Growing up in the Jim Crow south, she knew first hand the oppression and evil of racism and its often covert vehicle of eugenics. But she rose above. In 1947, she was admitted to Harvard Medical School, and in 1951 became the first black woman to graduate from the school. And her journey had just begun.

“I became a physician in order to help save lives. I am at once a physician, a citizen, and a woman, and I am not willing to stand aside and allow the concept of expendable human lives to turn this great land of ours into just another exclusive reservation where only the perfect, the privileged, and the planned have the right to live.” –Mildred Jefferson, M.D. (2003, American Feminist magazine)

According to Anne Fox, her friend and president of Massachusetts Citizens for Life, Dr. Jefferson was responsible for bringing Ronald Reagan into the pro-life movement. As co-founder of the National Right to Life, she is the anathema to the pro-abortion movement, particularly those who conjure up false African-American history in order to bolster their “reproductive justice” propaganda (i.e. SisterSong). Dr. Jefferson, awarded 28 honorary degrees from various prestigious institutions, was unapologetically pro-life and dedicated her life to exposing the evils of eugenics, Planned Parenthood, and the abortion agenda.

We’ll make sure her name and her life are known to the hundreds of thousands we speak to annually. May she rest in peace, knowing that her life will continue to inspire millions to come.

LEARN MORE ABOUT DR MILDRED JEFFERSON AT HISTORYMAKERS.COM

SEE NATIONAL RIGHT TO LIFE’S PRESS RELEASE MOURNING HER DEATH HERE.

Ryan Bomberger speaks to huge crowd of 5,000

the huge crowd and extolled the legislative victories that have helped to protect women and unborn children.  The diverse crowd shouted repeatedly, laughing and smiling, reflecting the joy of what liberty brings. People traveled from across the Cornhusker state to prove that their capital city’s namesake is not in vain, but the torchbearer of a proud legacy of emancipating those crying out for freedom. Pregnancy Care Center volunteers, doctors, farmers, teachers, pastors, students, mothers, fathers, children…all united to help restore human dignity to the least of these. (Click here to view numerous pro-life legislation that has been passed in Nebraska.)

Ryan Bomberger speaks to packed house at University of Nebraska

It was an amazing time. Inside the Student Union at the University of Nebraska (which was bursting at the seams with the 1000+ rally participants who could fit in the building), I delivered the keynote address, emphasizing the dire need to save beautiful possibility. It was my absolute favorite time. There was something about Nebraskans…their enthusiasm, optimism, and drive. The venue was standing room only (and there wasn’t any more standing room). We thank Nebraska Right to Life for allowing us to share our bold, yet personal, perspective on the Life issue. Being among such passionate prolifers in Lincoln simply proved that inspiration is a two-way street.

For Liberty. For Life.

• Created our new promo, “SHINE”
• Wisconsin Right to Life – Prolife Rally in Appleton, WI – Keynote Address
• Regent University – “Awaken” event – Joined CPC of Tidewater and others in illuminating abortion’s impact in black community – Keynote address
• New Life Providence – Introduction to The Radiance Foundation – featured video introduction in our home church about our life-affirming work
• Regent University – School-wide chapel – (2) Keynote addresses to alma mater
• Family Research Council – ProlifeCon(vention) – Keynote on messaging “Designed to Create”
• Students for Life of America (SFLA) – Annual Conference – Adoption Panelist (largest pro life youth conference in world)
• National Prolife Youth Rally – Teleconference Rally (due to rain) – Spoke to abolitionists across the country, joining other nat’l pro-life leaders
• SFLA – partnered with largest student-oriented pro life organization in new endeavor – TURNTHETIDE2012.com
• Nebraska Right to Life – Prolife Rally in Lincoln, NE – stood with Prolife legislators and thousands of prolifers – Keynote Speaker
• National Black Prolife Coalition – panelist on eugenics and abortion at high-level national pro-life conference
• Forum of Prolife Organizations – Guest speaker on eugenics movement’s influence on abortion and adoption

We’re excited about how 2012 has taken off, and even more excited about how we can continue to reach out to those around us. Our continuing community outreaches will focus on connecting those who believe in more walking and less talking to faith-based efforts in their communities directly impacting those in need.

