The Daily Signal - Her Pro-Life Center Was Attacked by Pro-Abortion Thugs. She Fears It's 'Going to Get Worse.'

Episode Date: June 29, 2022

Across the nation, pregnancy resource centers are under fire. Pro-abortion radicals are increasingly vandalizing these safe havens for women experiencing unplanned pregnancies, smashing their windows, spray-painting vulgarities on their walls, and even firebombing them. The most recent target of this senseless violence and vandalism by pro-abortion extremists was the Blue Ridge Pregnancy Center in Lynchburg, Virginia, which was hit early Saturday morning. Susan Campbell, the center's executive director, is incredibly disheartened by what happened. "We're a service that's well-known, and so our community is loving and kind and supports us at every level. We were shocked to be the target of the vandalism," she says. "We were the only center in Virginia that was hit [after Roe v. Wade was overturned], and we were just deeply saddened by that." Regrettably, Campbell doesn't think that her center will be the last to be vandalized. "I don't think that it's going to stop, and I think that it's only going to get worse from here, simply because of the overturning of Roe v. Wade," Campbell says. "But we've been praying for this for a long time, and we're not intimidated or dissuaded from our mission." Campbell joins the show to share her story and offer a message of hope to those mothers and mothers-to-be looking for assistance in what can be the toughest time in their lives. We also cover these stories: Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra says "every option is on the table" when asked about whether abortion clinics could be set up on federal lands in states with strict anti-abortion laws. President Joe Biden responds to criticism that his policies on border security led to the deaths of 50 illegal immigrants whose bodies were discovered in a sweltering tractor-trailer in San Antonio. Hillary Clinton criticizes Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in the wake of the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Wednesday, June 29th. I'm Virginia Allen. And I'm Doug Blair. Across the nation, pregnancy crisis centers are under fire. Pro-abortion radicals routinely vandalize these safe havens for poor mothers by smashing their windows, spray-painting vulgarities on their walls, and firebombing them. One of the victims of this relentless campaign by the pro-abortion movement is Susan Campbell. She's the executive director at Blue Ridge Pregnancy Center in Lynchburg, Virginia.

She joins the show today to share her. story of how her facility was attacked and offer a message of hope to those mothers looking for assistance and what can be the toughest time in their lives. But before we get to Doug's conversation with Susan Campbell, let's hit our top news stories of the day. Abortion clinics might be coming to federal lands in the near future if Health and Human Services Secretary Javier Becerra is to be believed. Becerra said that every option is on the table as he and the Biden administration plan next

steps in the aftermath of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Here's Becerra via USA Today. What I can tell you is that we are aware of a number of ideas and proposals, many of which we have been considering internally ourselves. We have no decisions yet. We certainly would have conversation with the president to make sure we implement his directives to us in trying to protect women's reproductive health care services. but as I said, every option is on the table.

We will take a look at everything we can, and everything we do will be in compliance with the law. Wal-Basara claimed that all options were on the table, the White House was more cautious on its proposals. During a press conference Tuesday, White House press secretary, Karin Jean-Pierre said that there could be unintended consequences for doctors who perform abortions on federal land. And Vice President Kamala Harris told CNN on Monday

that putting clinics on federal land was currently, not being considered. President Joe Biden is firing back after criticism that his policies led to the deaths of 50 illegal migrants in a tractor trailer found in San Antonio, Texas. The semi-truck carrying the migrants was refrigerated, but the refrigerator was either broken or failed to be turned on. There was also no water inside the truck. Sixteen migrants, including four children, were taken to the hospital in critical condition. In response to the news of the tragedy, Texas Governor Greg Abbott blamed the Biden administration's open border policies for the deadly incident. Biden responded to the criticism in a statement Tuesday saying exploiting vulnerable individuals for profit is shameful, as is political grandstanding

around tragedy. Biden says that initial report suggests that the tragedy was caused by smugglers or human traffickers. Heritage Foundation visiting fellow and former acting ice director Tom Holman joined Fox News Tuesday and expressed his frustration with the Biden administration's border policies. And I want to see, it angers me, because I want to see the Secretary of Homeland Security come out to press today, come out and give a statement and continue to lie to the American people that this border is secure and it's closed, that you have operations control of the border, that your policies are safe, order, and humane. Because the fact is, your policies are called record, has caused record illegal immigration. The more people to cross that border, the more that

die. From September 2020 to September 2021, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported 557 migrant deaths. That's the highest number on record. Customs and Border Protection have not yet reported the updated numbers from this year. In the days following the Supreme Court's ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has received quite a great deal of criticism. Most recently, from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during an interview on CBS. Here's some of that. I went to law school with him. He's been a person of grievance for as long as I've known him.

