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Aug. 10 (LifeSiteNews) – Imagine an abortion-free Canada. In a country where an abortion happens every five minutes, this seems like a long shot.

But following in the footsteps of the U.S.-based Center for Bioethical Reform (CBR), The Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform (CCBR) is seeking to do just that, by making abortion unthinkable in Canada.

The pro-life group's mission can be summarized in one sentence: public policy will not change unless public opinion changes. This means that the Canadian people are the ones who will change the laws on abortion. Politicians will not support legislation if they don’t have the votes to back their decisions. Because of this, CCBR focuses on the people – it exposes abortion for what it really is, and helps people come to the realization that abortion is a hidden genocide.

In order to do this, CCBR uses a strategy that has worked time and time again to expose the greatest human rights violations of all time. Look at great social reform movements like the abolitionist slave movement, child labor movement, the civil rights movement (just to name a few), and we notice they all have one thing in common. They all use visual evidence of the injustice, they spread it around and make it public, and they effectively end whatever human rights violation is going on at the time.

With heroes like William Wilberforce, Lewis Hine, and Martin Luther King Jr. in mind, CCBR activates the public through its use of graphic abortion victim photography.

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The women of the Canadian Center for Bioethical Reform

“Abortion victim photography is the most powerful tool the pro-life movement possesses. We live in a visual culture, and the riveting visual evidence of what abortion does to pre-born children has the power to transform the way people see the issue in a way that slogans and philosophical arguments do not,” said Jonathon Van Maren, a spokesperson for CCBR in an interview with LifeSiteNews.

However, CCBR’s strategy has been widely criticized for its shock factor. Critics say its use of graphic abortion images is unnecessary, ineffective, and traumatizing – especially to women and children.

But the fact is, abortion kills.

“What our pictures do is show that while choice is obviously a precious liberty, some choices are wrong,” said Van Maren in defense of CCBR’s strategy.

These images are disturbing, bloody; they depict death. But CCBR believes they are the most effective way to change the minds and hearts of Canadian people.

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CCBR staffers hard at work exposing the reality of abortion on Parliament Hill in Ottawa

“In a way, I see myself in those pictures. I didn’t have a voice and neither did they. Thank you for being a voice for the voiceless,” a sexual assault victim recently told CCBR staff member Kianna Owen.

Van Maren explains: “We have seen thousands of people change their minds, and we've used professional polling companies to test the efficacy of abortion victim photography by asking them their views on abortion before and after they see what abortion actually is.”

Wilma Zekveld, a returning summer intern for CCBR’s Eastern Internship, told LifeSiteNews about a woman she met on the streets that had several miscarriages and an ectopic pregnancy. The woman told Wilma, “Although I hate to see what aborted babies look like, I think people need to see what it looks like, and realize that miscarriage is an unfortunate thing, but it is not the purposeful killing of a pre-born child.” 

Abortion claims to offer an easy way out of a pregnancy, but no abortion clinic will explain the process. In an undercover interview with Planned Parenthood, one health educator told LifeSiteNews that an abortion in the first trimester would be a simple process that would result in the “gentle empty[ing] of a woman’s uterus. Nothing about the brutal killing of a pre-born human being. Nothing about the decapitation, dismemberment, and disembowelment of Canada’s youngest children.

Because of this, CCBR uses a strategy that has been statistically proven to ‘turn people off’ of abortion – to show the public the sickening reality of abortion.

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The men of the Canadian Center for Bioethical Reform

“My favorite memory from activism would be holding in my arms a little boy who had been scheduled to be aborted only months earlier,” said Jonathon when asked about the effectiveness of the images. “His mother walked past images of abortion victim photography while walking down the sidewalk, and without even talking to anyone she knew that she had to cancel her appointment. Seeing what had happened to one precious child in the womb prevented her from making a decision that would have resulted in her little boy's destruction.”

This experience is only one of the many similar experience that CCBR staff and interns have had over the years. Like several other pro-life groups in Canada, CCBR offers a summer internship program where high-school and university students do full time pro-life activism during their summer vacation.

The experience is unlike anything they will do in their lives. The internship is, essentially, public outreach. Interns told LifeSiteNews that they learned how to make a difference in Canada. To stand up for their beliefs and do something about abortion. The work is difficult, yes, but the discomfort, the awkwardness, the animosity pales in comparison to seeing people change their minds right in front of you.

As this summer comes to a close, CCBR staff begins to prepare for the 2017 summer internship. Most of the 2015 interns returned for a second summer of activism with CCBR, giving proof to how powerful the experience is. “It’s just a great experience, you work with great people and you save lives all at the same time,” said returning intern Irene De Souza.

It is an opportunity to do something about the horrific reality of abortion, and disprove the pro-choice assumption that “pro-lifers are all old, white men.”  

If you or anyone you know is interested in applying for CCBR’s 2017 summer internship, or want to get involved with CCBR either in Calgary or Toronto, check out CCBR’s website https://www.unmaskingchoice.ca.

NOTE** The author of this article, Ksenia Koltusky, is currently spending her summer as an intern with CCBR. As part of her internship, Ksenia has to fundraise a portion of her salary. If you would like to support her internship through a donation, please make cheques payable to “CCBR,” and mailed to: CCBR, Box 123, 5-8720 Macleod Trail SE, Calgary, AB, T2H 0M4 with a note indicating support for ‘Ksenia Koltusky.’ You can also donate online at: www.unmaskingchoice.ca/donate. Please make sure to add a memo with her name so your donation will be added to Ksenia's CCBR fund.