(1) What’s the connection between the Holocaust against the Jews, lynching of blacks and abortion?
There are strong parallels between all forms of genocide. In each case, there is a defenseless class of people targeted for killing. Each time, the perpetrators of the genocide started by dehumanizing the victim class – calling them non-persons, parasites, sub-human, animals, etc. In Germany, the Nazis made it lawful to kill Jews. In the United States, slave owners and racists made it lawful to abuse and even kill slaves. In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court, in the Roe vs. Wade decision, made it lawful to kill unborn children for any reason or no reason at all. Even if some of the motives are different, the end result is the same – huge numbers of dead victims.
(2) Shouldn’t a woman who’s been raped have the right to an abortion?
What about the rights of the baby? An abortion will never erase the fact that she’s been raped. The rape was a violation against her, but if she has an abortion, you are adding insult to injury. She will then bear responsibility for the death of her child. We want to care for both mother and baby, and give them counseling, medical care and practical help. If the woman is unable to raise the child herself, there are many couples who are waiting to adopt. If we punish the innocent child for the sin of its father, we are making a grave error. In some parts of India, when a woman is raped, she is seen as unclean. The family is so ashamed that she may be sold into pros ti tu tion, or male family members may even try to kill her – an innocent victim – to get rid of the em bar rass ment. We recoil in horror from that practice, and then we turn around in the U.S. and do the same thing to the other innocent victim – the baby.
(3) It’s my body. What right do you have to control what I do with my body?
You certainly have the right to control your body before you become pregnant. But once you become pregnant, there is another body – the child’s. It may even be a male child. Once the woman becomes pregnant, she has participated in beginning another human life and she needs to take responsibility for her actions. In addition, the law forces a man to use his body to earn money for child support of the child he helped conceive.
(4) What about a baby who is horribly deformed? Isn’t it better to spare that child a life of suffering?
What kind of a society are we creating by killing off sick or disabled human beings? People with limitations have a right to life just like so-called “normal” or healthy people. Prenatal tests cannot predict defects to a certainty, nor can they de ter mine the severity of the disability. Why not let these children be born and have a chance to grow and accomplish what they can? Even if a child is likely to die soon after birth, we should let nature take its course and give the child food, water and comfort measures. Then the family will be able to hold the baby and love the baby, rather than violently end its life. Do those of us who will die later have the right to kill those who will die sooner?
(5) If we make abortion illegal, who is going to adopt all these unwanted babies?
The National Council for Adoption has reported that 2 million couples each year want to adopt. Many of them will adopt mixed race babies or those with disabilities. Some adoption agencies even have waiting lists with parents willing to adopt babies with conditions like Downs Syndrome.
(6) How can you be so insensitive to Jewish and African Americans? These signs offend them.
These pictures of genocide against Jews and African Americans are used all the time in textbooks and documentaries. Martin Luther King, in his letter from the Birmingham Jail, compared the brutalization of blacks to the brutalization of Jews during the Holocaust. Was that insensitive of him?
(7) Do you believe all abortions should be illegal?
We believe that abortion is justified only when the mother’s life is imminently in danger, as in the case of tubal pregnancy. In this case, both mother and baby will die unless the developing baby is surgically removed from the fallopian tube.
(8) What about a woman whose life is in danger?
These conditions are extremely rare, with the exception of an ectopic or tubal pregnancy. In that case, the baby is grow ing inside the mother’s fallopian tube and as it grows, the tube may rupture (or burst) and that can threaten the woman’s life. Medicine cannot save the baby’s life at this point; only by removing the developing embryo from the tube can the mother have a chance for survival. Later in the pregnancy, there are conditions such as toxemia, which can threaten the mother’s life. In these cases, the baby can be removed alive by c-section or labor can be induced. With these methods, both baby and mother will likely survive.
(9) Why are you calling this the Genocide Awareness Project? Abortion isn’t genocide.
There are several dictionary definitions of “genocide.” One is the extermination of a national group. The national group is unborn American children. They are being genocidally killed because of the fact that they are unborn and unwanted. Gays are using the term genocide to describe abuse and neglect of homosexuals in this country. Pol Pot committed genocide against other Cambodians based on their level of education. There are many uses of the word genocide.
(10) Why are you here? How dare you bring these ugly signs to my campus!
The university campus is a marketplace of ideas. Our point of view is held by millions of Americans, but it is not being taught in the classroom. We are here to expose the truth about abortion. We want to spare women from the grief that follows abortion and we want to spare unborn children from extermination. The academic institutions and the media aren’t showing people what abortion is and does, so we are here on tax-funded prop er ty exercising our first amendment rights on behalf of defenseless unborn children.
(11) It’s not a baby in the first trimester. It’s just a fetus.
