Archive for the 'The Front Lines' Category

I mentioned a few weeks ago that among the hundreds of pro-lifers who participated in our Face the Truth Tour last month were dozens of teens, including members of three Chicago area pro-life clubs (Apostles for Life and Crusaders for Life, both based in Lombard, and the pro-life club at St. Ignatius College Prep in Chicago).

One of the members of Crusaders for Life, Alexandra Cheatham, was one of those who participated. Her reflections are included below.

Reflections on Face the Truth

By Alexandra Cheatham, Crusaders for Life

People these days are affected by pictures more then they are by words. Words go right through many people and the only way to reach them is by presenting them with something visual.

Realizing this, many of my friends and I decided to participate in Pro-Life Action League’s annual Face the Truth Tour.

(more…)

Our Face the Truth Tour last week was a great success. (You can read more details about it at the additional links listed at the end of this post.)

Among the hundreds of pro-lifers who participated in this year’s Tour were dozens of teens, including members of three Chicago area pro-life clubs (Apostles for Life and Crusaders for Life, both based in Lombard, and the pro-life club at St. Ignatius College Prep in Chicago).

It was great to see so many teens jump right in and voluntarily take on some of the hard jobs — like passing out literature — and engage in (sometimes lengthy) discussions with people passing by who didn’t at all like what we were doing.

Case in point — Alex, one of the members of Crusaders for Life:

My Pro-Life Action League co-worker Corrina Gura was the one who filmed this exchange, and she wrote this on the PLAL blog earlier this week: (more…)

Stand True Director Bryan Kemper reported recently that one of his group’s pro-life T-shirts was banned at a Christian music festival in Kentucky.

The reason? It was too “offensive.”

Hearing about this reminded me of one of the objections we can expect to hear over the next few weeks, during and in the wake of our 11th annual Chicago Area Face the Truth Tour.

I mentioned in a post a couple weeks ago about our page that answers common objections to Face the Truth, but in this post I’d like to focus on one particular objection that I must admit I find it hard to get my head around. Specifically, the charge that showing graphic abortion pictures in public is uncharitable—and even un-Christian, especially because of the supposedly damaging effects it has on children.

(more…)

Our 11th annual Face the Truth Tour starts Friday, July 9 and runs through Saturday, July 17.

You can see the complete Tour schedule here.

If you’re anywhere near Chicago, join us! If not, please say some prayers for us—and, even more importantly, pray that many people’s hearts will be changed by seeing the ugly reality of abortion.

After several years of experience showing graphic abortion pictures out on the streets, we’ve gotten used to hearing complaints. That’s why we’ve posted a FAQ-type page on the Pro-Life Action League’s site that answers the most common objections we hear:

• What if children see these graphic abortion pictures?
• What effect do these pictures have on a woman who has had an abortion?
• Doesn’t the public display of graphic abortion pictures make the pro-life movement look extreme?
• Doesn’t it dishonor the unborn babies in these pictures to show them out on the street?

Our answers are here.

It was pouring rain last Saturday when my Pro-Life Action League co-worker Corrina Gura went to pray outside the Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in downtown Chicago, so she wondered if any other pro-lifers would show up.

Not only were many of the regular sidewalk counselors and prayer supporters there, but so too were a group of 20 college students, many of whom are involved with a group called Totus Tuus.

While watching the video, I was very happy to see that Annie and I know two of the students Corrina spoke with: John Bishop (the first interview) was formerly part of a very active pro-life club at Dowling High School in West Des Moines, Iowa), and Sean Grismer (the last interview) was involved with Youth for Truth, which was formed in response to Planned Parenthood’s sneaking into Aurora, Illinois in 2007:

(more…)

There was an entry posted this week on The Abortioneers — a group blog whose contributors work in the abortion industry — that provides an interesting glimpse into their mindset.

As with most other entries on The Abortioneers blog, apparently its purpose is to reaffirm the belief that providing abortions is right, good, and noble. This particular post also aims to make “antis” (i.e., pro-lifers) feel as if all of our efforts are worthless:

Despite the hatred flowing out of your mouths, they have their abortions anyway. What you say, though it may upset, does not stop them from getting abortions.

“Hatred”? Please.

“…does not stop them from getting abortions”?

Watch No Greater Joy and hear interviews with three of the thousands of women who went to an abortion clinic planning to have an abortion, but then freely chose to change their minds and give birth to their babies instead. (Notice also the lack of hatred flowing out of the mouths of the sidewalk counselors.)

(more…)

Planned Parenthood has proved, once again, that they’ve only got one play in their miserable little play book. They can’t defend corrupting youth, destroying families and killing 305,310 unborn babies they kill every year. So they always resort to demonizing pro-lifers.

The latest attack comes from Planned Parenthood of East Central Iowa CEO Joe Lock. In a report from KCRG news today he raises the possibility of violence over the Pro-Life Action League’s protest of his big abortion gala this evening where Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards will speak.

