Photos reveals what each cross really means.

Check out the Crosses for the Unborn display at Eastern Kentucky University.  Photos on each cross represent what each abortion really is … an act of violence that destroys a  human being.

Without the photo, many passersby will reflexively conclude that each cross means that another woman has made a reproductive choice … no big deal.  By challenging that conclusion, the photo gives the crosses real meaning.

Elijah House of the EKU Students for Life wrote to FAB about the impact of the crosses:

There was a young woman who came up to us while we were setting up yesterday and she stopped and thanked us for what we were doing.  She proceeded to tell us that she had lost two nieces and nephew to abortion. 

There was also a young man who stopped and he wasn’t aware that there was a pro life group on campus.  He had gone to a Right to Life conference recently and was excited to get involved with pro life work on campus.

Unfortunately, last night someone pulled up all the crosses, broke several, and tore off most of the cards.  One of my roommates put the crosses back up.  It’s unfortunate to see how others vandalize First Amendment rights.

Unfortunate, perhaps, but it shows that people are conflicted about abortion.  People still have a functioning conscience.

We’re scheduled to be at Eastern Kentucky with GAP next week!  Please pray for our time on campus, as well as this time of preparation.

Crosses at Eastern Kentucky University feature an abortion photo on each cross.

GAP at 2011 March for Life

People always want to know if the pictures work.  Here’s a message left on our AbortionNo.org website:

Yesterday I went to the March for Life 2011 in Washington DC.  I live about 20 minutes outside of DC.  I went with my high school.  People told us we were crazy to go out for 5 hours in 20 degree weather, but I told them I wouldn’t miss it.  At the March, I saw the abortionNO.com billboards and had to stop and look.  My friends and I were aghast.  … [Later, at home that night,] I remembered the posters from this website.  I decided to take a look.  That was about 2 and half hours ago.  I looked at the pictures and watched the videos and read the mothers’ accounts of regret after the abortion.  I am crying.  In the past couple hours, I also started researching about President Obama’s views on abortion, about Planned Parenthood, and about the actual process of abortion.  I have been reading many abortion articles by Michelle Malkin, and I just learned about the Philadelphia Horror.  I JUST HEARD ABOUT IT.  Something that awful and horrific, how could that not be top story on the news???  Reality TV stars get more airtime on the news than actual murder of babies.  I am crying right now, at the injustice of it all!  I watched the news last night to see if there would be coverage of the March.  It got a one minute spot 40 minutes after the program started, after local news, some report about a reality TV star, and 2 weather reports.  Where are our PRIORITIES??

I have spent a good deal of time on this website, at least 2 and half hours.  I am reading all of the reports and looking at all of the pictures because right after I send this, I am writing a letter to my Congressman.  I have never felt more inspired to take action after looking at this website.

I have always been ProLife, having been raised in a strong Catholic family, and having received a Catholic education.  But ever since I began reading all this information and seeing all the pictures online today,  I have never truly understood the injustice.  I promise not to just be a prolife supporter now, I promise to be a prolife advocate.  I will be a voice to those who cannot be heard.  I may only be 15, but I will not stand for the absolute crap that is going on here.  Thank you, THANK YOU, for opening my eyes to the reality of how bad abortion was.

Marketing sex to your children will become a multi-billion dollar windfall for Planned Parenthood.

If nothing changes, ObamaCare, along with aggressive marketing of abortions, will divert billions of your tax dollars to Planned Parenthood (PP).  To protect and grow this windfall, PP will aggressively market their ”services” to our children under the guise of “wellness education.”  They will hire an army of paid staff to lobby school boards, principals, and teachers for even greater access.  Marketing sex to your children will be a financial dream come true for PP.

To follow the money, connect the dots:

Dot 1.  PP did 305,310 abortions in 2007 (source), at an average cost of $450 (source).  That amounted to $137 million in revenue for PP.

Dot 2.  ObamaCare will drive private health insurance out of business so that Government becomes the only alternative.  (Arguably, based on Pres. Obama’s own words, that’s by design.)  Once Government becomes the sole provider, health care will become a ”right” of every citizen.  The courts will rule that denying coverage of abortion (a “legal medical procedure”) amounts to sex discrimination, regardless of any legislation or presidential order to the contrary.

