Center for Bio-Ethical Reform

[catholicinsd]

[url="http://www.abortionNO.org"]Their Website[/url] (warning this contains pics of aborted fetuses)

What are your thoughts on this rockin' organization? I have donated severals hours serving them, as their regional office is located in the same town as I am.

Edited January 11, 2006 by catholicinsd

[Cow of Shame]

[quote name='catholicinsd' date='Jan 11 2006, 06:43 AM']
What are your thoughts on this rockin' organization? I have donated severals hours serving them
[/quote]


Doesn't really sound like you're looking for objective criticism or critiques.

Can't say I'm in the mood to look at baby carcasses this morning, either.

[photosynthesis]

There is a time and a place for everything, and while I think it important for these pictures to be made public, the way some pro-life organizations force such pictures on people (i.e. holding up signs at traffic intersections and causing accidents) is intrusive and disrespectful.

Jubilate Deo, my college's campus ministry, got Stephanie Gray (from the CFBR) to come to speak at our campus a few years ago. Pro-life people make up a very small percentage of students, and huge crowds of people protested at the event, passing out condoms to people who walked into the door. Despite this, the lecture hall was PACKED with angry feminists. It all turned into this huge screaming match.

Stephanie wanted to show people pictures of bloody fetuses, but the projector was broken. Needless to say, lots of people were offended, particularly Jewish students who resented the fact that the Genocide Awareness Project was comparing legal abortion to the Holocaust.

Looking back, I don't think the Center for Bio-ethical Reform was the right choice for our campus, since I think that the presentation made people more callous towards the pro-life movement. I think that if we had a more neutral organization like Feminists for Life come to the campus, people might be more receptive to pro-life ideas. Plus, FFL works with campuses to create child-friendly alternatives to abortion.

I think that there are situations in which CFBR presentations work really well, and Stephanie Gray said that Goucher College was by far the most hostile campus she'd ever encountered, as opposed to University of Maryland, where her presence was recieved very well.

[catholicinsd]

[quote name='photosynthesis' date='Jan 11 2006, 11:30 AM']There is a time and a place for everything, and while I think it important for these pictures to be made public, the way some pro-life organizations force such pictures on people (i.e. holding up signs at traffic intersections and causing accidents) is intrusive and disrespectful.

Jubilate Deo, my college's campus ministry, got Stephanie Gray (from the CFBR)  to come to speak at our campus a few years ago.  Pro-life people make up a very small percentage of students, and huge crowds of people protested at the event, passing out condoms to people who walked into the door.  Despite this, the lecture hall was PACKED with angry feminists.  It all turned into this huge screaming match.

Stephanie wanted to show people pictures of bloody fetuses, but the projector was broken.  Needless to say, lots of people were offended, particularly Jewish students who resented the fact that the Genocide Awareness Project was comparing legal abortion to the Holocaust.

Looking back, I don't think the Center for Bio-ethical Reform was the right choice for our campus, since I think that the presentation made people more callous towards the pro-life movement.  I think that if we had a more neutral organization like Feminists for Life come to the campus, people might be more receptive to pro-life ideas.  Plus, FFL works with campuses to create child-friendly alternatives to abortion.

I think that there are situations in which CFBR presentations work really well, and Stephanie Gray said that Goucher College was by far the most hostile campus she'd ever encountered, as opposed to University of Maryland, where her presence was recieved very well.
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Ms. Gray is a friend of mine. She says that CBR needs to go to campuses like yours.

[photosynthesis]

It does, but different methods of presenting the pro-life message work at different colleges. What works at Franciscan University of Steubenville isn't going to work for a heathen campus where everyone is extremely hostile to anything that is remotely conservative. Big universities tend to be more receptive to things like the Center for Bioethical Reform simply because the size of the campus allows for more diversity of opinion. I know a lot of students at University of Maryland who only hang out with students at the Catholic Student Center and avoid everyone else.

We originally planned the event to be an Abortion Debate, where we would have Stephanie come in and present her case, and then we would have a member of the Women's Studies Department or a local pro-choice organization come in and present their case. This way, we figured that more people would want to go and people would have a chance to hear the pro-life message, which is so often stifled on campus.

