The Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform (stylized as CCBR) is an

anti-abortion Anti-abortion movements, also self-styled as pro-life movements, are involved in the abortion debate advocating against the practice of abortion and its Abortion by country, legality. Many anti-abortion movements began as countermovements in r ...

group based in

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. CCBR engages in a wide range of activities, including apologetics training, leafletting, interviews, debates and public demonstrations in campuses, schools, churches and streets throughout North America, and occasionally in Europe.

History

Stephanie Gray and Jojo Ruba co-founded CCBR in 2001. The organization modeled itself after the

Center for Bio-Ethical Reform The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform (CBR) is an American anti-abortion movement, anti-abortion organization. The Executive Director of the CBR is Gregg Cunningham, a former Republican member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives who has also h ...

(CBR), founded in 1993 in

Lake Forest, California Lake Forest is a city in Orange County, California, United States. The population was 85,858 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Lake Forest incorporated as a city on December 20, 1991. Prior to incorporation, the community had be ...

. The president of CCBR is Nick Rosendal.

Activities

Abortion Awareness Project

The CCBR organizes the Genocide Awareness Project on

college A college (Latin: ''collegium'') may be a tertiary educational institution (sometimes awarding degrees), part of a collegiate university, an institution offering vocational education, a further education institution, or a secondary sc ...

campuses, using graphic images to target MPs who support

abortion rights Abortion-rights movements, also self-styled as pro-choice movements, are movements that advocate for legal access to induced abortion services, including elective abortion. They seek to represent and support women who wish to terminate their p ...

. Describing the campaign in 2013, Gray said "We have put together an 18-year plan called 'End the Killing,' and we aim to saturate the Canadian culture with the facts about who the baby is and what abortion does to the baby...so that we can eradicate abortion from our culture." The display contains graphic images of

abortion Abortion is the early termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. Abortions that occur without intervention are known as miscarriages or "spontaneous abortions", and occur in roughly 30–40% of all pregnan ...

mass graves A mass grave is a grave containing multiple human corpses, which may or may Unidentified decedent, not be identified prior to burial. The United Nations has defined a criminal mass grave as a burial site containing three or more victims of exec ...

, and public

lynchings Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged or convicted transgressor or to intimidate others. It can also be an extreme form of in ...

while comparing abortion to the

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

and other forms of

genocide Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...

"Choice" Chain

The CCBR's "Choice" Chain project involves display handheld signs which depict the violence of abortion and aborted fetuses on city streets,

campuses, or outside high schools. The group has also hung banners with similar graphic images from highway overpasses in

Hamilton, Ontario Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario. Hamilton has a 2021 Canadian census, population of 569,353 (2021), and its Census Metropolitan Area, census metropolitan area, which encompasses ...

.How anti-abortion protesters use a loophole to hang banners over the Linc

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is the Canadian Public broadcasting, public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a Crown corporation that serves as the national public broadcaster, with its E ...

, 18 October 2013 Writing in

Maclean's ''Maclean's'' is a Canadian magazine founded in 1905 which reports on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, trends and current events. Its founder, publisher John Bayne Maclean, established the magazine to provide a uniquely Canadian ...

, Robyn Urback said the group's decision to hold demonstrations outside high schools "pushes the ethics of public pandering" and that "holding up a poster of a bloody fetus provides none of the context, and little of the tact required when dealing with sensitive teens."Graphic anti-abortion displays have no place near schools
Robyn Urback,

, 13 June 2011 In 2013, the ''

National Post The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper and the flagship publication of the American-owned Postmedia Network. It is published Mondays through Saturdays, with Monday released as a digital e-edition only.

'' reported that Gray said her group's position may be labeled as "extreme" from a mainstream perspective but that "If rejecting a culture of killing children is extreme, I'm OK with that", comparing her view to that of

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister, civil and political rights, civil rights activist and political philosopher who was a leader of the civil rights move ...

in his "

Letter from Birmingham Jail The "Letter from Birmingham Jail", also known as the "Letter from Birmingham City Jail" and "The Negro Is Your Brother", is an open letter written on April 16, 1963, by Martin Luther King Jr. It says that people have a moral responsibility to b ...

