Virginia Project Director Maggie Egger explains how abortion decapitates and dismembers little human beings.

by Maggie Egger

Abortion photos don’t just make converts; they educate and energize people who are already pro-life.

At Radford University, a young man approached me and asked, “Are you the people I’m supposed to interview?”

“I don’t know,” I replied.  “We’ve had a good number of people interview us for their classes.”

“OK, great!  I must be in the right place!”  As he pulled out a notepad, he said, “I’m Catholic.  So I’m, ya know, pro-life.”

I told him I was excited to hear that, but from the way he said it, I could tell he was not strongly committed.  It seemed like he was raised in a pro-life house, but he didn’t necessarily buy all of it.

“Jacob” began to ask questions about the display, e.g., what was our purpose in being there, what kind of reactions did we get, what did we think of the protesters, etc.  He appeared to believe that the preborn are human beings, but he didn’t know much about abortion in general.  He knew the answer to “What is the preborn?” but he didn’t yet fully understand the answer to “What is abortion and what does it do?”

Then he asked me why we compared abortion to genocide.  Before talking about personhood, dehumanization, and all of that, I simply said,

“A lot of people say that our comparing abortion to genocide is ludicrous and offensive.  And you know what?  They’re absolutely right, if the preborn are not human beings, in the same way that you and I are human beings.  If they are not human beings, then (a) abortion doesn’t kill them, (b) abortion is no different from getting a tooth pulled, and (c) any comparison with genocide is absolutely insane.  But, as you and I both know (because science tells us), that every human life begins at fertilization.  So, abortion kills 1.2 million human beings every year in the U.S. alone.  I don’t know any word for that, other than genocide.”

“Wait, what?  How many abortions a year?”

“1.2 million.”

His eyes grew wide in disbelief.  He shook his head.  “Wow!  Yeah, you’re right.  That’s what it is … a genocide!”

We walked around the rest of the display so he could see all the different pictures, and he asked a few more questions.  When we finished he said, “Thank you so much for taking the time to explain all this to me. I’ve learned a lot.”

Yes, he had learned a lot.  And that knowledge left him more committed to the pro-life position.  That’s why you send us.  There are many more like Jacob, so please send us more places, more often.  And ask your Christian friends to do the same.

Maggie Egger is a CBR Project Director in Virginia and was the Project Manager for CBR’s recent GAP visit to the Commonwealth.

Choice Chain at George Mason University. (Click to enlarge photo.)

by Maggie Egger

A young woman approached me and as she got closer I could see she was breathing very heavily; she seemed upset. She looked at our signs for just a moment and then quickly voiced her complaint: “I would call myself pro-life, but was about rape? I think it’s kind of insensitive for someone to tell a woman who’s been raped that she has to carry that baby.”

“First, I want to say that we as individuals, and as a society, need to do everything we can to help women who have been raped. We don’t do enough. We don’t do enough to punish rapists, and we don’t do enough to help women deal with the trauma. You would agree, right?”

“Yeah, absolutely.”

“Okay, then let me ask you a question. Would you be in favor of giving rapists the death penalty?”

She looked a little uncomfortable….I waited a bit. Trying to coax her, I said, “I don’t support the death penalty at all, so I would say ‘no.’”

“Yeah, I don’t support it either.”

“Okay then. No death penalty for rapists. Should we give the woman the death penalty because she was raped?”

She looked flabbergasted. “No, of course not!”

“No! Of course not! She’s the victim! But, there are some cultures where a woman who has been raped is killed because she’s seen to have brought dishonor on her family.”

“I know, it’s horrible.”

“You’re right, it is. Okay, so here’s my last question. Should we give the unborn child the death penalty because their father was a rapist?”

A young man standing next to her, who had just a few minutes earlier said he wanted to remain moderate on the issue, suddenly said, “Oh my gosh, I totally get what you’re saying. That’s a good one.” I almost felt like I was watching a cartoon, and a light bulb had just begun to glow above his head.

She smiled sheepishly, knowing that she was stuck. “No, I guess that doesn’t really make sense at all.”

Your support will allow us to do Choice Chains more places, more often.  Please click here and be as generous as you can.