You can help us illuminate the truth, educate thousands about beautiful God-given Purpose, and motivate people to act in positive ways to bring change to their own lives and their communities. Your tax-deductible donation helps others to shine!  Thank you for your support!

Martin Luther King Jr. was no different. He became enamored with the façade of Planned Parenthood and its glossy cover of family planning and the false assurance of eliminating poverty. Birth control promised equality. It failed. Instead, the divide that King fought so passionately to mend became a chasm filled with communities ravaged by out-of-wedlock births, exponentially high STD/HIV rates, and rampant fatherlessness.

I am grateful, beyond words, for King’s tireless efforts to elevate humanity. His ultimate sacrifice, his very life, reminds me that there are things worth dying for. I know our collective memories of America’s civil rights champions are sacrosanct. But extraordinary people like Martin Luther King Jr. are not omniscient. They were, and are, quite fallible.

Little did Martin Luther King Jr. know that his words (or arguably Coretta Scott King’s) in 1966, immortalized in ink and praising Planned Parenthood, would literally turn blood-red.

Planned Parenthood, the nation’s number one killer of African-Americans (more die by abortion than all other causes of death combined), boasts of King’s support at the 1966 inauguration of the Margaret Sanger Award. Abortion wasn’t legal then and married couples adorned the covers of Planned Parenthood’s printed propaganda.

In an advice column he wrote for Ebony magazine, from 1957-1958, King recognized the wrong of abortion in a response to a young man who compelled his girlfriend to the crime. He advised, in part: “One can never rectify a mistake until he admits that a mistake has been made.”

Taking cues from his own advice, supporting Planned Parenthood was King’s mistake. There are disturbing questions that have to be asked, such as “How much did MLK know about this eugenics-birthed organization?” Surely he knew that its founder, Margaret Sanger, prided herself in speaking before the KKK on behalf of her organization’s mission. Did he know about the failed Negro Project? He had to be aware that the president of Planned Parenthood, during the time he accepted the award (via his wife, Coretta), was Alan Guttmacher, former Vice President of the irrefutably racist American Eugenics Society. Certainly he knew eugenicists were forcibly sterilizing women, disproportionately black, across the country, work involving many Planned Parenthood affiliates. Did he not know that all of the peaceful protests, sit-ins, and boycotts in the South were aimed at eugenics-based Jim Crow laws?

Or was he, like many others, too fixed on that glossy cover to turn the page and find out what was inside?

Sadly, his lack of awareness of Planned Parenthood spurred on an even more insidious injustice than that which he challenged with such spiritual fervor. We honor a great man while acknowledging he wasn’t always right. Abortion is now epidemic in the black community. In New York City, abortion occurs 5.8 times more among blacks than whites. Sixty percent of all black pregnancies in NYC, the home of Planned Parenthood, end in abortion. It is epidemic. This certainly isn’t the “dream” MLK spoke of, but a nightmare reality that feeds the abortion industry’s bottom line.

Planned Parenthood commits heinous injustice every single day. When the nation’s largest abortion chain invokes King’s name, to justify the slaughter of over 1.21 million innocent lives each year, it mocks the sacrifice of one who fought, and died, for human dignity.

Martin Luther Kings Jr’s words from decades ago still ring powerfully true: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere!”

*Video produced by The Radiance Foundation

The Radiance Foundation, a nonprofit founded by my wife Bethany and I, is one of many dedicated life-affirming organizations fighting this David versus Goliath battle. So many people ask us in our events on college campuses, in churches, at conferences, and even in community outreaches how they can get involved. Often, the mindset is that one has to be involved in a big organization or have lots of financial undergirding to make an impact.

Reaching someone’s heart simply takes passion. Changing that heart is God’s forte.

(Watch new promo “SHINE” by The Radiance Foundation!)

As parents of four young children, two of which are adopted, we had that passion. Many warned us that leaving full-time work for full-time nonprofit work in a down economy was crazy. Well, we’ve always been a little crazy…willing to take risks…willing to sacrifice the conventional for the transformational.