Dot 3.  Once the government is paying for them, abortions will no longer be subject to the limitations of the current “free enterprise” system, where people generally have to pay for their own.  With government paying the bill, the costs will skyrocket.  Today, the going price for a D&C, an invasive medical procedure similar in scope and character to abortion, is $5,472 (source).  In the new environment, PP would no longer accept $450; they would demand and receive $5,472 for every abortion.  This would immediately increase PP’s abortion revenue from $137 million to $1.7 billion (with a b).

Dot 4.  But there’s more.  According to Abby Johnson, formerly a PP abortion clinic director, all PP affiliates will be required to perform abortions by 2013.  PP is pushing affiliates to aggressively sell abortions.  If they are able to grab just half of the entire abortion business, say 650,000 abortions every year, that will mean a total abortion revenue of $3.6 billion (with a b).

Dot 5.  Unlike contract and grant money PP gets from the government, this new money would be paid as “fee for service,” so there would be no strings attached. PP would still hire the same abortion hacks they use now and pay them the same money, so the new money would be all profit.  There is so much government money to be had, PP will dispatch an army of paid professionals to lobby (and even buy?) your school boards, your principals, and your teachers for even greater access to your children.  They’d be foolish not to.  Marketing sex to your children will become a multi-billion dollar windfall for PP.  This is an outrageous conflict of interest.

Oh, and by the way, get ready to pay for PP’s abortion marketing programs; they will be disguised as “wellness” programs and will be paid for by taxpayer-funded contracts and grants.  Think about that as you watch PP latest outrage, “I didn’t spew.”  (Warning: prepare to vomit.)

In summary, with all the new money from ObamaCare, there’s a big profit to be made by marketing (first) sex and (then) abortion to our children. Planned Parenthood wants to use our schools to position themselves as the sex experts and promote normal every kind of promiscuous and deviant behavior. When many of them get pregnant, as they certainly will, PP wants to be first in line for the lucrative business of “terminating” the “mistakes.”  It’s an obvious conflict of interest.  The stakes are high … on one side are PP and billions of our dollars; on the other side are us and our children.

What do they know, and when do they know it?

Unless we know the answers to those key questions, we’re going to waste another generation.

Carol Everett is a great pro-life warrior, and I’ve been privileged to hear her speak a couple of times, but she missed the point when she told an audience at Liberty University, “They know it’s a baby; we’ve won that argument; they just don’t care.” Based on my experience on campus, I was taken aback, because college students want to debate that point more than any other.

When I asked, “Who is ‘they?’” she began to talk about the Texas State Legislature. She might be right about lawmakers, but I can tell you that all the politicians in Austin aren’t nearly as important as a generation of teenagers and college students who are streaming into abortion clinics. They rationalize their abortions because they naively believe their children to be “blobs of tissue” and “parasites.” The abortion industry knows they are uninformed and are all too willing to exploit their youth and ignorance.

As an example of profound teen ignorance, I am reminded of the Rutgers University student who staggered backward, as her knees gave way, when I pulled out a medical textbook and showed her a diagram of a 9-week fetus, complete with fingers and toes. Unlike Texas lawmakers, she didn’t know until I showed her. And unlike so many politicians, she still had a functioning conscience.

It is true that pro-abortion arguments have morphed over the years. Forty years ago, they said, “The embryo/fetus is not a baby nor a human being.” That argument could not withstand basic medical facts, so their argument had to change. Then they said, “OK, it’s a human being, but it’s not a person.” When that position also could not be defended, we began to hear yet another theme. They said, “OK, it’s a person, but the mother’s right to autonomy supersedes the baby’s right to life.” That’s where we are now, hence you can be convicted of murder (i.e., killing a person) if you kill a preborn child, but you can legally abort that same child if you are the mother.

Yes, the more sophisticated pro-aborts have kept up with all of this so they know it’s a baby, but most teenagers and young adults don’t know. The abortion clinics understand this. If a young girl calls a clinic and asks, “Is it a baby?” the clinic doesn’t say, “Yes, dear, it’s a human being with rights of personhood, but we believe that your right of autonomy gives you the right to kill your baby.” No, the abortion clinic says, “Of course it’s not a baby, it’s just a blob of tissue; think about a shrimp with appendages.” (We know they say this, because we called.)

In the annual Roe v Wade issue of World Magazine, Georgette Forney, co-founder of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign, commented that “We’ve won the battle that it’s a baby,” crediting embryoscopy and 4-D ultrasounds that show the life in the womb (Red zone defense, World Magazine, Jan 29, 2011). Again, I love Ms. Forney and the great work she is doing on behalf of babies and moms, but she wrong to say “we’ve won the battle that it’s a baby.”