Resentment, grievance, anger. Clinton's remarks come after Thomas wrote in a concurring opinion, released the same day as the Dobbs ruling, that in future cases, we should reconsider all of this court's substantive due process precedence. These remarks are driving fears that Thomas might be. be advocating for the court to reconsider previous rulings on things like contraception and same-sex marriage. That's all for headlines. Now stay tuned for my conversation with Susan Campbell, as we discuss how her crisis pregnancy center was attacked by pro-abortion radicals. As conservatives, sometimes it feels like we're constantly on defense against bad ideas.

Bad philosophy, revisionist history, junk science, and divisive politics. But here's something I've come to understand. When faced with bad ideas, it's not enough to just defend. If we want to save this country, then it's time to go on offense. Conservative principles are ideas that work, individual responsibility, strong local communities, and belief in the American dream. As a former college professor and current president of the Heritage Foundation, my life's mission is to learn, educate, and take action. My podcast, The Kevin Roberts Show, is my opportunity to share that journey with you. I'll be diving into the critical issues that plague our nation, having deep conversations with high-profile.

guests, some of whom may surprise you. And I want to ensure freedom for the next generation. Find the Kevin Roberts Show wherever you get your podcast. My guest today is Susan Campbell, executive director at Blue Ridge Pregnancy Center in Lynchburg, Virginia. Susan, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. Susan, I wish we could talk under better circumstances, but your center has become one of a multitude of crisis pregnancy centers that have been attacked over the nation. in the aftermath of the Roe v. Wade decision.

Could you walk us through exactly what happened to your center in particular? Yes, at about approximately 122 in the morning, four masked, hooded individuals entered our property on foot with crowbars in hand and took out demolishing about 10 to 12 windows and three of our operating doors on our facility. They sprayed Pank vulgar things about abortion That we weren't safe if abortion wasn't safe And anarchy

Symbols with the term James Revenge All over our sidewalks along with Just all types of vulgar descriptions and pictures on our brick walls And so they clearly were motivated by They were there are pro-abortion types and they were motivated by the assuming that the Roe v. Wade decision that just came down. What exactly does your center do?

I mean, are you actively pushing people against getting abortions? Are you providing services? What exactly does your center do? Well, exactly. So the Supreme Court ruling, it doesn't change our vision or a focus at all. In fact, it only reinforces the need for centers like ours. The support that we offer to women and men in our community through all the stages of pregnancy and postpartum up to one year of life is just amazing.

We provide all types of free services, pregnancy and limited obstetrical ultrasound, counseling, unconditional love and support, and we just bathe them and equip them with the foundations that anyone would need to become a parent. And we advocate for adoption if they're at a point in place in life where furthering the pregnancy seems like it will never help them in life. We definitely try to help coach them through at least furthering the pregnancy to be able to refer them to a wonderful adoption agency where a loving family could step in and give them some assistance. We don't advocate for abortion in any way, but everything we do is out of love and compassion and kindness. Now, before we started this interview, we spoke briefly.

Apparently these people have also attacked you online. There's been hacking. Can you describe exactly what these actions? activists have done in the cyberspace? Yes. So our Facebook account has been absolutely demolished with fake reviews, fake reporting, them telling the entire platform of Facebook that they don't recommend us and then putting vulgar comments.

They're submitting application requests directly from our websites with death threats and absolutely writing to us in the most despicable vile way. and we've already forgiven them. We've already tried to express our concerns for the root of their heart, but they obviously don't have a clue of what we do because we help people every day get our face with these decisions when an unplanned pregnancy is something they're not ready for. Now, given that you've got both the physical attacks on the facilities

with the vandalism you said they went with crowbars and the cyber attacks online, how does this make you feel? What is your initial reaction to these actions being taken? Well, of course, at first, we couldn't believe in our community because we have a wonderful, supportive community. We've been active in our area since 1999, and we have a wonderful following. We see plenty of pro-choice and pro-life patients. We're a service that is well-known, and so our community is loving and kind and supports us at every level. We were shocked to be the target of the vandalism.

