CBR stands for the Centre for Bio-ethical Reform. It was established by Gregg Cunningham in the US in 1990.
Gregg has an incredible bio which you can read in full on his website. He has years of expertise working in the military (Air force reserve colonal, decorated war veteran), in government (Two-term member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives) in law (Special Assistant US Attorney for Los Angeles), and in strategy (11 years assigned to pentagon with the Checkmate Division of the Air force and an intelligence officer in the Office of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Readiness).
Whilst he was working as special assistant US attorney for Los Angeles, he was shown a video of an abortion procedure. Gregg realised that whilst hundreds of people were lining up to take his job, few were lining up to save babies and end abortion. He decided to quit his job, and use his military, political and legal experience to come up with, and implement, a strategy to end abortion. He studied the history of social reform, looking at the abolition of the slave trade, the civil rights movement, the suffragette movement (and many more), to find the key principles for ending injustice. The common themes he found throughout were injustice that is invisible is tolerable, but injustice that is made visible becomes intolerable and no injustice has ever ended by being covered up, it has to be exposed.
Gregg set out to gather the evidence of the hidden injustice of abortion, and has since created the worlds largest database of abortion victim images to expose its reality.
He launched creative and controversial campaigns, inspired by social reform history, to expose hidden tensions and draw out the media attention so that the reality of abortion would be seen by the masses and public conscience would be awakened.
His projects have reached millions of Americans, shifting votes in swing states towards pro-life candidates, and challenging hearts and minds to reject abortion. Pro-life advocates around the world have since heard about the impact of CBR, and many have joined the CBR ranks, employing these strategies to make abortion unthinkable in their country.
To understand the strategy in further detail please watch our ‘How to end abortion’ presentation.
The Founding of CBR UK
In 2007 Andy Stephenson started his journey to founding CBR UK.
Andy went to see an ultrasound of his first child at 12 weeks gestation. When he saw his baby he experienced an internal revelation that he was already a father. Within days of seeing his child, his mother showed him a picture of a baby who had been killed by abortion at the same gestation. This image struck Andy deeply, causing him sleepless nights, compelling him to research the pro-life work in the UK and to get involved. He discovered lots of pastoral support and post abortive care, but was underwhelmed by the education and strategic response towards ending abortion. Andy came across CBR in the US, and witnessed the impact Gregg’s projects were having on the masses. He became convinced that just as seeing abortion had changed his mind AND had moved him to action, it would have the same impact on others. And he was right.
After connecting with Gregg, Andy started doing public education displays outside his local abortion clinic in Brighton. At first it was just him and a 16-year old named Kathryn, but slowly a small team gathered around them and regular displays began to take place.
It’s interesting to note that whenever these images are shown publicly in countries for the first time, there is always opposition, and the right to freedom of speech often needs to be established in the courtroom. Andy and Kathryn were arrested 3 times outside the abortion clinic under the public order act and were accused by the police of intending to cause alarm harassment and distress. Andy, Gregg and a legal team challenged this prosecution in court and won the case, proving that simply showing an image of a legal procedure could not be unlawful. If there was a problem with showing abortion, maybe there was a big problem with the abortion itself.
From this Andy and Kathryn sued the police for wrongful arrest in the high court and won the case. Sussex police were ordered to issue a letter of apology and pay a huge legal bill as a consequence. This has helped to establish CBR UK’s right to show abortion victim images across the UK (and beyond).