If you’re passionate about saving beautiful possibility, protecting the lives of women and their unborn children, you’re invited to grab some stones.

The Radiance Foundation has been fighting giants all year long. From mainstream media bias (e.g. NPR), to relentless personal attacks from pro abortion groups, to surreal protesters chanting “Trust Black Women” as they refused to allow black women in the crowd to speak, our five smooth stones have been hitting the mark, every time. From speaking to audiences across Ireland (where abortion is banned and maternal mortality is lowest in world) to taking on Planned Parenthood with creative campaigns statistically armored to the hilt, we’ve faced Goliath.

And we haven’t flinched.

The ACLU and the NAACP have denounced us. We thanked them.

Planned Parenthood has called two national conferences to combat our TooManyAborted.com billboard/web campaigns, revealing how easy it is to get “media” in bed with them. All the public got from these pro-abortion pep rallies was more certifiable mythomania.

Goliath is falling. Fast.

Planned Parenthood hired a new director of their Negro Project 2.0 (okay, so they call her their Director of African-American Media). In true Sanger form, they’re doubling down on their propaganda in order to use Veronica Byrd to target those still considered “unfit”.  Sanger, whose own autobiography boasted of the fact she spoke to a racist gathering of KKK automatons, is somehow not racist. But black civil rights leaders who decry the alarming rate of abortion in the black community (e.g. 60% of black pregnancies end in abortion in NYC) are the racists in the bizarre inverted world of “prochoice”.

Undaunted by the giants around us, we’ve spoken to hundreds of thousands about the beauty of possibility, taking on issues of racial reconciliation, pop culture and pluralism, parenting, abortion and adoption. In a previous LifeNews.com article, we even raised the ire of a Child Welfare League executive for challenging how they could simultaneously claim to protect vulnerable children yet lobby for the killer of millions of children, Planned Parenthood.  We just call it like we see it. We do the research; abortion apologists will always find a self-satisfying excuse devoid of truth.

Some of the most “unplanned” moments in life are the most incredible.  Abortion denies possibility and snuffs out purpose, every single day.

“Prochoice” ideology, rooted in the indefensible destruction of innocent life, will continue to have its darkness illuminated by those passionate about ending today’s most heinous human rights atrocity—abortion. Watch out; 2011 was the year of liberation. 2012 may just be the year of abolition.

Christ’s birth could not have been orchestrated by man or woman. From the human side of the equation, it was entirely unplanned. And that’s just like many instances in our own lives. No matter how hard we try, we’re always colliding with moments of unexpected challenges.

And the world has become a more inspiring place because of people who, despite the seemingly impossible, embraced the hardship, the pain, the confusion, and the unknown to journey through the unscripted in order to craft triumphant story lines.

The birth of our Savior wasn’t just a singular unplanned human moment, but a string of impossible challenges, royally jealous pursuits and religious persecution. These required continual commitments of love, self-sacrifice, obedience, and down-on-your-knees tearful prayers from parents who chose the plan of the unplanned life.

Three out of my four children were “unplanned”. But God’s plan for them was to transform my wife’s life, my life, and the hundreds (if not thousands) of lives out there waiting to experience the love, compassion and joy radiating from these irreplaceable gifts.

The life-affirming work we do through The Radiance Foundation is the result of unexpected moments that have become transformative events. Whether fighting giants in the abortion industry, calling out civil rights leaders for promoting civil wrongs, celebrating adoption, honoring real feminism, or creatively inspiring others to embrace their beautiful intrinsic value, we continue to marvel at how lives have been forever changed by things we never could have, humanly, planned.

Every Christmas serves as a reminder that our most precious gift is being loved by a God who makes all things possible.

He takes the meaningless and makes it meaningful.

He takes the miry and makes it miraculous.

He took the meek and made Him the Messiah.

So, with all of your plans for the holidays, always remember the best thing in life was unplanned.

Merry Christmas.

