 The Los Angeles Times, December 8, 2001, featured a front page article whose headline read “Flood of Sept. 11 Aid Swamps Charities.” Inside the paper, the article continued under the headlines “Giving: Aid Exceeds Expectations” and “Giving: Donations Pour In.” Though we don’t begrudge the victims of terror the help they need and deserve, it now seems likely that more Americans were killed by abortionists on September 11 (about 4,300) than were killed by terrorists (about 3,000).
Unlike the Red Cross, however, pro-life organizations aren’t being “swamped” by a “flood” of donations. Assuming 3,000 deaths among the 50,000 people who worked at the World Trade Center, about one in seventeen was killed. One in three unborn babies is killed by abortion every day. On September 11, it would have been six times safer to have been a worker in the Twin Towers than it is to be a baby in its mother’s womb.
But pro-life donations aren’t “pouring” in; trickling would be more like it. Many pro-lifers seem to be giving to victims of terrorism, or they tell us that the economic downturn will prevent them from giving at all.
Why do "pro-life" Christians write checks to the United Way, which is awash in money, but ignore pro-life organizations, which are struggling to raise funds? Is it because the press made the victims of September 11th so painfully real? After all, we were shown their photos. Their grieving relatives were interviewed. Their backgrounds were profiled. The press also made real the horror of the victim’s deaths. We were tortured by the sight of airliners crashing into skyscrapers. We were sickened by pictures of people jumping from the upper floors. We gasped as the buildings collapsed into rubble. The images were published and broadcast until they became unbearable. Thus was forged a national consensus that, somehow, each of us must fight terrorism, personally, regardless of the cost.
No such consensus exists concerning abortion -- even in the church. The victims of abortion are anonymous. The horror of abortion is invisible. Of course American’s aren’t haunted by abortion. How could they be?
But we intend to change all that. We will do for the public’s perception of abortion what the press has done for people’s understanding of terror. Abortion pictures have been banned from television, newspapers and magazines but we have truck photos and hand-held sign photos and we are using them to make abortion as unavoidable as the press has made terror. But we can’t achieve this vital goal by ourselves. We need help from those of you who may not be doing enough and more help from those of you who may be doing a lot.
As we continue our Genocide Awareness Project on college campuses, our work with crisis pregnancy centers and our video production endeavors, we would also like you to know something about our truck project. We call it the Reproductive “Choice” Campaign (RCC).
MAKING ABORTION IMPOSSIBLE TO IGNORE OR TRIVIALIZE
The Orange County Register, July 25, 2001, carried a story called "Abortion Foes Drive Point Home" with a subhead which read "Trucks Emblazoned With Graphic Images Of Fetuses Shock Some Commuters." The article was about our Center For Bio-Ethical Reform (CBR) and it began with the following description of our RCC trucks:
Heads swiveled and jaws dropped open as the trucks rumbled past. People gestured and necks craned. At one point, a van hit the brakes to avoid a collision with rubberneckers.
Some motorists waved to show their support. At least two made obscene gestures. Others called the number displayed after reaching their destination.
‘It's a very effective marketing campaign," one caller said. Another asked where to send a donation, adding, 'I think what you're doing is great.’
But others exploded in anger, some complaining that the signs might give their children ‘bloody nightmares.’
‘What [expletive] ... is the matter with you people?' one caller said. ‘Is that what people should be looking at first thing in the morning?’
‘I found it personally offensive,’ said a third. ‘I think your cause is worthy, but I think those trucks are disgusting. I also think it's a driving hazard.’
Cunningham said he isn't afraid of making people angry.
