JillStanek.com is a pro-life blog that is read world-wide.  Readers are burning up the comment lines on two recent postings featuring CBR:

1. My post, Use of graphic pictures not optional.  This post generated more than 100 comments.  Please go add your own!  This post was a good lead-in to this next one …
2. Jill’s post, Video: The most shocking 4-minute abortion debate you will ever see.  A new CBR video juxtaposes shocking, graphic abortion footage upon a soothing videothat was produced by the Northland Family Planning Centers, a chain of late-term abortion clinics in Michigan.  The Northland video describes abortion as an act of “courage.”  The CBR overlay displays the truth.  (Note: the link given here just goes to Jill’s posting, not the video itself.)

America will not stop abortion until America sees abortion.

My response to a pastor who commented on a previous post.

Dear Pastor,

On my blog, you asked if you could use my argument as part of your public requests (pulpit and bulletin announcements) for increased participation in prayer vigils and other peaceful, legal efforts to close the Planned Parenthood facilities in Midland and Odessa, TX. 

Yes. Please. Thank you so much. Please encourage your church members (and your church body) to become involved in activities like this. Please use anything I have written. I put these ideas out there for folks like you to use.

As you are planning your presentation, please bear in mind that most Christians who are doing nothing to stop the killing don’t even know what abortion is. They think they do but they don’t. They are trying to ignore or trivialize abortion, because that allows them to do nothing about it. That’s why you must use abortion images to show them what it is. If they don’t see it, they won’t understand it and won’t do anything about it.

Some will complain about this and assert that you only need to show pretty pictures of preborn children. If that were true, a photo of a Jewish family picnic on the Rhine would be adequate to convey the horror of the death camps. I’m sorry, but I look at a nice Jewish family photo, and it tells me nothing about Auschwitz.

If we are going to ever stop the killing, we must correct three adverse conditions:

1. Christians need to know the truth of it. They don’t. (That’s why the abortion rate even inside the “pro-life” church is so high.)
2. Christians need to care enough to do something about it. They don’t.
3. The Church must lead. It doesn’t.

It is my belief that correcting #1 is critical to correcting the other two. Let me emphasize this point:  To understand it, your church needs to see it!

Dr. Martin Luther King said, “America will never stop racism until America sees racism.” That’s why he organized marches, knowing that the peaceful marchers would be attacked with dogs and water cannons. It was pictures of these attacks, on TV and in magazines, that changed America. I can tell you that America will not stop abortion until America sees abortion, and there is no place more fitting than our churches to begin this educational process. Babies will die in your church if you don’t show pictures.

When guiding your members how to act in holding back the children on the way to slaughter (Proverbs 24:11-12), encourage them to use graphic abortion images in their work. It’s not important that all use graphic images; but it is important that those who oppose their use are not allowed to dissuade others who might be agreeable.

If you need ideas how to counter objections or have any other questions, feel free to contact me.

You might want to check out the slides from my talk this weekend to the Students for Life of America conference in DC.

We’d be glad to provide a speaker for your church anytime.

Thanks,

Fletcher

Lisa Morris of ProCET

Below is a statement from Lisa Morris of the Pro Life Coalition of East Tennessee (ProCET).  Note meeting on January 27.

Planned Parenthood has been given access to Knox County students, and at least one presentation has been done without parental knowledge or consent.  Beyond the fact that Planned Parenthood is the nation’s largest abortion provider, their “wellness education” includes elements that many parents would consider unacceptable, if not pornographic. We have attached a flyer with excerpts from their Teen Wire website as well as a link to video selections from their “Take Care Down There” website.  [FAB note: If you want to see the depravity of PP materials, go to www.TakeCareDownThere.org and watch the “I didn’t spew” video.]

We are asking for every concerned leader and parent to take a clear and immediate stand against this effort to corrupt our students and degrade the gift of human sexuality with their unacceptable materials.

Please attend an informational meeting:

January 27, 2011
6:30- 8:00PM
The Chancery Office
805 Northshore Drive, SW
Knoxville, TN 37919

We will present additional information on Planned Parenthood’s agenda and history along with our strategy for action to remove Planned Parenthood and any of their endorsed materials from our schools. Our unity in this effort will be critical for success, so please share this information with other concerned friends and family and invite them to join you for this important meeting.

