Every semester, volunteers from Project Truth, with the legal assistance of LLDF attorneys, travel to California college campuses to educate students about abortion and its consequences. In one instance, a college administrator challenged Project Truth member Don Blythe about the group’s methods and make up. This is his response.
I want to thank you for your professionalism in the correspondence and our subsequent activities on your campus these past two days. You have a very challenging job and I thank you for your effort to work through the difficulties of having a controversial issue addressed on the campus. I know you faced a lot of hostility and intolerance from some of your faculty and staff throughout the two days we were on the campus. We also faced a little of that from faculty, and this seems to be common in most colleges.
The overwhelming majority of the students on campus, though, were respectful during our presence among them. Even those who disagreed with us, with some exceptions, were polite in their disagreements.
This free speech activity worked the way our Forefathers hoped it would work and also fit well with our Courts establishing the college campus as a “marketplace of ideas”.
It is my hope that the many students who expressed to us their appreciation of our being on the campus, came into your office and personally expressed their views. Even some of those who disagreed with our position on the issue of abortion thanked us for our respect towards them in our dialogues and debate. This is part of our goal.
Yesterday you asked me, “Where are the women on our team?” I understand the implication of the question and would like to answer that question a little more thoroughly than I did in our brief moment yesterday, if you don‘t mind.
Our team is usually made up of 50/50 women and men. One of our women is seven months pregnant with her first child and was only able to be on campus one day. Two of the women on our team are women who have had abortions and have worked through the regret and mistake they made, and when we are on campuses, they are usually sitting off somewhere with one of the many students who have approached us about their hurt and regret over having had an abortion. While the students who are now regretting their past abortions are directed to one of our women, some of those students prefer to speak to the men and all of us are moved by their willingness to share their stories with us.
Many students tell us that if they had seen our photos before they had gone into the abortion center, they would not have had the abortion. Some express their anger over what they perceive as a cover-up by the abortion centers, and thank us for uncovering the reality for them. One of your students came up to us and thanked us for changing her mind with the disturbing photos at an earlier event. She said she went on to have her baby and is so glad she didn’t abort. We get that a lot.
You see, this issue is a “human life” issue, not a man/woman divide.We propose that those who think only women should be able to address the abortion issue, are coming across as sexist, and have not recognized the true nature and facts of the issue.
For example, do you have to be a woman to stand up against rape or spousal abuse? Or does one have to be cat or dolphin to hate cruelty to animals?
We remind those who say this is “only a woman’s issue,” to look at the history of abortion-on-demand in America.
It was seven men on a Supreme Court who legalized abortion in 1973.
It is men who perform abortions, with few exceptions.
It is the man who gets out of responsibility when the pregnancy and abortion occurs.
It is the man who most often pressures the woman to abort.
It was a man who was the abortionist for the Feminist Women’s Center in Butte county, who “had a list of lawsuits as long as your arm,” as one lawyer stated. This abortionist, Bruce Steir, botched an abortion, killed a woman in one of the abortion centers and was eventually convicted, lost his license, and spent one year in jail for his crime of “willful negligence.”
The story actually made some news headlines.
While all of this was going on, the director of the abortion center in Butte county, a woman, was singing the abortionist’s praises in the news and telling women how great and compassionate this doctor is towards women.
We men and women must stand up to the abortion industry, to speak out and protect women from the exploitation by women and men, in this cruel vice called abortion.
Should I add for emphasis the cruel practice highlighted in a Newsweek article a few years ago, which addressed the growing trend of couples determining the gender of the baby during the pregnancy and deciding whether to abort the baby if it is a girl. Do I have to be a woman to speak out against this barbaric trend?
I haven’t even mentioned speaking up for the babies being killed, who have no voice. Remember, half of the 52 million abortions performed since 1973 aborted little girls/women!!
I hope this more thoroughly answers your concern.
How can we men not speak up!!
Thank you Ms. Munson for your efforts to make our visit to the Butte College a memorable one. We had a great time of engagement.
In His Steps,
Don Blythe, Project Truth