Choice signs outside Planned Parenthood abortion clinic.

Got this message from Mary Jost, Director of the Focus Pregnancy Help Center in Rochester, NY:

I am the director of Focus Pregnancy Help Center in Rochester, NY.  We are two doors down from Planned Parenthood.  A small remnant of us go and protest in front of their place with your graphic pictures.  Girls have come up to us and said they changed their minds because they saw your graphic images.  I am convinced that showing the pictures is extremely effective in saving babies lives.

Last week, three girls carried their babies to term because they saw the graphic pictures.

Fr. Lobo hadn’t been doing nothing.  He had attended the marches, the life chains, the 40 Days events, etc.  But after seeing his sister’s example, he knew it wasn’t enough.

It would be easy to blame the university, the police, or “those who promote a radically liberal agenda” for the arrests, he said in the homily, “but you and I are part of the problem, because we have put up with too much for too long.”

Fr. Lobo called the graphic images of abortion used in GAP, which are often seen as controversial, “disgusting.”

“But they’re also true and accurate.  Abortion is disgusting,” he added.

More here …

Gregg Cunningham

In response to the arrest of brave pro-life students at Carleton University in Canada, we got an e-mail from a pro-life, Christian Carleton student.  She objected to the work of the arrested students on the grounds that showing photos of abortion is neither loving nor compassionate.  She wrote, in part:

If you can honestly say that you are upholding the greatest commandment, to love your neighbour, by holding up those graphic images then we clearly have a different interpretaion of this great commandement.

CBR Executive Director Gregg Cunningham responded:

Your references to Christian “love” are badly muddled.  Ephesians 5:11 commands us to “Expose the deeds of darkness.”

We aren’t calling women who abort “murders” and I challenge you to find one sign or document of ours which makes that accusation.  Women who abort invariably know they are doing something wrong, but they seldom know how wrong.  They are lied to about who their baby is and what abortion will do to both mother, and child and in that sense they are also victims of abortion.  Abortionists, however, are physicians.  They know exactly what they are doing.  They are unambiguous murders.

Nothing could be more cruel or un-Christ-like than for pro-lifers to help abortionists trick mothers by hiding the horror of the abortions into which they are being deceptively drawn.  That is a dark perversion of mercy which cannot fairly be called compassion.

That pretty well sums it up!

Planned Parenthood has been aggressive in marketing the oft-quoted notion that abortion is only 3 percent of what it does.

Pencils ready?  Planned Parenthood arrives at 3 percent by dividing its total number of abortions by its total number of “services.”  For 2008, that would be 324,008 divided by 10,940,609.

To illustrate the absurdity of such a statistic, note that if Planned Parenthood hands out 97 condoms, it could count that as 97 “services.” Then it does three abortions and claims that, because it also handed out 97 condoms, abortion is 3 percent of its business. This statistic is specifically designed to lead the American people and the legislators who continue to give government money to Planned Parenthood to believe that a very small portion of Planned Parenthood’s business is abortion-related.

Click here to see the entire article.

One of the authors of this piece is Katie Walker.  While at Northern Kentucky University (NKU) in 2006, Katie’s Northern Right to Life group made international news when one of the NKU professors vandalized their “Crosses for the Unborn” display.  Katie has often been an invited speaker at our annual Student Leadership Conference.

Added on September 24, 2011:

A commenter questioned whether PP is suggesting that a 13-yr-old might be ready for sex if … , as opposed to an older child. Facts to consider:

1. The text in question has been captured and is presented below.
2. The URL is http://www.plannedparenthood.org/info-for-teens/sex-masturbation/am-ready-sex-33826.htm. Note the words “info-for-teens” as part of the URL.
3. I accessed the link by first typing in the URL, www.teenwire.com, which is a URL that PP regularly gives out as a source of information for teenagers.
4. A 13-yr-old child is a teenager.

Combine this with everything else being thrown at children from the media, the entertainment industry, etc., that’s more than enough encouragement for a couple of 13-yr-old children to start having sex.  All it takes is one to push for it and another to consent.

Text extracted from http://www.plannedparenthood.org/info-for-teens/sex-masturbation/am-ready-sex-33826.htm.

It should be noted that despite the suppression of freedom in places like North Korea, Canada, Iran, etc., pro-lifers in freedom-loving countries like the United States and Russia have routinely displayed GAP without government interference.

The university said that while the students could not display their signs in The Tory Quad, a busy outdoor location on campus, it welcomed them to erect their signs in Porter Hall, an indoor room.

Ruth Lobo, president of Carleton Lifeline responded: “They are trying to sound reasonable by providing an alternate location, but what they aren’t saying is that Porter Hall is a closed room that few students pass by or even know where it is,” she said.