In addition please call or write Governor-Elect Haslam, 615.254.4799, Superintendent of Schools, Dr. McIntyre, 865-594-1620, and Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett, 865-215-2005, to express your outrage.

Here are some additional points you may want to include:

• Planned Parenthood has already presented their materials to students at Hardin Valley Academy without parental knowledge or consent.
• Planned Parenthood is the world’s biggest abortion provider; their graphic websites target teens with obscene material that encourages risky sexual behavior and they are under investigation in a number of states for violations of state laws regarding mandatory reporting laws for sexual abuse of minors.
• Please remove Planned Parenthood from the list of approved guest speakers in our schools.

For any questions or to request digital copies of this material, contact Lisa Morris, 865-567-1245.

Please feel free to copy and distribute this information.

Note:  Keep up with the latest on the No Planned Parenthood-Knox County Schools Facebook page.

Pro-aborts: CBR tactics are "really effective."

We have many endorsements from college students, pro-life activists, political leaders, and others who have seen our work in action.  But this piece amounts to the strongest endorsement we have ever gotten.

Freedom of (hate) speech: Confronting the rise of anti-choice activities on Canadian campuses was written by a pro-abortion activist in Canada who laments the effectiveness of our Canadian CBR affiliate.  She is so frustrated by the effectiveness of our work, she believes only censorship and bully tactics can ensure our defeat.

The more sophisticated of our opponents know that any open admission of our effectiveness will only make our fundraising and recruiting efforts more effective.  That is what makes the candor in this article so remarkable.  Military intelligence officials who interrogate prisoners of war usually focus their questions on determining what their captors believe to be the most effective tactics being employed against them and why.  Our abortion adversaries just volunteered that information and we didn’t even need to water-board them!

Some excerpts:

These on-campus battles are the new front line of pro-choice activism in Canada.  But with anti-choicers setting the terms of debate, how can pro-choice activists respond?  [Note their admission that CBR is setting the terms of the debate, which is exactly what we want to do.]

But one thing that they have been really effective at doing is coming up with messaging that affects the popular discourse, which I think is a really dangerous thing because it will eventually seep into the legislature and the courts.  [Another admission that CBR is “really effective.”  Note the recognition that our work on campus will transform culture.]

Anti-choice groups are using the free speech argument to win the public relations battle …  [The author believes we are winning.  That’s important, because winning is how the killing stops.]

These presentations and displays have provoked a pro-choice response in a way the activities of other anti-choice groups have not.  [That’s because the activities of other pro-life groups, in the view of the author, are not effective and need not be countered.]

With anti-choicers setting the terms of debate, pro-choice advocates have had to grapple with the utility of confronting these groups head-on …  [To this author, “confronting these groups head-on” means shouting us down and running us off the stage.]

A new generation of anti-choice groups is establishing a reputation for itself on Canadian campuses, with increasingly visible tactics that many pro-choice activists call discriminatory, harassing and hateful.  [Note the significance of “harassing” and “hateful” labels, which could allow pro-life speech to be censored under Canadian law.]

The university administration is barraged with phone calls and emails calling for the event to be shut down on the grounds that it amounts to harassment and is offensive to women …  Shortly after the event begins, a group of about 10 women and their allies enter the room, chanting and blocking the projector with the intent of disrupting the presentation.  [The context of this passage is an explicit endorsement of censorship and bully tactics.]

… the CCBR legally constitute hate speech by inciting hatred towards those women who have or support the right to have abortions, and should thus be restricted in order to prevent the harassment of women.  [Note the call for censorship.]

Unfortunately, it seems that the freedom of expression of protesters is not taken as seriously at McGill as hateful speech …  [Note the dismay over lack of censorship.]

Let me encourage you to attend a March for Life event this year.

National March for Life.  The national March for Life will be held in Washington, DC on January 24.  That’s where I’ll be, because I will be speaking at the Students for Life Annual Conference on the day before the March.  I’m on a panel discussion on the pros and cons of showing graphic abortion photos.  (Not sure which side I’ll end up taking.)  CBR’s GAP exhibit will be on display alongside the march route.

Knoxville, Tennessee.  Tennessee Right to Life, Knox County Chapter is holding their prayer service and march at 2:00 pm, Sunday, January 23, at Calvary Baptist Church, 3200 Kingston Pike.  Alan Williams, WVLT News Anchor, will be speaking.  Should be awesome; sorry I’ll miss it.  After a brief prayer service, marchers will walk 0.8 miles down Kingston Pike and Concord Street to Tyson Park.  Shuttles will be available back to the church.  It matters if you are there.  Here’s the link.