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Ryan Scott Bomberger is the Chief Creative Officer of The Radiance Foundation. As adoptive parents, he and his wife Bethany, the Executive Director, live in Virginia with their four children. They founded The Radiance Foundation to help people live a life of meaning by embracing their beautiful God-given intrinsic value.

With November as National Adoption Month, this event allowed a crucial spotlight on adoption. The presentation was entitled, “Adopt. Be The Hope” and was, according to Jeanne, the first lecture at FRC that received a standing ovation.

We’re humbled and blessed to be able to share our heart to reach others about their own beautiful intrinsic value. Thank you FRC for allowing us the audience to share our passion for Life, planned and unplanned.

WATCH PRESENTATION HERE

The news hit me in the gut. I couldn’t believe I was seeing those few numbers, communicating his passing, beneath his photo: 1955-2011. Steve Jobs has, literally, changed the world. I’m typing this on my Mac, will check my emails and Twitter status on my iPad, and will stay in touch with everyone I love through my iPhone.

As a creative professional, his visionary work has helped my own visions become reality.

But his vision, his destiny and his ability to affect people, globally, may never have happened.  Jobs was adopted as a baby and loved by his parents, Clara and Paul Jobs. The baby they took into their hearts and home had a purpose in life that would be unleashed by the powerful act of adoption.

He began today’s revolutionary Apple company and has departed this world with a professional legacy that is awe-inspiring. The partially bitten apple represents the temptation that millions of us have been unable to avoid…waiting in day long lines for shiny objects that proved to us science fiction could be made reality by a creative genius. Jobs’ minimalistic approach delivered a multitude of near-perfect electronic devices.  From amber screens to full-color high definition, visually we’ve been changed by the adoption of Apple’s technology.

It’s amazing to me that, in 2011, especially among Christians, how foreign a concept adoption is. Adoption is the essence of salvation. There is no Christianity without adoption, in the spiritual sense. Yet, in the physical sense, it is rarely considered as an option. For those who are so passionately prolife, it is often the challenge thrown before us in our opposition to abortion, and rightfully so.  We have an opportunity to unleash purpose in a child waiting to be loved. I was one of those children back in 1971. Steve Jobs was back in 1955. The beauty of possibility is that we all can play a role in helping to foster and encourage it.  Who knows what my children, both adopted and biological, will become? All I know is that loving them, unconditionally, will allow their God-given purpose to flourish.

The nation’s largest abortion chain, aborting 340 children for every 1 woman that is referred for adoption, is the antithesis to this purpose. Planned Parenthood celebrates their founder who believed that “we are paying for and even submitting to the dictates of an ever increasing, unceasingly spawning class of human beings who never should have been born at all.” Contrary to Margaret Sanger’s warped mentality that children are “marked when they’re born” as “diseased, delinquents, and felons”, none of us know the beautiful potential that every life possesses.

We celebrate human triumph over the seemingly insurmountable.

There are so many well-known adopted individuals that have impacted many of our lives in one way or another: Charles Dickens, George Washington Carver, Nat King Cole, Babe Ruth, Dave Thomas (Wendy’s), Bo Diddley (musician/performer), Dan O’Brien (Olympic Decathlon Gold Medalist) and Faith Hill, just to name a few. Steve Jobs is among this list of infinite possibility. No matter the perceived worldly success of an adoptee, adoption is a loving act that transforms, not only the life of the child, but the entire family. And, sometimes, the world.

***UPDATE: Georgia State University Students, the day after we posted video of them making a public spectacle of themselves in a public forum, threatened to sue us if we did not remove the YouTube video. Their lawyer’s Cease & Desist letter didn’t deter us at all. If they choose to continue to follow through on their groundless claims of “right to privacy”, the Thomas More Law Center is representing us and will defend our constitutional first amendment rights. Any time abortion activists try to shut down our free speech, we will expose them.

As a public speaker, I have spoken to hundreds of thousands of people over the past few years in various forums: major conferences, churches, social services events, high schools, and colleges. In all but the last venue, audiences may not always agree, but are willing to hear a perspective that may differ from their own. There’s no place like an environment of higher learning…that’s continually threatened by non-liberal ideology. Many college campuses cultivate students that fear being exposed to different points of view. In their myopia, free speech must be crushed as catchy mantras replace critical thinking.