Club vice-president James Shaw added, “Telling us we can protest but in a back room no one goes to, is like telling black people they are welcome to ride the bus as long as they sit at the back.”

The university has reportedly been saying that student groups aren’t typically allowed to have displays in the Quad. Lobo asked, “If the Quad isn’t bookable, why advertise it as bookable space for student groups? More importantly, the university has never communicated to us that this is its reason for denying us the space. We’re only hearing about it through media who call us for a response.”

Refusing to tolerate censorship, the students proceeded to walk to Tory Quad with their signs. Part-way to their destination, they were stopped by authorities, eventually amounting to at least 3 campus security personnel and at least 9 police officers. Four Carleton students were eventually handcuffed and arrested by Ottawa police and charged with trespass.

Shaw commented, “I find it disgusting that Ottawa police allowed themselves to be hired as thugs to do the university’s dirty work. Shame on them for participating in Carleton’s censorship of its tuition-paying students.”

For more information contact Ruth Lobo or James Shaw at 613-600-4791 (cell).

Please pray that God will protect and deliver these brave students.

Note: Here at PloC, we don’t ask you to get arrested. We only ask you to give $10 a month.  If 1,000 people give $10 a month, we can grow from 6 GAPs a year to 20 GAPs a year.

Other stories at Life Site News,  National Post, Canada NewsWire, Vancouver Sun, Vancouver Sun, Maclean’s on Campus, and National Post.

Here’s a great video from our friends at the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform.  Stephanie Gray presents medical information on the beginning of life. She also describes why it is illogical to hold the position that preborn children may be killed because they are smaller, less developed, more dependent, and/or simply living in a different environment than the rest of us.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KH1jJiuYBpA

Protestants and Catholics, unite!  Dr. Alveda King, a Baptist minister, and Fr. Frank Pavone, a Catholic priest, have long worked together to promote the Gospel of Life, a message of hope and healing, across racial and denominational lines.  Fr. Pavone and Dr. King (niece of Dr. Martin Luther King) will be in Knoxville on Friday-Saturday, October 15-16, and I hope you will join us.

Friday night’s Worship Rally will be at 7 p.m. at the Tennessee Theater and Saturday’s Prayer Vigil will be at 9 a.m. at the Cherry Street Planned Parenthood Clinic.

There are three abortion clinics in Knoxville, including Planned Parenthood’s new clinic in East Knoxville.  Nearly 4000 children are killed every year in these clinics. This does not include those killed by the RU-486 abortion pill and other forms of chemical abortion.

Nearly twenty years ago, pro-life leaders in Chattanooga rallied and prayed together.  For their faithfulness, God closed the last abortion clinic in Chattanooga, turning that property into The National Memorial for the Unborn. Chattanooga remains the largest city in America without an abortion clinic or PP presence.

Let’s pray and work to make Knoxville the next one.  For more information, visit www.ProLifeFreedomRides.com.

GAP at a Canadian university

Please pray for these brave students.  When it comes to freedoms that we take for granted, some Canadian universities are degenerating into Third World dictatorships.  The University of Calgary has already made it.  Here’s a press release from CBR Canada.

Students Risk More Penalties from University of Calgary for Defying Censorship

CALGARY – Despite warnings from the University of Calgary administration, members of the Campus Pro-Life (CPL) student group found guilty of “Non-Academic Misconduct” for having set up a pro-life display on campus this past April are once again displaying the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) on the U of C campus.

The controversial display compares abortion to past historical atrocities, such as the Rwandan genocide and the Holocaust in Nazi Germany. The display is scheduled to be set up between the MacEwan Student Centre and Science B buildings today (September 27th) and tomorrow (September 28th).

“The images are difficult to look at; admittedly, we don’t like looking at them either, but the images are only upsetting because abortion is upsetting,” stated CPL President Alanna Campbell.

After the display was previously exhibited last April, members of the group were charged and found guilty of a ‘Major Violation’ under Section 4.10 of the University of Calgary’s Non-Academic Misconduct Policy for “failure to comply with a Campus Security officer or University official in legitimate pursuit of his/her duties” by refusing to turn their display inward. Other major violations in this category include sexual assault, the use of explosives and firearms, and selling illegal drugs.

The guilty verdict was “a formal written warning” that if the students “fail to comply with directives of Campus Security staff in the future” it will “result in more severe sanctions,” wrote Acting Associate Vice-Provost Meghan Houghton, who was the sole decision-maker in the guilty verdict. More severe sanctions can include the possibility of expulsion. The University’s Appeal Board refused to hear the students’ appeal, and members of the student group will appeal the guilty verdict to the Board of Governors.

“This will be the tenth display of GAP on campus. We have always found that this display has a large capacity for healing, educating, and raising awareness,” said CPL Vice-President Cameron Wilson. “That makes this display, without a shadow of doubt, worth the cost that the university seeks to exact from us individually.”