People do get angry when we show the truth about abortion because they don't want to be bothered. We are losing this fight precisely because enough people aren’t bothered enough by abortion. Abortion is not exacting enough of an emotional toll on American society. The culture is in massive denial about what abortion is and does. Social reformers have always had to force-feed facts into the heads of people who resist evidence of their own complicity in injustice. The Reproductive “Choice” Campaign will be used to disturb the nation until the stress becomes unendurable. Because the news media, entertainment media, education establishment, clergy, etc. are suppressing the truth about abortion, we have decided to bypass these gatekeepers and take our message directly to our target audience. The May 28, 2001 issue of U.S. News & World Report featured a cover story about that audience. It was entitled “Traffic.” The article reported that:
Since 1982, while the U.S population has grown nearly 20 percent, the time Americans spend in traffic has jumped an amazing 236 percent. In major American cities, the length of the combined morning-evening rush hour has doubled, from under three hours in 1982 to almost six hours today.
The freeway is the last place where viewers can neither turn the page nor change the channel. It is a multibillion dollar transportation complex which we have turned into a forum for education. We have been presented with a vast captive audience and we will take full advantage of the fact that most commuters will give our signs at least one curious glance. Once these pictures are in people’s heads, they will never get them out. Every time viewers thereafter hear the word abortion, a disturbing picture will go off in their brains. Those with a functioning conscience will eventually change their points of view.
Since June of this year, CBR's RCC trucks have traveled more than 40,000 miles. Staff members Mark Harrington, Fletcher Armstrong, Russ Neil and Gene "Bubba" Garret helped roll the trucks from coast to coast (with help from indispensable volunteers such as Bill Calvin) while in Southern California, the project was conducted by staffers Paul Kulas, Michael Spielman, Greg Davis, Barbara Smith, Sean O'Donohue, Kathy Ellison, and Maryann Matthews (with help from indispensable volunteers such as Rev. Mark Weaver, Dennis Asbury, Judy Lange, Dan Hume, Naomi Ness, John & Patsy Dubreil, Ray and Christine Lowe and Dan Casey). According to statistics provided by an advertising industry association, some 400,000 motorists a day are seeing our trucks. It is no longer easy for commuters to pretend that abortion is morally inconsequential.
This project has received enormous newspaper and television news coverage (see some of it on our Website at www.abortionNO.org). The newspapers, however, refused to publish pictures of our signs. TV news anchors warned viewers that the images were so disturbing that they “couldn’t be shown.” Most stations blurred them out. When something is so horrifying that it must be censored, perhaps it should be stopped.
Our adversaries are speaking out about this campaign and as you might imagine, they are not pleased. What follows are some breathtakingly dumb remarks from some of the most prominent abortionists in the country. One of the most reliable measures of any organization’s effectiveness is the reaction its tactics elicit from those who wish it ill. By that standard, RCC can only be termed a resounding success.
ABORTIONISTS SAYING WONDERFULLY TERRIBLE THINGS ABOUT CBR
The Washington Times, August 23, 2001, published a feature entitled "A Vehicle For Change:"
'The [RCC] campaign brings the focus back to the more extreme side of the anti-choice movement,' said Stephanie Mueller, spokeswoman for the National Abortion Federation. 'Not only do most people who see this campaign feel alienated by it, but even those who are opposed to a woman's right to choose do not support this type of tactic.' [Emphasis added].
We cheerfully admit to being “extremists.” We have to be -- we are fighting extreme evil. For viewers to feel “alienated” is a good thing if it leads to remorse. Ms. Mueller unwittingly makes our point: People don’t feel nearly bad enough about abortion. We very much want to make them feel worse and our trucks work well in that regard. And yes, many “pro-lifers” oppose our tactics but many civil rights “activists” opposed the tactics of Martin Luther KIng.
The Oracle (Univ. South Florida) September 5, 2001, in an article headlined "Fetus Truck Tour Rolls Into Tampa" reports:
On the other side of the abortion debate is the pro-choice group the National Organization For Women [NOW]. Helen Greigo, executive director for NOW in the State of California, said she has seen the impact of the truck campaign in her state. ‘I think the imagery has shock value’ she said. (The Center For Bio-Ethical Reform) is a very dangerous faction in our opinion. [Emphasis added].
When our most powerful enemies say we’re not just “dangerous” but “very dangerous,” we must be on to something.
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