that information themselves.  AbortionSafety.com will centralize the data and make it freely available.”

A team of volunteers, primarily students, is working with local advocates to gather information on abortion providers across the country.  AbortionSafety.com is set to go live in November 2011.  Fundraising is underway to cover the cost of advertisements, which will be tied to Google searches for terms like “abortion clinic” and “safe abortion.”

The site has been endorsed by Kristan Hawkins, the executive director of Students for Life of America and Pro-Life Action League president Eric Scheidler, among others.

“AbortionSafety.com is going to be a unique project and tool for the pro-life movement, because it will enable us to save thousands of preborn lives and prevent women from experiencing the trauma of abortion,” Hawkins said.

The project was inspired by the “Chicago Method,” a type of sidewalk counseling developed by the Pro-Life Action League, in which sidewalk counselors distribute copies of malpractice complaints to women entering the abortion facility.

To learn more about how you can support the project, visit AbortionSafety.com.

Shirley Moore models the sign she held at the Planned Parenthood Framing Choice event.

Chris Lefebvre was among the pro-life crowd that attended the Planned Parenthood fundraiser at Market Square on May 6.  Here’s her story.

Hope for the Future

Seven bright-eyed high school students stood in Market Square on a recent Friday night.  Some of them held colorful hand-made signs defending life; others held signs exposing death.  They came to stand with a small group of adults, including at least one post abortive woman.  Together they formed a solemn semi-circle facing the stage where Planned Parenthood was holding its youth photo fundraiser called Framing Choice: What Choice Means to Me.

This small group had made the decision that Planned Parenthood would be confronted wherever they tried to promote their deadly deceptions.  It wasn’t easy to devote a Friday night to standing vigil; some of the folks who passed by made hostile remarks and some gave us disgusted looks.  Many more stopped to inquire and some even thanked us for being there.  Some of the people who browsed the display told us afterward that they had no idea it was a Planned Parenthood event; there were no signs indicating the name of the organization and they were surprised to learn the name from us!

Many of us who were there on Friday night face these kinds of events with a certain degree of trepidation, but it never fails that, when all is said and done, we find abundant blessings in being willing to take a stand.  This event was no different; the questions we were able to answer, the truth that was told about life and death and the seeds planted by that truth will bear fruit in uncountable ways.  The most wonderful blessing of all was the presence of those seven courageous young people.  They give us great hope for the future.

Please pray that God will guard them and add to their number.  Pray also that Planned Parenthood will not go unchallenged whenever and wherever they try to promote their deadly work in our city.

Mary Kate Cavazos of Students for Life

It’s one of the biggest obstacles to effective pro-life activism.

Perhaps the most important task for any pro-life campus group is choosing projects that are both strategic and effective.  Unwise choices leave the most important work undone.

But the transition of leadership from one group of leaders to the next is also very big.  In fact, we frequently encounter groups who have suffered greatly because the former leaders did not effectively pass the mantle of leadership on to the current crop.  Poor project selection and poor execution have been the inevitable result.

But we aren’t doing nothing to help the current leaders identify and train the next crop of leaders.  Each year, we co-host, along with the Students for Life of America (SFLA), our annual Pro-Life Student Leadership Conference.

SFLA has also been working very hard to improve the transition of pro-life leadership on campus.  Here is a video by SFLA’s Mary Kate Cavazos:

Rachel describes how she and her baby have saved nearly 40 babies at abortion clinics in the last couple of months

We love this story that aired on Mark Crutcher’s LifeTalk show.  In this interview, “Rachel” described how she has saved nearly 40 babies, and 40 moms, just in the last few months.

In this interview, she also describes how the clinics sometimes try to sell abortions to Rachel, even though she’s not pregnant, in order to defraud her insurance company.

Leslie Sneddon of CBR Maine (left) was a key part of our team.

We were pleased to work with CBR Maryland to bring GAP to the Baltimore Inner Harbor earlier in May.  We know of one baby saved.  Here’s the story, from Leslie Sneddon of CBR Maine!

Please comment: Other than a college campus and a downtown harbor, where do you suggest we take the GAP project?  Please comment!

Baby Saved at the Baltimore Inner Harbor

I watched as she avoided the display, choosing to walk as far away as possible from the picture.  But the Lord directed her steps and now she was face to face with the signs.  I approached and asked her impression of the pictures. 

