Dear Partners and Friends,
This issue contains the first installment of our report on the Spring 2003 GAP tour, covering our visit to the State University of New York at Albany (SUNY-Albany). This was one of the most hostile places we have ever visited. After all, New York is the state that sent Hillary Clinton to the U.S. Senate. But despite the hostility from a vocal minority, God used your gifts to change hearts and minds, to make a real difference in the lives of others. We thank you for your faithfulness.
GAP Muzzles Pro-Abort Great Danes at SUNY-Albany
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Huge crowds attended GAP at SUNY-Albany. We are grateful to the pro-abort students for ensuring that nobody missed our presence on campus. |
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On April 8-9, 2003, CBR displayed GAP at the State University of New York (SUNY) campus at Albany. This was the first time that GAP has been displayed in New York.
Equipping others.
GAP at SUNY-Albany was sponsored by the New York State Right to Life Committee (NYSRLC). For the pro-life movement to be successful, it is critical that state pro-life groups like the NYSRLC adopt pro-life strategies that actually work. Groups like this have been around for several years and they already control resources that would enable them to make huge impacts in their respective states. Unfortunately, many such groups have been slow to understand the necessity of educating the public and confronting the culture with the truth. They are still trying to win using the failed strategies of the past. But times, they are a changin’! Thank you, New York State Right to Life Committee!
Free speech is supposed to be “free!”
Universities often try to levy a “security fee” to cover the cost of police officers necessary to deter pro-abort violence. To be sure, pro-aborts will attack our people and property unless there is a visible police presence. Nevertheless, it is our right as citizens to receive protection from law-breakers. We don’t have to pay extra. Security fees are nothing more than a tax on speech that is considered to be offensive. The week before GAP, SUNY-Albany demanded more than $3,000 to pay for security. We cancelled our visit—temporarily, it turned out—and the Thomas More Law Center began preparing a lawsuit to challenge the tax. Upon hearing of our plans to seek legal remedy, the University suddenly waived the tax and GAP was on again. Thank you, Thomas More Law Center!
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Fletcher was interviewed by several Albany TV stations. |
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Snow GAP!
On the day before GAP, several inches of snow fell in Albany. Not only in Albany, but all along the route that part of our team was traveling from Ohio. Their scheduled 10-hour trip turned into a 15-hour marathon. But, with God’s help, they finally arrived, safe and sound.
Fortunately, the snow would have little effect on the display itself. The display site was located on a large concrete plaza under a 30-ft awning that protected us from the snow. The question remained, though, how many students would brave the freezing-cold weather to visit the GAP display?
Build it, and they will come.
Not to worry. Masses of students came to see the GAP display despite the 30-degree weather. The opposition we faced at the Albany campus was, in fact, more resolute than at any campus we have been to in awhile. Their presence was large, loud, and often nasty. On the eve of our deployment, one of our hosts said, “Tomorrow, you will be inside the belly of the beast.” Such warnings greet us at virtually every campus, since everyone seems to think that their university is the most depraved in the nation. We take such assessments with a grain of salt, but this particular prediction was not far off. Just the same, for all their screaming, for all their signs, for all their bedsheets (to try and cover our images), they were only able to draw more attention to our message. Thank you, pro-aborts! Some comments:
These photos are all propaganda lies! You people need to get educated (female).
How does it feel to be the vermin of the world. F—– you!
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For most of the second day, a group of women lay sprawled on the ground with signs reading, “This is what will happen when a woman loses her right to ‘choose’.” |
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Amid the noise, quiet reflection.
While the pro-abort rowdies made vacuous and horrific claims about us through their mega-phone on one side of the display, student after student approached the other side in good faith with genuine questions and left with a lot to think about. Some comments:
I used to be pro-choice, but after seeing this, it really makes me think (female).
I never knew abortion looked like this.
Thank you for coming here. People need to see the truth.
One young man, who looked to be in his late twenties, listened for an hour or so. Finally, he approached one of our staff members to say, “You have a very nice mannerism in your interaction with people.” He was a graduate student (and undergraduate instructor) in psychology. He confessed that he had been working feverishly on his dissertation for the last three weeks (and should be working on it still), but found the GAP presentation too fascinating to stay away from. Among his many articulate and profound comments was the following:
My experience has been, in observing people and studying behavior, that people who resort to yelling and screaming know they are wrong. It is their last defense. These people [protesting GAP] know they are wrong, and I think that underneath it all, they desperately want to be convinced that they are wrong. That’s why they can’t leave. They need to get at the truth. When I first came out here, I didn't even need to look at your signs to know who was right. All I had to do was look at the demeanor of your people compared with the demeanor of their people (referring to the protestors).
Is that not a powerful observation?! And the behavior of those protesting was nothing if not desperate. They destroyed a whole box of newspapers from the conservative campus paper that hosted our visit. They trashed as many of our brochures as they could get their hands on. One guy grabbed the entire stack from one of our female volunteers and dumped it in the trash. Between the first and second day, they smeared ketchup all over our barricades and chalked insulting messages on the sidewalk and pillars. One student gagged himself until he threw up and another hopped the barricades.
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The pro-aborts thought this was great fun, until they realized Fletcher was enjoying it more than they were!
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Before he left, the young graduate student said that he worried most about the women who have abortions simply because it is legal. “I have a very close friend,” he said, “who wouldn’t have even considered abortion had it not been a legal option, but she did it quickly and is devastated now. I don’t think a day goes by that she doesn’t say, ‘I want a baby.’” Compare that to the professor who insisted that abortion helps women and that all opposition to abortion is inherently “anti-woman.” We receive many messages from women who have experienced the misery and regret that abortion brings. The following testimonies were all e-mailed to our website while we were off doing GAP this Spring:
I never knew what [abortion] actually was. I just knew of the name. I went through this not knowing. I wish that I had looked at this website before I had done it. (Age: 17; Hometown: Paterson, NJ)
To put it simply; I wish I would have known about abortionNo.org before I had [an abortion] myself. At least I would have known the truth! (Age: 21; Hometown: Charles Town, WV)
How could I have done that?! (Age: 18; Hometown: not given)
I had an abortion. I wish I would have never done it. (Age: 19; Hometown: Ohio)
Abortion is devastating for the babies and the mothers. Thank you, faithful supporters, for helping us help those who are being lied to at every turn.
To make an on-line donation to our work:
https://id28.securedata.net/abortionno/CBRSoutheast/creditcards.html
To arrange your automatic monthly bank draft to support our work:
1. Download and print the Electronic Gift Transfer Authorization:
http://www.abortionno.org/pdf/ElectronicGiftTransferSE.pdf
2. Fill out the form. Make sure you designate the gift for "CBR Southeast"
3. Enclose a voided check or deposit slip bearing the account number of the account we should draft.
4. Mail the Transfer Authorization form and a voided check (or deposit slip) to CBR Southeast, P.O. Box 20115, Knoxville, TN 37940.
We can continue this work only with your help!
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