We were the only center in Lynchburg, excuse me, in Virginia that was hit the Eve following Rovers's way to overturn. And we were just deeply saddened by that. I take it that this hasn't happened before then. This is the first time something like this has happened. No, we rarely, we have, again, just a wonderful community about pouring and outreach. We partner with other local facilities and organizations. And everyone around us is a nonprofit. So we're always offering our services for free.

We never exchange money of any kind. And when they leave our center, they have an arm full of baby goods and education and tips on parenting, just everything you would ever need for no matter what stage of life you're in to be equipped and at least make a good attempt at raising a baby. And if that isn't the case, you know, like I said earlier, we refer them. So we were very surprised because we rarely ever even get a negative comment. in a review. I'm the executive director. I read our exit evaluations. People are constantly praising us for the love and compassion we're able to show.

Now, given the fact that you said your community is so supportive and that normally things like this don't happen, what has been the response from the community to this event? Have they been supportive? Have they been trying to help you rebuild? What's been the response from the community? Oh, yes. On Saturday, when I got the call that 911 had been placed. by our mailman. I got right down here, and within a matter of 15 minutes, they just came in carload. And we spent most of the day cleaning up the attack, boarding up our windows, and securing the properties.

All the glass cleanup was done, and it was just amazing to see our community, just tirelessly in the heat of summer, helping us to get into a better place so that we can move as quickly as possible to open our doors again. again and remain open for service and offer our services to the women and men that really need us. This is sad because it just disabled us from at least the several days of being able to help people in crisis. Yeah.

I guess that's a great question, too, is what does that mean when you are out of operations for a while? I mean, it doesn't really seem like you can do the services that these women need if you're out of operation. Do you think that the people who did this understand that you're unable to provide these services to women who desperately need it when they do things like this? I don't think they are reasonable or understand anything, to be honest. They clearly don't have a good understanding of who we are and what we do.

We're an organization that desires to help. And again, we do it with the most kindness, loving, compassionate approach that any service could be ever offered at no charge, again, free to the community. What do you think about the fact that it seems like these attacks on crisis pregnancy centers are becoming more common? I mean, you are like I mentioned before, one of a multitude of these types of centers that have been hit by attacks like this. What do you think about the fact that this seems to be happening more and more frequently? Well, I don't think that it's going to stop. And I think that it's only going to get worse from here simply because of the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

but we've been praying for this for a long time, and we're not intimidated or dissuaded from our mission. We're always going to be there to help families, and really the overturning of Roe v. Wade is just an additional launching pad for us to help even more. And we've been expanding and growing, and that's what's so disheartening. We just relocated to a much larger facility so that even if something like COVID reoccurred, we can spread out and continue our classes, continue our services, where our previous location was much more constricting and small. We couldn't expand the way that we've been able to with this nice new facility. Have you noticed that your community has changed in the aftermath of both the leak surrounding Roevi Way that they were back in April that they were thinking about overturning it? But then since the actual decision went down, have you noticed a shift in the attitude amongst the people in your community?

Well, I can only speak from the donors and friends of our center, and I would say absolutely. It has put action behind people's beliefs, their philosophies, and has placed a charge in their heart to want to do more. We have seen an outpouring of resources, both financial, prayer, and just physical, what we can do. And then we also have a boutique filled with all kinds of brand new and handmade baby items, and we can't keep up with the UPS deliveries. of goods that have been coming to our door gifted by people in our community. Our community is amazing and they're there to help and we're very grateful for that. It's been a soothing fav to our hearts for sure. I keep hearing that word community, which is wonderful.

It sounds like you interact with your community as you make this, as you push this message of hope and life in the community. How much does that actually impact what you do? Does your work with the community really reflect strongly on the mission of your center? Oh, 100%. Being a nonprofit, we wouldn't be able to operate without the backing of our community. We have some of the most amazing individuals, business owners, and churches in the area that are just devoted to life-affirming things.

And we have only continued to steadily grow in the time that I've served here. I've been director for six years, but I started out as a volunteer in 2015. and to see where the center has gotten to today is all because of our community and the support of what we have. Now, you mentioned that this isn't going to change what you do. You're going to continue to pursue your mission with the same zeal that you did before. Does this affect anything about how you do this? Is there more security now? Is there any changes that you've had to make and how you interact, both with the community and both with the people that you deal with on a daily basis?