“Oh God, that is disgusting,” she declared.  “Is that an abortion?”  We moved slowly down to the sign entitled “Things you can do with an unplanned baby.”  This panel features a baby saved the first time GAP was done at the University of Tennessee.

“This baby pictured in the middle was saved from abortion because the mother decided against abortion after seeing these pictures.  She gave the baby up for adoption,” I explained. 

“I don’t think I could do that … give it up for adoption, that is.” she said.  “I mean, if I could see my baby, I would want to keep and really love it.   That’s for sure, but I can’t afford to take care of it.  I have no job, no money.”

“Are you pregnant right now?” I asked. 

“Yes.”

“Lord make me an instrument of Your Peace.”  That’s all I could think at that moment.  I spoke of my own abortions and about the hurt that never goes away.  I told her about the joy and the challenges that come with children.  I called for reinforcements.  Kurt Linnemann (CBR Maryland) and Jane Bullington (CBR Southeast) joined us.  For the next 30 minutes, the battle raged for 2 souls, mother and child.   “Michelle” was put in touch with a pregnancy resource center in her area and left with the assurance that the Lord hears our plea when we cry out to Him in our need. 

If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them strays, he leaves the ninety-nine in the hills and goes to look for the one that has strayed, doesn’t he?  Yes he does, and I thank the Lord that He let us take part in this rescue mission.

Pro Life activists in Knoxville display Choice signs (at left) and a banner announcing the PP fundraiser.

My trip to Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware continues. More on that later. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Shirley Moore and others took a number of CBR “Choice” signs to a Planned Parenthood fundraiser (PP) at Market Square in downtown Knoxville. Here’s her account:

Framing Choice: What Choice Means to the Victim

Planned Parenthood held their annual FYI Peer-to-Peer fundraiser at Market Square in Knoxville on Friday, May 6. This was held right in the middle of the May edition of Knoxville’s summer monthly First Friday celebrations. The Peers are students trained through 40 hours of exposure to Planned Parenthood ideology and advocacy coaching. They are required to make “100 informal educational contacts with their peers.” These newly designated “sex-perts” promote Planned Parenthood in schools, churches, and anywhere else teens gather. Here is Planned Parenthood’s announcement of the May 6 event:

Framing Choice: What Choice Means to Me

For three years, the teens of FYI have exhibited photography that explores choices in life – a road, a friend, a frame of mind, etc. The framed photos are always thought-provoking. With depth and beauty these Knoxville area teens explain what choice means to them and you have the opportunity to share in that experience. This exhibit promises to challenge and inspire you. In order to make the event a success, we need your help.

There you have it; they needed our help to make the event a success! You don’t have to ask twice! So a few of us borrowed CBR’s “challenging” and “thought-provoking” photographs to set up a display of our own.

Arriving early with the signs, I saw a large man in the PP party eye me suspiciously, even though the pictures were turned face-in, leaning against a tree, and not visible … not yet, anyway. Several of us gathered and waited for the young people to arrive. When those brave young souls entered the Square, we picked up our signs and walked toward the stage. We hoped to inspire a few people to reconsider what “choice” really means, so we held signs that said “Celebrating Choice Means Celebrating This” above the graphic photos of aborted babies.

A dozen of us stood in a semi-circle facing the stage, surrounded on both sides of the Square by diners enjoying a First Friday meal at the many restaurants. Since we were toward the front of the Square and not facing them, the diners appeared to pay little heed. Two of our party stood with their backs to the stage holding a long banner, announcing to those entering the Square from the opposite direction, “Planned Parenthood: the Largest Abortion Provider in the USA.” I think PP should be glad we were there to announce it was a PP event, for they had no signage of their own. No banner proudly heralding their name, no bold identifier … just a humble grey tri-fold display board with the PP logo at the bottom. A few people wandered through the exhibit, never realizing it was a PP event. Why so shy? How popular is that brand, anyway?

Perhaps the large man on stage called the police, because a policeman arrived and stood next to the stage most of the time. Which suited me fine, because some people walking by made comments of the hostile “hit and run” variety. But others were supportive and not afraid to come up and talk. One man said, “I’m against it too, but you shouldn’t be showing those.” And there he was, holding a professional camera with an impressive lens on it, lecturing me about censoring imagery. I thought, “If you’re against it, why not use that lens to stop it?”