Atlanta, Georgia.  In Atlanta, Georgia Right to Life will be holding their Together for Life Rally at 11:30 am, Friday, January 21, on the steps of the Georgia State Capitol.  Rebecca Kiessling will be speaking.  Here’s a bulletin insert for your church.

Send me your event and I’ll post it here.

Want to see the next President?   Get your tickets today!   A new poll from CNN/Opinion Research Corp. shows Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee leading the field of potential Republican presidential candidates for 2012.

Gov. Huckabee will be at the Knoxville Convention Center to speak for CBR / Pro Life on Campus on Monday, February 14.  Group discounts available.

Please plan to attend.  The purpose of this event is to raise money to save babies, so get a table and invite your Christian friends  to sit with you.  It will be a fun evening, and you’ll be glad you came.  I promise.

Details at www.KnoxvilleHuckabeeDinner.com.

Would you like to meet the next President in person?  Want to bring your best customers?  Sponsors are invited to attend a special reception with Gov. Huckabee.  Call 1-800-521-6692 for more information.  Time is running out.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KPqwjGfKQk

On January 23, 2011 CBR will be at the Students for Life of America National Conference in Bethesda, Maryland.  This is the largest pro-life youth conference in the nation!

The SFLA 2011 National Conference is only a few months away and we want to invite you to come out to listen to Fletcher Armstrong’s workshop and get energized and activated in your own pro-life efforts!  Thanks to the generous support of Alliance Defense Fund, **from now until December 1st student registration is only $40** (after that it goes back up to $50).  That is for an entire day of training given by national leaders in the pro-life movement, networking with people from your communities and across the nation as well as breakfast, lunch, and dinner!  This is an unbelievable price for a conference with this much to offer.

Even though this conference is hosted by Students for Life it is not only for students but for adults as well.  Adult registration is $60 and also includes the same great training and meals.

You won’t want to miss such great speakers as Scott Klusendorf, Life Training Institute; David French, Alliance Defense Fund; Alveda King, Priests for Life; David  Bereit, 40 Days for Life; former Planned Parenthood Director turned Pro-Life activist, Abby Johnson and so many more.  To see the schedule go here    http://studentsforlife.org/conference/conferenceschedule/

For more information about the conference go to http://studentsforlife.org/conference/  and to register go to http://www.cvent.com/EVENTS/Info/Summary.aspx?e=525341b0-9616-42cd-95a4-b377c23c41b5

PLTA Faculty Member Toby Tatum at UGa.

It’s Sunday afternoon and we are conducting our Pro Life Training Academy (PLTA) at the University of Georgia (UGa).  We are encouraged by the students and community members who are attending this training.

PLTA students learn how to articulate and respectfully defend the pro-life position.  On Wednesday and Thursday, PLTA students will have a unique opportunity for on-the-job training by helping staff our GAP display at Tate Plaza in the heart of the UGa campus.

In addition to training pro-life advocates, the PLTA seeks to unite pro-lifers behind common goals of education, training, and outreach.  We appreciate so much the efforts of the Georgia Right to Life, Athens Area Right to Life, UGa Students for Life, the Athens Pregnancy Center, and the University Church (in Athens) to make this event a huge success!

For more information, go to www.facebook.com/ProLifeTraining.

Toby Tatum of the Pro Life Training Academy

It’s Saturday morning and we are conducting our Pro Life Training Academy (PLTA) at Kennesaw State University (KSU).  It’s a huge success.  We’re almost standing-room-only and people are still pouring in!

Today, PLTA students (ranging in age from teenager to granny) are learning how to articulate and respectfully defend the pro-life position.  Role-playing will prepare students for real encounters.

On Monday and Tuesday, PLTA students will have a unique opportunity for on-the-job training by helping staff our GAP display at Kennesaw State.

In addition to training pro-life advocates, the PLTA seeks to unite pro-lifers behind common goals of education, training, and outreach.  We appreciate so much the efforts of the Georgia Right to Life, the KSU Pro-Life Ambassadors, and Cobb Pregnancy Services to make this event a huge success!

For more information, go to www.facebook.com/ProLifeTraining.

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 …

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?

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