The group has displayed its Genocide Awareness Project on the University of Calgary grounds, without incident, nine times since 2006. In 2006 and 2007, during the first four Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) campus displays, the University defended the students’ right to expression under the Charter, but in 2008 the University reversed its policy without explanation.

In 2009, the University charged six students with trespassing in relation to the display, but the Crown Prosecutor stayed these charges prior to a trial scheduled for November of 2009. Since then, members of Campus Pro-Life have been threatened with Non-Academic Misconduct upon each display, and the University has found eight students guilty of Non-Academic Misconduct.

“We believe in the effectiveness of the display and we believe in our right to display it. For these reasons, we will not give in to intimidation and will challenge all attempts at censorship. We are proceeding now just as we have in the past,” stated Peter Csillag, CPL Vice-President.

For further information, contact Club President Alanna Campbell at (403) 690-5217, Vice-President (External) Cameron Wilson at (403) 668-9624, Vice-President (Internal) Peter Csillag at (403) 465-1777, or lawyer John Carpay at (403) 619-8014.

Jill Stanek has an interesting op-ed piece in the World Net Daily that you should read.  She addresses the pro-life aspects of the new GOP Pledge to America and the emergence of a number of pro-life Tea Party candidates in key Senate races.

I’m sure that there will be many people disappointed that the GOP Pledge says little about abortion, but Stanek points out that it actually says more than it’s predecessor, the 1994 Contract with America.

Although the new Pledge is no pro-life manifesto, it does have the effect of saving babies by removing some of the funding that pays for the killing.  We should bear in mind that defunding Planned Parenthood in New Jersey has already caused at least one abortion clinic to close down.

Furthermore, it has been reported, the GOP Pledge also promises to defund and repeal ObamaCare.  That’s big because ObamaCare is the most aggressive baby-killing legislation perhaps ever to pass Congress.

Some pro-lifers lament the fact that although the Tea Party is emerging as a conservative force in the Republican party, the Tea Party says nothing about abortion.  We should remember that words are important, but deeds are also important.

As it turns out, five GOP tea party-backed U.S. Senate candidates are pro-life with no exceptions: Sharron Angle of Nevada, Ken Buck of Colorado, Joe Miller of Alaska, Christine O’Donnell of Delaware and Rand Paul of Kentucky.

You think that’s not big?  Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards thinks it is, hence her frantic email alert Monday calling this development, “not just crazy – truly frightening.”

Non tea-party candidates Carly Fiorina of California and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire are also reported to be pro-life.  That’s big because right now, all 17 female senators are pro-abortion, including the four Republicans.

Yes, we still have a long way to go.  The work of protecting every unborn child will not be finished overnight.  But until that day comes, my rule is this: if the pro-aborts don’t like it, it must be good.

7-week embryo

In recent weeks, we are seeing a kind of science denial by abortion advocates in Missouri that is normally the prevue of Darwinists.  The state legislature has recently passed a bill that actually recognizes the scientific fact that life begins at conception.

Senate Bill 793, which adds new regulations to the state’s 24-hour informed consent law for abortions, states that “the life of each human being begins at conception.”  It also declares that “abortion will terminate the life of a separate, unique, living human being.”  (Source 1)  (Source 2)

As you can imagine, that law didn’t sit too well with pro-aborts.  So, taking a page out of the Darwinist playbook, they claimed that the scientific evidence (confirmed by many medical textbooks on prenatal development) isn’t really science at all.  It is religion.  I’m not kidding.

But of course, what else could they say?  After all, they can’t admit that the facts are true.  The implications of the facts are so horrifying, they must be denied, no matter what.

(Click here for a paper that summarizes statements from medical school textbooks, scientists, and even pro-abortion philosophers, all confirming that life begins at conception.)

People deny science when it challenges their own religion or some other deeply-held belief.  Did you watch “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed”?  If you didn’t, shame on you.  BTW, if every child in your church doesn’t see it once a year, then shame on you.  (Yes, I said you.)

Anyway, in this movie, the great Darwinist Richard Dawkins is interviewed by intelligent design (ID) proponent Ben Stein.  The idea of an intelligent Designer/Creator is so horrifying to Dawkins, any evidence for it must be denied or ignored, no matter what.  Darwinists must pretend that such evidence isn’t really science at all.  It is religion.

But Dawkins has a problem because Darwinism can’t begin to explain how highly complex cells got here in the first place.  Cells are vastly more complex than was ever imagined, and Darwinism just doesn’t explain it.  So Dawkins has to speculate.  In a moment of candor not likely to be repeated anytime soon, he suggests that one possible explanation might be that space aliens planted cellular life here on Earth.  I’m not lying; watch the movie.