Lock’s Desperate Ploy

Lock claims to have been working with police, local businesses and even the FBI to prevent any violence from disrupting his big abortion party. He says they’ve been calling attendees to assure them of their safety. (more…)

Last night’s vote passing the President’s health care overhaul in the House of Representatives was a big loss. But now that the bill has been passed, how does it change things for pro-life activists?

Not much, according to Ann Scheidler, Vice President of our parent organization, the Pro-Life Action League. And I agree with her. Check out the entry she posted today on the League’s Hotline blog.

Unborn babies are still being killed all over America today, just like they would be if the vote had gone the other way yesterday.

So our task remains the same: to save babies and their mothers from abortion and expose the horror of abortion to the American people.

As Ann says in her post, “It won’t matter if federal funds can be used to pay for abortion if we can intervene and save those babies at the clinic doors.”

(more…)

Carol Everett. Anthony Levatino. Beverly McMillan. Joan Appleton. Luhra Tivis. McArthur Hill.

What do these people have in common?

All of them used to work in the abortion industry. Doctors Levatino, McMillan, and Hill actually performed abortions themselves, Joan Appleton was an abortion clinic nurse, Carol Everett was an abortion clinic administrator, and Luhra Tivis was a medical receptionist for late-term abortionist George Tiller.

Along with many other former abortion providers, they have all spoken out publicly about how they came to be pro-life.

I thought about these former-abortion-industry-workers-turned-pro-lifers when I realized today, March 10, is the National Day of Appreciation for Abortion Providers.

What can we as pro-lifers do to counter this “Appreciation Day”? Lots of things, I suppose, but the first thing that comes to my mind is prayer.

(more…)

If I could only pick one word to describe the 2010 March for Life, it would be:

Huge.

There is always a massive crowd at the March, but several people I talked to thought that the crowd this year even larger than it usually is.

Of the many signs I saw today, I think this one was my favorite:

I’ve posted other pictures from the March here.

I hope you’ve made plans to attend the March for Life in Washington, DC later this week.

If you’ll be there, join us! Generations for Life will be marching together with other members of Youth Life Alliance in a show of unity among national pro-life youth organizations, and I would like to invite you and your group to march with us.

Here are the details:

• WHEN TO MEET: 12:00 noon on Friday, January 22
• WHERE TO MEET: Madison Dr. NW, just west of 4th St.
• WHAT TO LOOK FOR: The Generations for Life banner

I hope you’ll be able to join us at the March, but if you can’t make it, you can still be a part of the Virtual March for Life.

If you haven’t yet made plans to attend the March for Life in Washington, DC, there’s still time, but not much. It’s just over two weeks away, on January 22.

If you’re going to the March, join us! Generations for Life will be marching together with other members of the Youth Life Alliance in a show of unity among national pro-life youth organizations.

We’ll be posting more details soon.

As we prepare to celebrate the birth of Our Lord Jesus in a few weeks, I’m also looking forward to one of my favorite Advent traditions: the Pro-Life Action League’s annual “Empty Manger” Christmas Caroling Day.

Each year on the Saturday before Christmas, we visit abortion clinics in Chicago to sing Christmas carols, gathered around a life-size “empty manger”, which symbolizes both the empty space
left behind by abortion and the hope born with every child, even in difficult circumstances.

This year’s Caroling Day is Saturday, December 19, and we’ll be conducting TWO different caroling tours — one in Chicago and one in west suburban DuPage County.

You can get all the details, including maps and schedules, here.

If you don’t live near Chicago, how about doing your own “Empty Manger” Caroling Day at abortion clinics or Planned Parenthood offices in YOUR area? Pro-life groups all over the country have taken up this idea, and babies have been saved when their mothers heard the caroling.

To make it easy, we’ve prepared a caroling song sheet [PDF] you can copy and pass out.

If you do your own Caroling Day, send us some pictures and let us know how it goes!

40 Days for Life ended this past Sunday, and the results were amazing.

This was the fifth ever 40 Days for Life campaign. Before it started on September 23, more than 1,561 babies had been saved by abortion at 40 Days for Life vigil sites. Now that number is over 2,000.

In addition, eight workers in the abortion industry quit their jobs—including Abby Johnson, the former director of the Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Bryan, Texas!

Her story is amazing, because her conversion started when she actually witnessed an abortion on ultrasound!

And as you can imagine, the Planned Parenthood where she used to work isn’t happy:

If you took part in a 40 Days for Life vigil, God bless you! But whether or not you did, I still hope you’ll consider going out to an abortion clinic to pray on a regular basis from now on.

If you participated in the Pro-Life Day of Silent Solidarity on Tuesday, you were one of over 200,000 people in 25 countries who gave up their voice for those who will never have a voice.

The next day, my friend Bryan Kemper of Stand True, which sponsored the Day, wrote this:

I know that I am going to hear about babies being saved every year, but I still get choked up as I start to read the stories. I am writing this report about 24 hours after getting the first stories back and we have already heard about 27 babies lives saved from our efforts yesterday. Think about that: 27 precious human beings who were scheduled for death will now live their lives.

Two of those stories were unique to accounts from any of the other years; I heard back from one girl

(more…)