But, no pro-choice speakers we contacted wanted to be panelists in our debate, so we just ended up with Stephanie Gray giving a presentation to a room full of screaming students. Some girls were crying and the security guards had to escort some people off the premesis because they were starting to get violent.

I just think there has to be a way to present the pro-life message in a way that doesn't cause a widespread revolt.

[catholicinsd]

[quote name='photosynthesis' date='Jan 11 2006, 02:57 PM']But, no pro-choice speakers we contacted wanted to be panelists in our debate,
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This speaks volume to the power of CBR and Pro-life message.

[Cow of Shame]

[quote name='catholicinsd' date='Jan 11 2006, 12:20 PM']This speaks volume to the power of CBR
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Or that they think CBR is crazy & not worth debating.

You never know

[catholicinsd]

[quote name='Cow of Shame' date='Jan 11 2006, 03:22 PM']Or that they think CBR is crazy & not worth debating.


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Moreover its to the contwery

[Cow of Shame]

I don't understand your crazy moon-language

[catholicinsd]

sorry i can't spell
i was try to say moreover its to the contrary

[avemaria40]

i think their motives are great and I'm glad that they are raising awareness to abortion but the trucks are just too much. I think people should know,but it's definetly not for little kids to see. That could be pretty traumatizing. I prefer Rock for Life and Feminists for Life

[catholicinsd]

[quote name='avemaria40' date='Jan 11 2006, 05:04 PM']i think their motives are great and I'm glad that they are raising awareness to abortion but the trucks are just too much.  I think people should know,but it's definetly not for little kids to see.  That could be pretty traumatizing.  I prefer Rock for Life and Feminists for Life
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Well, its not like its the only thing children will ever see that might distress them.

[avemaria40]

that is true, but if i had a kid, I wouldn't want them to see that and have nightmares about dead babies, that is gory enough for an R rated movie, these kinds of things should be reserved for high school and college age students, not for young children to see randomly in the middle of the streets. Why distress them when they don't need it?

[catholicinsd]

[quote name='avemaria40' date='Jan 11 2006, 05:11 PM']that is true, but if i had a kid, I wouldn't want them to see that and have nightmares about dead babies, that is gory enough for an R rated movie, these kinds of things should be reserved for high school and college age students, not for young children to see randomly in the middle of the streets.  Why distress them when they don't need it?
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For the record CBR makes a point not to drive with at 2 blocks of an elementary school ever. Secondly most pro-life parents can easily explain the pictures, its the pro-aborts that can't.

[Cow of Shame]

[quote name='catholicinsd' date='Jan 11 2006, 02:14 PM'] Secondly most pro-life parents can easily explain the pictures, its the pro-aborts that can't.
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And I'm sure I could "explain" a photo of a man being beheaded, but that won't lessen the child's abject horror at having viewed it.

You need to concede the point, man.

Edited January 11, 2006 by Cow of Shame

[avemaria40]

exactly. Just hearing about abortion as a seven year old in Catholic school was scary, I can't even imagine how scared I woulld have been to see it. Even if they aren't near elementary schools, they could pass preschools, or grocery stores where chlidren w/their mothers would have no doubt seen it, or anyplace b/c there are children everywhere. Would you want your 5 year old seeing bloody dead corpses, no doubt murdered? Because that is exactly what abortion is and yes, children should know that it is wrong, but that's it. Children also learn from their parents how babies are conceived, especially if their mom is pregnant, but would that mean you want them to see how? No, you wouldn't. They also learn not to take "candy" from strangers, does that mean we should show them pictures of what meth does to your body? They are children and have a right to their innocence, not to be tampered with the corruption of the world. They will see that when they get older, but it is no reason for them to have nightmares about it now.

Edited January 11, 2006 by avemaria40

[photosynthesis]

It is precisely [i]because[/i] the act of abortion is so horrible that children deserve to be sheltered from such evil. However, people in the pro-life movement need to exercise caution and prudence regarding showing such pictures to adults as well.

People also have to recognize that abortion is a traumatic event. Women who have had abortions often develop post-abortion syndrome and such pictures can induce traumatic episodes... Also, survivors of abortion can be triggered by such imagery as well.