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Monday, January 26, 2015

News Release: Roe Week Flag/sign Display Stolen on Campus of Baylor University


Again, Baylor Pro-Life Student group faces attack on Roe Week sign/flag display. Third strike against the Baylor pro-life group in last decade.



From John Pisciotta,
Founding Faculty Advisor for Bears for Life
Faculty Advisor Emeritus for Bears for Life
Director of Pro-Life Waco

Waco, Texas The officially approved university event for the Baylor Bears for Life student organization was to have a display of flags and signs for the days of January 22 and 23. Members of Bears for Life diligently placed 200 small flags on the perimeter of Fountain Mall and 7 signs on each end at dusk on Wednesday, January 21. The flags were pink and blue to honor the 57 million baby boys and girls lost to abortion since Roe v Wade. (See photo).

The 14 “yard signs” invited students to pray as they passed each sign on their way to and from classes. Two of the signs read:
  • Pray for Survivors of Abortion: children who survived an abortion, mothers, fathers, grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, and friends.
  • Pray for Adoption: 1,000,000 families in US waiting to adopt; for birth parents who choose adoption to have peace and hope; for the blessing of open adoption.
Other signs invited people to pray for pregnancy care and abortion recovery, awareness, and how to become involved in ending abortion.

All went well with the campus display on Roe Day, January 22. However sometime during the darkness before Friday, January 23, all the signs and half the pink and blue flags were stolen. The cost of the signs was over $500. Bears for Life planned to reuse the signs year after year.

Emily Gilcrease, president of the Bears for Life student organization, responded with to the theft:

Bears for Life believes in the sanctity of innocent human life and passionately advocates for it on Baylor's campus, striving to incite a cultural shift in the hearts and minds of college students.

Our flag memorial that represents the millions of lives lost to abortion since the decision of Roe v. Wade 42 years ago is our most successful event on campus. It truly sparks deep conversations across Baylor’s campus and gets people thinking about the value of human life. This year Bears for Life added a prayer walk to the memorial. Adding this aspect of the display was effective in the sense that it brought to light the need to seek God for strength in all that we do, especially as we strive to end abortion in America.

Despite the disappointment that we feel after having our signs stolen, this action only further encourages us to continue fighting for what we know to be the only life-giving choice for a woman in a crisis pregnancy. Opposition is validation and motivation for what we do.

Bears for Life will continue to pray for the lives lost to abortion as well as the women and men who have been affected by this choice. We will pray for the families and children waiting for adoption. We will pray for the women who will face crisis pregnancy situations in the future.

Our generation will see an end to abortion.
Emily Gilcrease is sophomore Business major in Human Resource Management from Katy, TX.

The annual tradition of having a pink and blue flag display during Roe Week has been met with criminal acts at Baylor in the past.

In 2006, all the signs were stolen. The thieves left this note behind.



Then again in 2009 the sign display was attacked with the debasement of individual flags. Condoms were glued to flags, and again a note was left behind after the crime.



Bears for Life 2009 president holds message left by those who defaced the flag display.




The current theft is being investigated by the Baylor Police Department, and Bears for Life awaits a response from Baylor Student Activities on steps to allow the pro-life message to be proclaimed on the campus.

Baylor University is associated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas

For more information contact, Emily Gilcrease, President of Baylor Bears for Life at Emily_Gilcrease@baylor.edu or Dr. Douglas Henry, Faculty Advisor to Baylor Bears for Life Douglas_Henry@baylor.edu

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