Chocolate Instead of Condoms
An upstart pro-chastity group called Project Plus sponsored a hugely successful outreach on Valentine’s Day at the University of Mary Washington in Virginia in response to the “Condom and a Kiss” campaign that hits colleges nationwide on this holiday, whereby students are given a Hershey’s Kiss and a free condom. Project Plus countered by handing out full-size Hershey’s Chocolate Bars labled True Love Is Worth More than Contraception. They handed out 360 bars in less than 2 hours.
Inside the candy wrapper, the group explained their strategy, “It makes sense that condoms are handed out today with nothing more than a tiny chocolate kiss. This reflects how little love you can express while using one.” The League sent Britt Shackle, leader of Project Plus, a complimentary set of our “Contraception Is Not the Answer” CDs for conducting such a creative project.
The Return of Rescue
Shortly after Father Norman Weslin of Omaha, NE was found not guilty of violating the federal FACE (Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances) law, thirty pro-lifers from Survivors United held a rescue at an abortion clinic in Westminster, PA. Under the direction of Mark Houck, the group conducted a sit-in, blocking the doors of a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic.
Only two of the activists were cited with trespassing, while the clinic, which had scheduled twenty abortions, closed for the day. Three women were talked out of having abortions. One pro-lifer was hit by a car driven by an abortion supporter. He was taken by ambulance to the hospital but was released.
Activists Unfazed by Businesses’ Complaints
Many business owners near the Women’s Medical Center abortion clinic in Clifton, OH, aren’t happy that a group of pro-life activists line the sidewalk outside the clinic with graphic abortion pictures every Friday afternoon, according to a March 12 Cincinnati Enquirer article. One restaurant owner commented, “It’s just awful. It’s blood and guts and teeny little bodies. That’s just hideous.” She and several other local proprietors have complained about the signs, as well as what they call the activists’ “excessive actions.”
Some of these pro-lifers are parishioners at St. Pius X Chapel in nearby Northside, OH. In an op-ed printed in the Enquirer March 17, St. Pius pastor Fr. Brendan Dardis, who joins the activists in front of the clinic regularly, responded to the article:
The real story is what our men, women and children are subjected to while peacefully praying. Each week we get lewd and profane gestures and insults from motorists. Cars veer toward us to scare us. Pedestrians have spat upon us and threatened violence. One pedestrian violently punched our signs as we held them. One patron of the Cactus Pear restaurant brandished a gun in front of our schoolchildren before entering his truck.
Regarding the use of graphic pictures, Father Dardis noted, “Sadly, such pictures are necessary education for a society that is still incredibly ignorant about the so-called ‘harmless’ abortion procedure.” Unfazed by local businesses’ complaints, Father Dardis plainly said, “Clifton had better get used to us. We will be there until Clifton’s abortuary closes or until police take us away in handcuffs for peaceful prayer and assembly.”
College Campuses Face the Truth
Various pro-life groups have been busy this spring exposing the grim reality of abortion on college campuses nationwide, including Missionaries to the Preborn and the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform (CBR).
The Missionaries spent several days showing graphic abortion pictures and distributing literature at numerous campuses throughout southern and western Illinois. Pastor Matt Trewhella commented that everywhere they went, “the literature flowed like water,” and noted on one occasion that a student told him that their presence had caused “the entire student body” to talk about abortion.
Among the various campuses visited by CBR was the University of New Hampshire, whose pro-life club had arranged for the group’s Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) display to be on campus for three straight days. The display attracted much attention from local media. The New Hampshire Union Leader quoted pro-abortion UNH student Cass Mercer, commenting on the display with breathtaking candor: “They’re using the death of all those people to shove their point down our throats. It’s horrendous, and it’s abuse of life.”