Yes, many older people, especially those who have sought healing for abortion, might now understand. But most teenagers and college students have not seen the embryoscopy nor the ultrasounds. That won’t happen until later, when they conceive their wanted children and when (hopefully) they’ve grown up a bit. Until then, they are just as susceptible to abortion industry lies as were their mothers. Unless we show them the truth sooner, they will continue to have abortions. We will eventually “win” the argument with many of them, but what good is winning an argument 10 years too late?

If prenatal development photos were enough to teach people about abortion, this photo of a Jewish family would be enough to teach people about the death camps. I don't know about you, but looking at this photo tells me nothing about Auschwitz.

I was pleased to a speaker at the Students for Life of America (SFLA) conference in DC yesterday.  There were four of us on a panel discussing the use of graphic images.  I spoke first and used some of that time to talk about the history of social reform.  Successful reformers have always used pictures to help people see (1) the humanity of the victims and (2) the horror if the injustice they sought to correct.  Here are my slides.

Two of the speakers who followed me raised objections that easily could have been rebutted, but I was given no opportunity to do so.  I had actually anticipated their objections and addressed them fair adequately in my opening statement, but I still wanted to reemphasize some of the main points in the face of factual inaccuracies and logical fallacies advanced by my debate partners.  Some of their objections:

1. Because some people who use pictures are not compassionate to women, then showing pictures is not compassionate — An obvious logical fallacy.  Further, Dr. Alveda King, who has had 2 abortions, said she is glad photos are being shown so that other women won’t have to experience the pain that she has endured.
2. Pictures hurt children because it upsets them — Violent photos are routinely seen on magazine covers that children see at the supermarket.  Schindler’s List was shown on NBC and PBS during prime family viewing hours; few people complained.  An emergency siren will terrify young children, but we still put sirens on fire trucks.
3. Some people see the pictures and think we might be violent — Racists and civil rights moderates tried to associate Dr. King with the violent tactics of the Black Panthers.  CBR condemns violence and will not associate with anybody who fails to condemn violence.
4. Other methods can save babies — True, but many women have reported that they didn’t have abortions because of abortion photos and that nothing else but those pictures had dissuaded them.  Also, our goal shouldn’t be just to save a few, but to get rid of the whole bloody mess.
5. GAP was a failure because some people objected to the genocide comparisons and used it to change the subject — Pro-aborts always try to change the subject, no matter what you do.
6. GAP was a failure because a lot of people didn’t stop to talk and therefore didn’t learn facts —The pictures convey at a glance the facts that matter most: the preborn child is a baby and abortion is an act of violence.
7. Most people like arguments more than pictures — Most people don’t care about philosophy, arguments, etc..  They are trying very hard to ignore or trivialize abortions, and pictures don’t let them do it.  We have show pictures and be prepared to debate.
8. There was more but I can’t remember.

I hope we get to do this again.  I am going to ask for more opportunity to rebut arguments.

Troy Newman

Operation Rescue is hosting an online debate on personhood.

Speaking before Henderson/Buncombe Right to Life

Thank so much to the Henderson/Buncombe Right to Life for hosting me at the Henderson County Library on Saturday.  This Right to Life group is fired up and ready for more than just “business-as-usual” pro-life stuff.  I look forward to returning.

The title of my talk was “Lessons From the Past: How We Can Win.”  That’s the critical question, because winning is how the killing stops.  I got a good write-up in the Hendersonville Times-News.  My main points:

1. Reformers of history ended (1) the slave trade in Egland, (2) slavery in America, (3) abusive child labor in our factories, and (4) segregation in the South.
2. All of these movements used horrifying pictures to change people’s knowledge of the facts.
3. Successful reformers were willing to accept persecution.
4. They were not content to “reduce” injustice.  They worked tirelessely until they ended the whole boody mess.

I also challenged all present to change the world with only $10:

• Our movement is suffering from censorship.  Not the censorship of government.  It is the censorship of pro-lifers who will not help.
• We are praying that we can increase our campus visits from 6 schools/year to 20 schools/year.  Guess what that will cost.  I’ll tell you … $10.  That’s it.  $10 every month from 1,000 people.  If you have internet/cable TV, you can afford $10.  Please click here and give $10/month.  Your reward is in heaven.

Would you give $10 a month to stop this:

Aborted at 10 weeks - Would you give $10 to stop it?

I am stunned.  This is the best and most encouraging pro-life story I’ve seen in a long time.  I’m speechless.  Check it out.