A young man on a bicycle whizzed by tossing off a hit-and-pedal remark: “Mind your own business.” But as Jacob Marley’s ghost (A Christmas Carol by Dickens) says,

 ”Business!” cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. “Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!”

A professorial woman critiqued our images and explained facts about fetal development to a companion, never meeting our eyes or acknowledging our presence. Invisible as the unborn, I guess.

But the most boisterous reaction was from a musical band of blasphemy singers who took up positions in front of us and played loudly, mocking religion and believers in general, best I could tell. This song of mockery greatly heartened the PP personnel on stage and they came to the edge of the steps, beaming approval.

All in all, I hope PP appreciated our taking the opportunity to “share in that experience.” Anytime they need a banner to herald their name, we’ll be glad to bring one.

The masts of the USS Constellation rise above the GAP signs.

Wednesday, we set up GAP and drove our RCC truth truck at the Baltimore Inner Harbor.

Urban GAP is normally much quieter than campus GAP, but very much worth doing, especially in the summer when people love to walk around.  I hope we will come back after the tourists arrive.

We know of one baby saved.  More on that later.

The college campus is where we make it or break it.

CBR is following the model of social reform demonstrated by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Lewis Hine, the American abolitionists of the 1800s, and William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson, who helped end the slave trade in England.

Dr. King found ways to show people what racism really looked like. Pictures of racist attacks on TV and in magazines opened people’s eyes and helped end segregation in less than 10 years.

CBR uses this same model of social reform to open people’s eyes to the truth about abortion.

Here is the video we’ll be showing tonight at our Celebrating Life event.

Greg Johnson

Great column in the Knoxville News Sentinel this morning by columnist Greg Johnson.  Be sure to add your comments at the bottom of the column.

By the way, here’s your last chance to order tickets to Celebrate Life with Mike Huckabee on Monday night.

Undercover at Planned Parenthood in New Jersey.

This video documents a Planned Parenthood director in New Jersey helping a pimp run his underage sex ring.  As much as I dislike Planned Parenthood, I wouldn’t have believed this myself if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes.

In the video, the manager of PP Central New Jersey’s Perth Amboy abortion clinc tells “Joe” and “Gia” how to get abortions, STD treatment, and contraceptives for their brothel of adolescents as young as 14, some here illegally.

Woodruff coaches the pair on how to have the younger girls lie about their age.  She gives them the name of another clinic (Metropolitan Medical Associates), a mill that is apparently even more sleezy than her own and will do abortions for pimps with even fewer questions asked.

See it for yourself:

Pro-lifers lawfully demonstrating on public sidewalks and in the air.

I attended the parent’s meeting at Sacred Heart last Thursday.  A lot of good information was presented.  The best speaker was Alaynna McCormick, the Hardin Valley Academy student who sparked the controversy by telling her mother what Planned Parenthood was teaching at her school.

So far, the school officials are mum.  If they are getting the message, they aren’t letting on.  They don’t seem to understand that their one-page curriculum is almost irrelevant.  What matters is who is teaching and what they are saying.  And in the age of the internet, what websites are associated with the speaker.  It’s not just about what is said in class; inviting PP and the abortion industry into any school is an endorsement.  I don’t care what the anti-smoking curriculum says, I still wouldn’t get Phillip Morris to present it.

Despite the good work done by all who presented, there are two key points that are not coming through, as yet.  The parents are going to have to make policy makers and citizens alike more aware of two key points.

First, the PP websites contain much more debauchery than was exposed by any of the speakers on Thursday night.  It’s just like trying to explain abortion.  If you sanitize it, people don’t get it.  To effectively rid the schools of PP, they need to be exposed.  And they have published plenty of stuff that would make a sailor turn red.  We just need to buck up and read this filth into the public record, no matter how dirty it makes us feel.  Speakers need to blow up and hold up the pictures that are on PP websites and in their books.  Otherwise, we look like a bunch of prudes.  And it’s not just the description of the acts; it’s the encouragement of our teens to “experiment” and do whatever they feel like doing at the time.

Second, we need to expose the profit angle.  In a previous post, FAB documented the amount of money that PP stands to make off marketing sex to our children.  It is an outrageous conflict of interest, and it needs to be exposed.