", where he responded to criticisms of his tactics as "extreme". She defended the group's tactic of using graphic images as being essential to the anti-abortion movement in exposing the nature of abortion.

Face the Children

In 2012, a motion in the

Parliament of Canada The Parliament of Canada () is the Canadian federalism, federal legislature of Canada. The Monarchy of Canada, Crown, along with two chambers: the Senate of Canada, Senate and the House of Commons of Canada, House of Commons, form the Bicameral ...

to review the legality of abortion in Canada, failed 203-91. In a campaign called "Face the Children",Pro-life group delivers graphic abortion cards to 50,000 Hamilton homes
The Spec, April 2, 2014 the Centre is targeting several opponents of the motion, specifically the

ridings of MP

Michelle Rempel Michelle L. Rempel Garner (''née'' Godin; born February 14, 1980) is a Canadians, Canadian politician who sits in the House of Commons of Canada, House of Commons as the Member of Parliament (Canada), member of Parliament (MP) for the Alberta ...

and Prime Minister

Stephen Harper Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. He is to date the only prime minister to have come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ser ...

, by distributing tens of thousands of pamphlets containing what the ''

'' called "gruesome images" of abortion.

Calgary Airport protest case

Several members of the group were arrested for trespassing at

Calgary International Airport Calgary International Airport , branded as YYC Calgary International Airport, is an international airport that serves the city of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It is located approximately northeast of downtown and covers an area of 20.82 square ...

during a protest in 2011, but were

acquitted In common law jurisdictions, an acquittal means that the criminal prosecution has failed to prove that the accused is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the charge presented. It certifies that the accused is free from the charge of an o ...

in a 2013 bench trial, as the judge said their actions were protected by the

Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms The ''Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms'' (), often simply referred to as the ''Charter'' in Canada, is a bill of rights entrenched in the Constitution of Canada, forming the first part of the '' Constitution Act, 1982''. The ''Char ...

.‘Free expression rights’ upheld as judge acquits anti-abortion protesters
Daryl Slade,

Calgary Herald The ''Calgary Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Publication began in 1883 as ''The Calgary Herald, Mining and Ranche Advocate, and General Advertiser''. It is owned by the Postmedia Network. History ''The C ...

, 15 July 2013

The Trudeau Flyer Campaign

In late Q1 of 2015 the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform distributed a graphic flyer campaign which paired photos of aborted fetuses with leader of the

Liberal Party of Canada The Liberal Party of Canada (LPC; , ) is a federal political party in Canada. The party espouses the principles of liberalism,McCall, Christina; Stephen Clarkson"Liberal Party". ''The Canadian Encyclopedia''. and generally sits at the Centrism, ...

Justin Trudeau Justin Pierre James Trudeau (born December 25, 1971) is a Canadian politician who served as the 23rd prime minister of Canada from 2015 to 2025. He led the Liberal Party from 2013 until his resignation in 2025 and was the member of Parliament ...

. The aim was explained to graphically show images of a bloodied aborted fetus killed by abortion next to

to a million homes nationwide in a bid to sway the fall election. The mail campaign started in late March in Vancouver and reached Toronto by May 2015. Thereafter the greater Toronto area was targeted - including areas of Mississauga and Etobicoke South. The campaign failed in their attempt to sway the election, as Trudeau and the

won, and went on to form a Majority Government. In response to outrage to the campaign, Jonathon Van Maren, spokesperson for the group said: "Frankly, I hope (people) are shocked. I hope they are horrified. What our pictures do is show that while choice is obviously a precious liberty, some choices are wrong."

References

External links

* {{Official website Anti-abortion organizations in Canada Conservatism in Canada Non-profit organizations based in Alberta Organizations based in Calgary Organizations established in 2001 2001 establishments in Alberta