Maggie Egger is a CBR Project Director in Virginia.

Written on the free speech board at North Carolina State. (Click on image to enlarge.)

by Maggie Egger

I’d been dealing with protesters and administrators all morning — not sure which is worse, sometimes —  but things had quieted down a bit.  I was finally ready to engage a few students, so I went over to our free speech board.  It is a low-stress place they can write whatever they want without fear of confrontation, but we can often use their comments as springboards for dialogue.

I saw a young woman writing on the board, so I casually walked over to see what she was writing and to possibly start a conversation.  What I saw next moved me.  She was writing furiously fast, right in the middle of the board.  I discreetly looked over her shoulder to read her comments, expecting to see some justification for abortion, a rant about women’s rights, or whatever.  Instead, I discovered this:

People say they shouldn’t have to give birth to conceptions of rape.  As a probable conception of rape writing this, I feel discriminated against, as if my life is worth less than everyone else’s.  You don’t have to raise a child of rape, ADOPTION IS AN OPTION!  You would not believe how thankful my parents are that I was not aborted, but given to them, a couple who were not able to conceive.

As soon as she finished writing, before I had a chance to speak with her, she walked away.  Honestly though, I don’t know what else she could have said that she hadn’t already.

Not long after that, I was standing near the poll table when a young man came up to answer “Yes” to our poll question “Should abortion remain legal?” I asked him why he thought that.

His main argument was that it’s a woman’s choice to make, and therefore it has to be legal, regardless of her justifications.  We started discussing some of those justifications and soon another young man joined our conversation.  He said he was pro-life, except in the case of rape.

I said to him, “You have to be careful when you start making exceptions to who has a right to life.  There are people on this campus, your fellow students, who were conceived in rape and you have effectively just told them ‘I wouldn’t care if your mothers had killed you before you were born,’ simply because of circumstances outside of their control.  Have you thought about that?”

I walked them over to the free speech board and showed them what the woman had written earlier.  I could see the wheels turning, turning.  The “pro-life” student started to look a little guilty.  The pro-choice student said, “Yeah, maybe some of the reasons women get abortions aren’t that valid after all.”

I have always said that abortion can be justified only when necessary to save the mother’s life.  However, I have still found the case of rape to be one of the hardest questions to answer satisfactorily.  People get so focused on the woman being the victim and easing her pain, they just can’t see the other victim who needs their compassion and love.  They can’t imagine “forcing” the woman to do anything else she doesn’t wholeheartedly agree to (i.e. carrying a pregnancy to term).

That day at NC State helped me realize what the problem is, for some.  They want to help the victim, but they don’t realize that they are actively creating more victims, in two ways.  First, they are condoning a woman’s choice to destroy her unborn child based on how the child was conceived.  Second, they are victimizing those born people conceived in rape whose mothers chose not to kill them, by saying their lives are less valuable.

Sadly, most college students in America have a personal experience with rape, whether it was themselves or their classmates.  They can relate to those victims.  But how many of them have a personal experience with someone who is a “conception of rape”?  They can’t relate, because they don’t see the face of the second victim.  GAP brings those faces out into the open.

Now showing at a campus near you!

Maggie Egger is a CBR Project Director and FAB contributor.  She served as site manager for CBR’s Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) at North Carolina State University in April 2014.

Circle of Life

This report was filed by FAB correspondent Maggie Egger, Virginia Project Director, Center for Bio-Ethical Reform.

The Circle of Life at GMU
by Maggie Egger
CBR Project Director

Engaging Passersby

Last week, George Mason University Students for Life held their first Choice Chain of the semester.  I joined five Mason students to form a circle with our signs in front of the student center.  We were seen from every angle; no one could miss us.

Johanna Young:  I regret my abortion.

Soon after we got in to position, there was a class change.  In the swarm of people, a young man briefly paused and said,

“I’ve seen you guys out here before. You’ve really changed my mind about abortion. Thank you.”

Wow!

A little later I spoke to a young man who claimed, among other things, that the preborn are not people and don’t have human rights.  I asked him “Why?”

.