Not only are the Midland Catholics for Life doing a GREAT job, one TV station is willing to cover it.

Its right out of the CBR playbook.  Educate people about the horrifying reality of abortion, and do it in such a way that compels the media to cover it.  Create conflict—not uncontrolled conflict, but modulated conflict—that draws attention to the plight of the preborn child.  Media might not like us, but they can’t resist conflict.  Thank you Midland Catholics for Life!

The abortion photos on the billboard came from CBR.  We provide graphic images to pro-life groups all over the world who (1) comply with our non-violence policy condemning all abortion-related violence and refusing to associate with groups or individuals who fail to condemn such violence, and (2) agree not to alter the images.

We give all glory to God, and we are so thankful he is using us in this way.  Please share in our blessing by $upporting our work!

18-yr-old Aisha on the cover of Time

Time Magazine has actually endorsed CBR/ProLifeOnCampus tactics! They published a photo of Aisha to (1) show people an injustice they could barely imagine and (2) communicate truth on an emotional level as well as a factual level. Sound familiar? That’s because we display photos of abortion victims for the very same reasons.

Time published the photo to support Obama’s Afghanistan policy (see earlier post).  But more relevant to our pro-life work was the statement by Richard Stengel, Managing Editor of Time.  I’ve extracted his most pertinent remarks:

Our cover image this week is powerful, shocking and disturbing.

I’m acutely aware that this image will be seen by children, who will undoubtedly find it distressing. We have consulted with a number of child psychologists about its potential impact. Some think children are so used to seeing violence in the media that the image will have little effect, but others believe that children will find it very scary and distressing — that they will see it, as Dr. Michael Rich, director of the Center on Media and Child Health at Children’s Hospital Boston, said, as “a symbol of bad things that can happen to people.”

I showed it to my two young sons, 9 and 12, who both immediately felt sorry for Aisha and asked why anyone would have done such harm to her. [Who can forget the words of little 3-yr-old Donn Garton, who asked his mother Jean, "Who broke the baby?"—FAB]

But bad things do happen to people, and it is part of our job to confront and explain them.

The image is a window into the reality of what is happening… I would rather confront … than ignore. … I would rather people know that reality as they make up their minds …

We do it to illuminate what is actually happening … Our job is to provide context and perspective … What you see in these pictures and our story is … a combination of emotional truth and insight into … the consequences of the important decisions …

Wow.  We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

From Dan Becker, President of Georgia Right to Life:

Thanks much for your notice of our endorsement criteria.  It actually is one of the toughest in the nation.

Many people assume that having such strict standards would actually marginalize our influence.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  We began this practice over ten years ago.  Today, the majority of publicly elected legislators in the state of Georgia hold to “life of the mother ONLY” exception.  In the last decade we went from the bottom of the list of states ranked by Americans United for Life (AUL) for its pro-life legislation to our current rating of 8th in the nation.

In the current race for Governor, 6 of 7 candidates supported our position AND support a Personhood Amendment to our Georgia Constitution.

We in the pro-life movement have been misled by our leaders in thinking that a biblicaly based, principled approach to politics is not achievable.  We have demonstrated otherwise.  We are proving that politicians “only see the light when they feel the heat.”

Thanks for all you are doing to end abortion in our day.

For the Sanctity of all life in the 21st century,
Dan Becker, President
Georgia Right to Life

(Note:  Dan Becker, President of Georgia Right to Life, left a longer version of the above as a comment on a previous FAB posting.  We thought his comments were important enough to warrant a reposting for wider visibility. — FAB)

Georgia Right to Life (GRTL) has issued their endorsements for the August 10 runoff election.  Click here.

GRTL has very strict requirements for getting their endorsement.  Each candidate must sign the following statement:

WHEREAS, the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution states, “nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the law,” Georgia Right to Life PAC affirms the principle that the right to life is the bedrock upon which all other Constitutional rights are derived.

IN ADDITION, we believe, in the face of compelling biological evidence, that a continuum of human life and personhood begins at the moment of fertilization and ends at natural death, the ethical treatment of human embryos must include their “best interests,”

THEREFORE, as a candidate for public office, I affirm my support for a Human Life Amendment to the Georgia Constitution and other actions that would support these principles. This would assure that regardless of race, age, degree of disability, manner of conception or circumstances surrounding a terminal illness, that the civil rights of the pre-born at an embryonic or fetal level, the elderly and those with mental or physical infirmities are protected by law and are violated when we allow destructive embryonic stem cell research, therapeutic or reproductive cloning, animal human hybrids, abortion (except to save the life of the mother), infanticide, euthanasia or assisted suicide.