Are there any things that you need to alter due to this type of? activity. Oh, yes. We met today to get an action plan moving forward. We have amazing security in place. We have a wonderful police department, but we have now escalated all of our request to every level out there. So if we have to go all the way up to the FBI and the feds, it will be. We have amazing support. We have all kinds of security teams and a lot of active and retired first responders that are here to help. And again, all part of a wonderful Lynchburg, Central Virginia community. And we're grateful for them.

They are definitely people you can trust and rely. Absolutely. And I think that's such a wonderful story about how, you know, the community is coming together to support you guys. Speaking of that, as we begin to wrap up here, given all of these things that are happening at these crisis pregnancy centers across the country, these attacks that we seem to be seeing over and over and over again. Yeah. How do Americans support both centers like yours and the women who need those services? Well, as long as they have a philosophy like ours, their doors will be wide open. No matter the choice, we tell everyone, especially the woman who still chooses termination, you are welcome here.

One of our best and most active programs is our post-abortion care because we know women have been in the past, made decisions that they regret. And we want them to find hope and healing again. And we provide those services as well. And so despite all the other pregnancies across, I can speak from mine. And I know that we're a place of life. We're a place of forgiveness. And we're a place of hope. And if you don't have hope, you have nothing.

And we're able to share that message in the most authentic, genuine way. I'm just so proud of my staff, my support here. And I don't think Roe v. Wade will do anything to set us back. And I don't believe this v. will set us back. It is only going to prompt people to do more and to serve more and to be very on the front lines of helping us to be restored and get our services operating again. And that actually does make me think of another question. I think that that's so fascinating that you say one of the services that you provide are post-abortion care because obviously we're

trying to avoid abortions happening in the first place, but there is that sort of message of love that, hey, even if you've made this decision, you still have support. How do we balance those needs where we're trying to prevent abortions from happening, but we do need to make sure that people who have had abortions who have made that decision are still supported in the future? Oh, absolutely. Post-abortion care, I'm 49 years old. I was one year old when Roe v. Wade was legalized abortion in the United States.

Two-thirds of my generation is missing because of the legalization of abortion. It is everything about our mission to help the woman who made that decision, whether it was decades ago or last week. There can be hope and healing. There can be forgiveness. And that has to be a message that is so genuine and authentic for a woman to want to come to receive that type of care because there is a stigma and a painful, painful scar tissue that is left on a woman's heart who has experienced that. And you don't hear about that in the news at all. the emotional side effects of someone that's done that that has a major, major regret. Do you find that the women who do come for that type of service, what is their sort of temperament after they receive this kind of care?

Do they say, I mean, I regret my decision. Do they say, I understand that I need to do this at the time and I'm grateful for you guys to be there? What is the temperament of a woman that has gone through that experience? Regret shame primarily and then regret. that they wish that someone would have talked to them. They wish that someone would have presented options counseling. They wish that someone would have been their cheerleader. They wish that the boyfriend or the father of the baby or the husband would have said,

I'll be there for you. I don't know what that looks like. But I'm here for your support. I'm in this. I want to empower you. I want to help you. And that's not what you're being told in the other areas of me. of the media.

It's an empowerment that is a false lie. And I don't believe that God designed any woman to do that. And so we're here to help them cultivate a promise of a future and that a forgiveness message is there. They can heal and have joy in their life. And I've seen it firsthand for the years that I've been here of the women that come in and are restored and set free. And there is an emotional baggage that is left at the door. the day they understand that they are forgiven and that they do not have to go through their

lifetime kind of in a cage of shame and guilt. And our world has a way of doing that, whether it's inappropriately in society or in our families, in our churches, and in our friends, that shame and guilt is a motivator. And we often tell people, you do not have to live with shame and guilt. I think that's a wonderful message of hope. That was Susan Campbell, executive director at the Blue Ridge Pregnancy Center in Lynchburg, Virginia. Susan, thank you so much for spreading that message.

I wish you the best. God bless, obviously, as you try to recover from these attacks, and I wish you the best in the future. Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me. And that'll do it for today's episode. And thanks so much for listening to the Daily Signal podcast. And if you have not done so already, please take just a moment to subscribe

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