Lemme get this straight.  According to Dawkins, it’s entirely plausible that we all evolved from the protozoa that came from the bowels of some space alien who stopped off at Planet Earth for a potty break on his way to the Delta Quadrant.  But it’s NOT plausible that we were created by a Creator God.  Riiiiight.

And they say this stuff with a straight face.

Sometimes, all it takes is one person speaking truthfully to give other people the freedom to do the same thing.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Or0tVpGBkK8

Andy Stephenson and Kathryn Sloane of Worthing, West Sussex, display CBR abortion photo.

Andy Stephenson and Kathryn Sloane of CBR UK were arrested for displaying an abortion photo outside a publicly-funded abortion clinic in Brighton, England. The story (link here) appeared in the London Telegraph, along with this photo (right).  This is the first time a major British newspaper (with a global readership, we might add) has published a photo of a first-trimester abortion. It is sure to be seen by hundreds of thousands of people all over the world.

The richest element of the story is not only the fact that the complainants who called the police were the abortion clinic staff, but also that these abortionists were “concerned” that aborting mothers “… entering the clinic felt traumatised and upset” by photos which showed them what the clinic was about to do to their babies!  They make this incriminating admission without a hint of ironic awareness.

Even more paradoxically, Ann Furedi, the abortion clinic director “… said she fully supported the right of pro-life activists to demonstrate against abortion clinics” but only so long as they don’t show mothers the evil atrocities Ms. Furedi is committing inside the clinic.  She condones a pro-life presence which allows aborting mothers to feel good about what they are about to do but condemns “… actions that are designed to distress people who are accessing legal, medical services.”  Abortion can only thrive in secrecy because secrecy allows everyone to pretend that the baby isn’t really a baby and abortion isn’t really a vicious act of violence.

FAB is indebted to Dr. Frank Joseph for this excellent essay.  Please comment below!

Debating Abortion on the political stage: Carly Fioriana blew it

Carly Fiorina had a golden opportunity to blow Barbara Boxer out of the water in their California senatorial debate, but she blew it.

An abortion question was asked by a member of the panel, and of course, Boxer went according to script. Said Boxer (paraphrasing and making it short), “I am for a woman’s right to choose.” Never saying the word abortion. “Women shouldn’t have to go to jail if Roe v Wade is overturned, and that’s what Fiorina wants.”

To begin with, this is a lie. Women would not go to jail. They didn’t before Roe and they won’t if Roe is overturned. Democrats just have to lie, just like they did in the 1960s when they said that 5,000 – 10,000 women died every year from back-alley, coat-hanger abortions. Even NARAL founder Dr. Bernard Nathanson now admints that it was a willful lie. The year before Roe, only 39 such deaths were reported to the CDC. Anyhow, only the person who kills the child (the abortion doctor) would be breaking the law and put in jail if Roe is overturned.

Fiorina did not call Boxer on this lie. She did say she is pro-life, but she never mentioned that Boxer not only supports the killing of unborn children, she supports this killing for the entire nine months of pregnancy. She even supports partial-birth abortions, which 75% of the American people oppose. According to polls, more people identify themselves as pro-life than pro-choice (to kill unborn children).

They each had 2 minutes for their final summations. In her statement, Boxer again brought up a woman’s “right to choose” and again falsely stated women would go to jail if Fiorina had her way and Roe was overturned. She kept pounding on that issue.

It seems that when Democrats are in a debate, they go for the throat. Maybe Republicans just don’t want to hurt the feelings of Democrats. I think they just don’t get it.

Fiorina should have mentioned that Boxer lied about women going to jail if Roe is overturned. She should have also said that women who do not have their child killed would decrease their risk of getting breast cancer and decrease their risk of drug and alcohol abuse as well as suicides.

She could have even mentioned that abortions increase the risk of premature babies in subsequent pregnancies, resulting in low birth weights. Such children are more prone to develop physical and mental problems, including cerebral palsy.

She could also have said that she favor’s a woman’s reproductive rights, but when reproduction is over, that is where she draws the line. She could have mentioned that Boxer even supported killing babies while they are being born, at which time they would suffer excruciating pain. As Boxer repeated over and over again what little ammunition she had, Fiorina should have mentioned this over and over again. Sometimes, you have to fight fire with fire.

Kristan Hawkins, Director, Students for Life of America

You know about our Pro Life on Campus (GAP) display.  We have displayed this project more than 150 times on major college campuses all over the USA.  But we do more than that.

Today, pro-life college students have flocked to Knoxville to learn how to be more effective on their own campuses.  Peggy English of Silent No More has just wrapped up her talk.  I’ll be speaking later this morning about the history of social reform.

Social reformers of history used images to show the humanity of the victim and the horrifying nature of the crime.  They confronted the culture.  They were willing to accept persecution.  I will be showing students how they can put these principles to work on campus.