Do you know what fetus means? It is a Latin word which means “little one” or “offspring.” The baby is not actually called a fetus until 9 weeks through birth. At eight weeks, the developing human, called an embryo, has all of its body systems and they are functional. The embryo has a heartbeat by 22 days and brain waves by 6 weeks.
(12) I’m pro-choice. I wouldn’t have an abortion, but I don’t think I have the right to tell others what to do.
Our laws “tell people what to do” all the time. We have laws against rape, murder, child abuse, stealing, etc. Abortion takes the life of an innocent human being, so we should have laws to protect them since our con sti tu tion guarantees us all the right to life. If you have a friend who is planning to have an abortion, and you persuade her not to abort, you will have saved a human life. You may also spare that woman potential physical, emotional and spiritual consequences. Your argument is the same one that some people had about slavery, if you don’t like slavery, don’t own one. That condones slavery, just as you are condoning abortion by wanting people to have that choice.
(13) These pictures aren’t the same. The Holocaust and racial lynchings murdered human beings who had lives and families. Abortion is a matter of “choice.”
Actually, the parallels are great. No form of genocide exactly mirrors another, but in the Holocaust against the Jews, it was the “choice” of the Nazis to kill Jews – it was also legal. It was also the “choice” of slave owners and racists to kill blacks earlier in our country’s history and it was even lawful early on. Now it is a legal “choice” to kill innocent unborn babies. These babies do have families and lives, but their families are taking away their lives.
(14) Who gave you permission to do this? What right do you have to be here?
The Founding Fathers. The First Amendment gives us the right to free speech. We have chosen to exercise that right on public property on behalf of defenseless unborn babies who are being slaughtered at the rate of 1 out of 3 conceived in America.
(15) Isn’t abortion illegal after the first trimester?
The U.S. Supreme Court, in the 1973 companion cases of Roe vs. Wade and Doe vs. Bolton gave women the right to abort during all nine months of pregnancy. Some abortion clinics will only perform abortions up until 12 weeks, but there are abortionists who specialize in third trimester pregnancy.
(16) Don’t you care about women who have had abortions? Don’t you think your pictures cause them pain?
Our goal is not to cause post-abortal women pain, but to save human lives. Women who have already aborted are at greater risk for future abortions. Approximately 45% of women who seek abortions have already had a previous abortion. We want to spare them and their children more suffering.
(17) What right do you have to judge anyone?
Was killing Jews right? Was killing blacks right? If you say no, then you’re being judgmental too. You’re being judgmental about some forms of genocide, we’d like you join us in being judgmental about all forms of genocide.
(18) Your signs just make people angry.
Do you think most students on this campus are “ pro-choice?” Do you think these signs will change their minds? If not, then why are you worried? We know that some students are intellectually honest enough to examine the issue and they may change their minds as result of seeing these pictures and talking with us.
(19) Do you shoot abortionists and bomb clinics?
We oppose violence against unborn babies and the abortionists who kill them. The killing of any innocent person is morally wrong and condemned by all pro-life groups INCLUDING CBR. All of our staff and volunteers are required to sign a pledge of non-violence.
(20) If we end abortion, we’ll go back to thousands of women dying from back alley abortions.
The claim that thousands of women died annually from illegal abortions prior to Roe is completely false and cannot be supported by any reliable data. Dr. Christopher Tietze, a leading pro-abortion statistician for Planned Parenthood and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) calls the widely used claim of 5,000-10,000 deaths a year from illegal abortion “un mit i-gat ed nonsense.” Dr. Bernard Nathanson, who co-founded NARAL and directed the largest abortion clinic in New York City, confessed “…I knew the figure was totally false.” The Centers for Disease Control reported only 39 deaths from illegal abortion in 1972, the year prior to Roe vs. Wade. The 5,000-10,000 figure isn’t even possible when you look at the overall CDC morbidity (death) rates for women of childbearing years. In 1960, Mary Calderone, then medical director of Planned Parenthood, pointed out that 84% to 87% of all illegal abortions were performed by licensed physicians. Now, 40 years later, with “advances” in technology, Dr. Nathanson purports that even non-physicians could fairly safely use suction equipment to perform illegal abortions.
(21) Abortion must be kept legal to keep it safe.
Abortion is never safe for an unborn child and it is often not safe for women. Women who abort increase their risk of breast cancer, pelvic infections which can lead to infertility, miscarriages & stillbirths in subsequent pregnancies, tubal pregnancies (600% increase since abortion was legalized according to the CDC – AP/NY Times 1/27/95), cervical in com pe ten cy, and damage to the uterus which may necessitate a hysterectomy. Some women have even died from so-called safe and legal abortions.
(22) Forcing people to have a child they don’t want will lead to increased child abuse?
