Dear Partners and Friends,

This month, we complete our coverage of the Fall 2003 GAP Tour of the Mid-Atlantic Region by describing our trip to Pennsylvania State University. We thank God for all the victories He has given us through your generosity. We pray that He continues His work in the hearts and minds of students on the Penn State campus. Thank you so much for your faithfulness.

Fletcher and Jane

GAP Returns to Birthplace at Penn State University

On October 7-8, we concluded our Fall 2003 tour at Penn State University (PSU) in State College. We were hosted by the PSU Students for Life and were sponsored by Generation Life of Philadelphia. This was a return visit to PSU; the very first campus GAP was held there in Spring 1998.

Each of the two days at Penn State, we were positioned along major pedestrian thoroughfares, which made abortion unavoidable for thousands of students.
Making abortion unavoidable.

We were thrilled at both of our display locations, in front of Pattee Library on Day 1 and on Palmer Plaza on Day 2. For pro-lifers to succeed, we must teach the truth about abortion to people who desperately want to avoid that truth. They won’t come to us; we must go to them. According to freshman Colleen Murray, we were in the right place. She told The Daily Collegian (the student paper), “[The pictures] shouldn’t be broadcast … in a place that’s so heavily populated, especially because [the Forum Building] is a classroom building where almost everyone has a class.” Graduate student Amy Cluskey agreed, “My problem is not so much that they are anti-choice, it’s that I cannot avoid this display on my way to class.” Halleluiah!

Denial.

There are always a few who prefer to remain in denial. Fortunately, the transparency of their protestations is apparent to any honest person. Dominica Bowski, president of the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, told The Daily Collegian, “There’s no way that you would be able to see limbs or a head on a 10-week-old fetus, let alone be able to count fingers.” I (Fletcher) love it when people come out into the open with statements that are so easily disprovable. I always respond, “Please, please, please (getting down on one knee for effect) don’t believe anything we tell you. Look it up for yourself. Go to your own library, get your own book on prenatal development, and compare the pictures and descriptions with our pictures. Then you will know who is lying.” At that point, our credibility goes up; that of the pro-aborts goes down.

Could you repeat that?!?

We never expect pro-abortion faculty to be fair and balanced when it comes to abortion, but one “women’s studies” professor at PSU managed to set a new standard for unregulated rotational acceleration. (For all you people in Rio Linda, that means “spinning out of control.”) This professor was overheard giving an assignment to her “women’s studies” class that she had brought out to see the display. Her final instructions to the class were, “Try to be objective as you describe how these pictures distort reality.” Huh?!? WE HAVE A WINNER! For her effort, this professor wins our highly coveted We-Can’t-Be-Taken-Seriously Quote-of-the-Month Award. Her prize is a life-size cardboard cut-out of Tom Daschle!

I know what I’m talking about.

Before GAP, it is normal for a few of the pro-life students to express concerns about GAP, knowing it will be painful for many women on campus to be reminded of past abortion experiences. One such pro-lifer was Andrea Staargaard, a sophomore in marketing and international business. Her concerns were rooted in her own abortion experience, which she related to us the night before Day 1. But she went on to say that, as a member of the group, she had committed herself to help make the project successful despite her own personal reservations. As with others like her, it only took a few hours of GAP experience to convert Andrea into an ardent supporter. After GAP was over, she wrote a letter to The Daily Collegian:

I was one of [the GAP volunteers] because I know what a devastating, life-changing decision abortion is. No woman deserves the pain of abortion. The truth hurts, but it must be recognized.

... How devastating it is to [learn the truth] after you have already terminated a pregnancy, having been told that your baby is nothing more than a “grain of rice.”

Those pictures are the truth. Too many women have already been hurt because they were lied to or misled. Denying this perpetuates the cover-up that leads women to make bad, uninformed decisions that may cause them emotional pain for the rest of their lives. I was at the GAP exhibit because I am breaking the silence. Abortion kills children and hurts women.

It's time to stop lying to women and start giving them the support and care that they really need. Abortion is not the solution.

Above: Fletcher explains to a group of students how genocide results from denial of personhood. Below: Fletcher discusses a wide range of issues with a biology professor, including the Christian faith, Church history, and creation vs. evolution.
Ever since I (Fletcher) read Andrea’s letter, I’ve struggled with one of life’s most basic dilemmas: Is it OK for me, a guy, to say, “You go, girl!”

An unexpected endorsement.

The people who oppose us most are often the very ones who give us the strongest endorsements. Tuvia Abramson, the executive director of Penn State Hillel, visited the display and yelled at me (Fletcher) for about 15 or 20 minutes. He wasn’t interested in having a rational discussion. He later wrote a letter to The Centre Daily Times (the local daily paper) in which he stated that GAP is “immoral, unethical, and disgusting” and that we are “morally bankrupt” for displaying pictures of Holocaust victims. When he had visited the display, I had asked him why it was OK for him to use pictures to educate people about the injustice of the Holocaust, but it was not OK for us to use pictures to educate people about the injustice of abortion. In his letter, he gave his answer: Holocaust pictures are displayed to “make the world aware …” They are presented “for the sole purpose of teaching about the Holocaust and genocide.” To Mr. Abramson I say, “Amen! Preach it, brother!” That is exactly why we show the pictures: “to make the world aware” “for the sole purpose of teaching about … genocide.”

Pricking the conscience.

We are convinced that the people who are the angriest are those who are most conflicted about abortion, perhaps because of their own complicity or complacency. In his letter to The Centre Daily Times, it is clear that Mr. Abramson is selective in the forms of genocide he opposes. He is against killing Jews, so he is adamant that people must learn about the injustice of the Holocaust, and that the memories of its victims must be “blessed and cherished.” Fair enough. But when it comes to the injustice of abortion, he trivializes its victims and asserts that we who oppose this injustice are “self-righteous” for doing so. Is it possible that Mr. Abramson is angry at us, not because we show pictures of the Holocaust, but because we expose his own hypocrisy: that of spending his entire life opposing one form of genocide while at the same time supporting another? The man doth protest too much, methinks.

Results.

Everywhere we go, even our supporters are astounded at the effectiveness of GAP. Christina Barba, the President of PSU Students for Life, wrote to us, “I am certain that this has been the most effective, powerful, and memorable project that our club has been able to be a part of and I am honored that we had the privilege of working with CBR to put on GAP.”

Thank you, Christina, for your kind words. And thank you, friends and supporters, for making all of this possible with your gifts to CBR!

Our work can continue only if you help!  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.

Please pray that God will raise up others to help you support this life-saving work!