He said because they are not alive.  After we went through all the scientific evidence supporting the fact that they are indeed alive, he claimed that they aren’t human.

I asked him “What are their parents?”  He looked confused.

“What species do this embryo’s parents belong to?” I asked while pointing to my sign.

“They’re human, of course.”

“Okay, then all their offspring are human, right?  Humans can’t reproduce non-humans, can they?”

“Well, no they can’t.”  I could see the wheels start to turn in his head.  I waited a moment and then asked very calmly, “So, if the preborn are alive and human, why aren’t they people with human rights, too?”

He opened his mouth to answer, and then stopped himself.  He paused for a moment, still digesting all that we had just discussed.  Staring at my sign, again he started to speak, but couldn’t find any answer.  Then he said “I’m sorry, I’m gonna be late to class” and abruptly left.

I know he continued to think about it.  Maybe next time he will say, as one did earlier in the day,

“I’ve seen you guys out here before. You’ve really changed my mind about abortion. Thank you.”

CBR Southeast Director and FAB author Fletcher Armstrong trots out an imaginary toddler to ask if “personal choice” were a sufficient justification to kill a toddler. (There isn’t, because the toddler is a human being.) “So, if a preborn child is a human being in the same way that the toddler is a human being, wouldn’t it be wrong to kill him as well?”

At Northern Kentucky University (NKU), we were treated to a steady stream of passersby who saw the pictures and were forced to think about abortion in a new way.

One such man said that there was no abortion in the Middle East, where he comes from.  (We doubt that, by the way.)  However, because abortion is legal in the USA, he had come to believe it must be OK.  Seeing abortion pictures changed all of that.  He told CBR Project Director Maggie Egger, “I hadn’t thought much about it, but it’s legal so I assumed it was okay.  These pictures are terrible.  You’ve really opened my eyes.  Abortion is not okay.”

CBR volunteer Laurice Baddour spend several hours breaking down the pro-abortion protesters who showed up.  She has a unique way of endearing herself to people by simply loving them, right where they stand.  Several admitted to her that their signs of protest didn’t mean they completely supported abortion.  One said, “I’m only holding this sign because my friend told me to!”

Please keep in your prayers a young man who saw the pictures and told CBR staffer Renee Kling that he had gotten a girl pregnant in his home country.  Even though he knew abortion was horrible, he didn’t understand just how evil it was, so he and his girlfriend chose abortion.  He said, “I carry that guilt with me.”  Renee invited him to speak with Lisa, our post-abortive volunteer and showed him how to connect with people in the community who could help.

Maggie Egger

CBR Project Director Maggie Egger shares a story from her recent GAP excursion to the University of South Florida

What about rape?

She was staring intently at the pictures when I approached her and asked what she thought of abortion.  She said “I’ve never really thought about it.  I don’t really have an opinion.”

I’d heard that so many times already that I already had my next question prepared.  “Well, can you maybe think of a hypothetical situation where you would think it was okay?”

She thought for a moment and then said, “In the case of rape, I think it would be up to the woman what she want’s to do.  I guess that would be the only time I would say it would be okay if that’s what she decided.”

I then gave her this hypothetical rape situation:  A married woman has consensual sex with her husband on Monday and then is violently raped on Tuesday.  She discovers she’s pregnant.  After discussing it all with her husband, they decide to continue with the pregnancy because there’s a possibility that the baby is her husband’s.  She gives birth, and then has a paternity test done.  They find out that the father is actually the rapist’s and not her husband’s.

I asked “Would it then be okay for her to kill the month-old infant?”

She replied, “Of course not!”

Then I countered, “So, what is the difference between the month-old infant and the 6-week embryo that makes it okay to kill one and not the other?”

That lead us to a discussion of fetal development and when life begins, as well as the harmful effects that abortion has on women, especially women who have already suffered the trauma of rape.

The conversation was slowing down a bit and she went back to looking at the pictures in front of her.  So I just came out and asked her again, “So what do you think about abortion?”

She paused for a minute, looked at the pictures again, looked at me and said, “Ya know, I guess there is no good reason to do that.”

Indeed.

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).”