Should we make unborn children pay the price for a societal problem like child abuse? By aborting the child, you are denying her rights of personhood and the gift of life that you enjoy. In addition, there is no evidence whatsoever that unwanted unborn babies become abused children outside the womb. According to a study by Dr. Edward Lenowski, professor of pediatrics at USC, 91% of abused children are very much wanted before birth. Dr. Fontana, author of “The Maltreated Child,” has investigated thousands of abuse cases nationwide and established the largest facility medical facility devoted to the treatment of abused and battered children, pointed out that child abuse stems from a number of factors, none of which have to do with wanting or not wanting a child. These factors include a) Parents who were abused themselves as children; b) Parents caught in the grip of uncontrollable anger; and c) Hurt, lonely and guilt ridden parents who want to do the right thing but who erupt with pent-up frustrations when they fail. Besides, there is no such thing as an unwanted child. Somebody wants that child. The National Council for Adoption reports that 2 million American couples who want to adopt a child.
(23) No one really knows when life begins.
Scientists agree that life begins at conception, or fertilization. The relevant debate regarding abortion is when will we as a society confer rights of personhood. If rights of personhood are not granted at the point of fertilization, this creates a dangerous precedent whereby those in power can withhold rights of personhood from any vulnerable group of people. The father of Modern Genetics, Dr. Jerome Lejeune, testified to a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee April,1981, “To accept the fact that after fertilization has taken place a new human being has come into being is no longer a matter of taste or opinion…it is plain experimental evidence.”
(24) Don’t impose your morality on me!
Governments impose morality on us every day by outlawing such acts as kidnapping, rape and theft. These laws are based on morals which protect vulnerable people from those who would “choose” to do them harm. Unborn children are the most vulnerable class of human beings and liberal abortion laws permit them to be killed just because their parents want them dead. It’s interesting to note that during the 1960’s, many people opposed civil rights legislation saying, “you can’t legislate morality”. Dr. King responded, “It is true, the law cannot make the white man love me, but it can stop him from lynching me.”
(25) The baby is just a blob of cells – it doesn’t feel any pain during the abortion.
Actually, the anatomical and physiological structures necessary to feel pain develop between 8-13 weeks after fertilization. This is when most abortions occur. The American Academy of Pediatrics says it is unethical to expose a pre-term baby to any painful procedure without the benefit of anesthesia. What kind of society are we to say the baby doesn’t feel pain and then cavalierly kill him, when the evidence proves that abortion tortures him to death?
(26) What about all of the millions of people who are starving now; the earth cannot support more people.
Should we make unborn people die because born people don’t have the will to solve difficult problems like starvation? Starvation today is caused by corrupt and oppressive governments who use their people as pawns and who block and abuse the efforts of the relief agencies which have the resources to feed starving people. As for overpopulation, the World Almanac and Book of Facts 1993, and the 1994 World Population Data Sheet from the Washington, D.C. Population Reference Bureau, report that the whole world’s population could fit in the state of Texas with each person being given 1,300 square feet. The rest of the world would be empty and available for agricultural, manufacturing, educational, and recreational activities. You may be surprised to learn that the world’s total fertility rate is dropping. In 1985, there were 4.2 children born per woman in her reproductive years. It has dropped to 2.9 children. U.N. statistics shows that if these trends continue, global depopulation will begin in about 40 years. 70 countries are now “dying” because their birth rates are below replacement level. These countries are home to 40% of the world’s population.
(27) We don’t have the money to pay for handicapped children and sick children born prematurely.
It is simply untrue that Americans do not have the resources to care for sick babies. We spend more money per year on beer ($74 billion) and pet acquisition ($63 billion) than we do on pediatric care for children ($49 billion). We have the means, we just don’t have the will, because we’re a selfish nation.
(28) Who sponsors (or pays for) this exhibit?
We are sponsored by a campus club who invited us to your school. The Center For Bio-Ethical Reform developed the Genocide Awareness Project and it is a non-profit group funded by private donations.
(29) You’re disgusting to show these pictures!
Is it more disgusting to visually educate people about abortion than for abortionists to perform abortions? We are out here today to wake up a country that is killing it’s unborn children at the rate of 1 out of every 3 conceived. This is a genocidal problem of great magnitude.
(30) How many children have you adopted?
There are very few babies available for adoption because they’re being aborted. The National Adoption Information Clearing house estimates that in the 1990’s only 120,000 adoptions occurs each year in the U.S., and this figure includes the adoption of older children and babies from overseas. Compare this small figure with the 1.5 million annual U.S. abortions reported by the Guttmacher Institute. Many of our colleagues are on waiting lists now to adopt children, but they aren’t available. They’re being killed by abortion.