As a candidate for public office I agree to uphold these principles and positions.

Note that politicians who support a rape/incest exception would NOT get the Georgia Right to Life endorsement.  What do you think about this agreement?  Is it strong enough?  Too restrictive?  Please comment.

I think I would add a requirement that the candidate also sit and watch a video of abortion, e.g., the video on the www.AbortionNo.org website.  Do you agree?

You have heard of Lila Rose of Live Action.  You may have seen her under-cover videos that show how Planned Parenthood employees cover up the illegal sexual abuse of children.

In this video, Ms. Rose describes how CBR employs the exact same strategy that was used by other successful reformers in history, including the movements to stop the slave trade in England, to abolish slavery here, to end abusive child labor here, and to galvanize the civil rights movement in the 1950s.

Ms. Rose reports from Sproul Plaza at the University of California at Berkeley during our GAP presentation last October.

Besides college campuses, what other venues are appropriate for abortion pictures?  Please comment!

Medallion emphasized to Londoners the humanity of the Black slave in 1787.

My talk last night at the Atlanta Right to Life was very well received, I think.  The subject was “Learning From the Past: How We Can Win.”  This is a similar talk to the one I gave to a group of pro-life Georgia Legislators a couple of years ago and the talk I gave to a group of pro-life Congressmen in DC.

This was a fairly easy audience.  We’ve been working with these folks to display abortion images for many years (GAP, RCC, etc.), so they are very familiar with the need to educate the public.  I didn’t need to convince them so much as to help solidify in their minds the connection between our work to educate the public using horrifying images and the work of other social reformers in history who achieved success using the same strategy.  Examples:

• The anti-slave-trade movement in England (William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson) used images to show the humanity of the Black slave and the inhumanity of the slave trade.
• Abolistionists in this country used similar images, and later used photographs, to expose the injustice of slavery.
• Lewis Hine, who was concerned about abusive child labor practices, took pictures of children working in coal mines and textile mills and turned them into a traveling display.
• Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said that “America will not stop racism until America sees racism.”  He arranged for video and photos of Black men and women being attacked with dogs and water cannons to be shown on TV and in magazines.

Horrifying photos of racial violence showed the ugly truth of racism and changed America's heart.

You can download my slides by clicking here.  It is a fairly large file (38 MB); it might take 10 minutes or so to download.  Just save it to a file; a pop-up window will ask you where to file it and will tell you how long it will take to download the file.

Please take a look at the slides and leave your comment on this post!

 

I was honored to be invited to address the Atlanta Chapter of the Georgia Right to Life next week.  Here’s the announcement that went out to their members and other pro-lifers in the area:

You are invited to come and hear a presentation by Fletcher Armstrong PhD, Southeast Director of The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform, entitled, “Lessons From the Past, Learning How to Win,” sponsored by the Atlanta Chapter Georgia Right to Life.  CBR is well know for Genocide Awareness Project (GAP), which is the world’s first large-scale abortion photo outreach to college students. Fletcher will explain how this and other CBR projects are effective because they are modeled upon the most successful social reform movements in history, including the movements to end the slave trade in England, slavery in America, abusive child labor in the early 20th Century, and racial injustice in the 1960s.

When: Thursday, July 22, 2010 7:00 PM

Where: Cathedral of Christ the King, Hyland Center

Some comments about GAP:

• “I saw minds and hearts changed right before my eyes. I believe in GAP and its ability to effect change.” (Tanya Comer, President, [University of] Georgia Pro-Life)
• “There is no doubt in my mind that GAP is the most effective pro-life project that any pro-life club can bring to their school.” (President, Students for Life, U of New Hampshire).
• “It is saving babies like nothing the pro-life movement has ever undertaken and is worthy of our heartiest support.” (Fr. Frank Pavone, Director, Priests for Life)
• “I’ve been doing this my whole adult life. And yet I have never heard a more compelling way of presenting the pro-life message.” (Hon. Trent Franks, U.S. House of Representatives)

If you know people in Atlanta, please let them know about this event.  Thanks!  I’m scheduled to speak in Athens on the evening of Wednesday, July 21.  I will link to my slides for both of these talks sometime next week.

If I can speak to your pro-life group or event, use the feedback form on our website to let us know.