Last night, I spoke at Georgia State University as part of The Radiance Foundation’s TooManyAborted.com awareness efforts. Georgia is the state where The Radiance Foundation, along with the inimitable Catherine Davis (at that time the Minority Director of Georgia Right to Life), launched the first TooManyAborted.com campaign: “Black Children Are An Endangered Species”.  Every billboard campaign since, Planned Parenthood and its radically pro-abortion surrogate, SisterSong, have been desperate to find ways to counter our efforts. They’ve found fertile soil on college campuses where they find, often, some well meaning but incredibly uninformed students to parrot their propaganda.

“Trust Black Women! Trust Black Women!” was the chant that disrupted the planned lecture about abortion, black genocide and Planned Parenthood. For nearly twenty minutes, before the presentation could even begin, the protesters barked the mantra at the racially diverse audience and me, in particular. Thankfully, campus police removed them after they repeatedly refused to allow, or be part of, the conversation. Those who remained were able to discuss the substance of the epidemic of abortion, eugenics, and the impact on the black community.

But, those twenty minutes of protesting were so oddly surreal.

Trust Black Women is a national propaganda effort, launched by Sistersong, to combat the truth of our TooManyAborted.com campaign. When in doubt, you gotta shout.

Last night’s demonstration shows how their strategy is failing.  None of the students could answer a single question about basic abortion statistics. I invited them numerous times to join us and engage in conversation. They refused and continued their singular chant. All but 2 of the protestors were white; neither of these black student activists spoke. However, there were plenty of black women in the audience. Predictably, they weren’t the black women that these pro-abortion activists trusted. They didn’t make the cut.

When a black woman in the audience finally stood up to speak, the student protesters refused to let her say anything. It wasn’t until I pointed out the irony that they were chanting “Trust Black Women” but wouldn’t allow a black woman to speak, that they briefly stopped their nonsense (see embedded video). She calmly affirmed them while pointing out the need to hear both sides. But liberals don’t like depth; they tend to like thin shiny veneers. Conversation requires digging deeper and being exposed to inconvenient truths.

The young black woman tried to reason with them, to no avail, even suggesting that abstinence was a better option. Obviously she didn’t know what was best for her. One of the white female activists, who identified herself as post-abortive and happy, told the black student what she really needed: “You should have access to birth control. Your government should supply you the means to get it…I want more women on birth control. You can’t afford it.”

To my knowledge, she knew nothing about the black student other than the color of her skin. That didn’t stop her from providing the ever-failing solution of birth control and assuming all black women are poor. Has anyone introduced these young adults to the radical concept of self-control?

Catherine Davis, founder of the Georgia-based Restoration Project, was appalled when she heard what liberal students were trying push on black women in the audience. “How dare they suggest that black women need the government to give them birth control,” Davis responded. “What we need is to be free from the stereotypical treatment many liberal white women feel the liberty to foist upon us because they believe we are too ignorant to make decisions for ourselves!”

Had Catherine Davis been there, things definitely would’ve been different in those first few moments. Really different.

Even if one agreed (which we don’t, of course) that a woman has the right to choose abortion, isn’t it a worthy conversation to talk about what results from that “choice”, both individually and societally? Obesity, anorexia, and bulimia are all the resultants of food “choice”. Should we shut down all conversation about those destructive consequences simply because people have the right to eat?  When I tried to engage these protesters to discuss the results of those choices (high abortion rates, poverty, fatherlessness) they could only respond with more chanting.

This attempt at censorship goes way beyond silencing prolife speech. Americans need to be concerned about the dangerous environment our nation’s colleges and universities have become that allow such behavior to quell freedom of expression. Unbeknownst to me, Lance Wheeler, of CampusReform.org, captured the whole bizarre scene on video. He works for The Leadership Institute, which launched the college campus watchdog group to visually document liberal censorship across the country.

The unwillingness of so many “progressives” to engage in dialogue reveals their fear of having their misconceptions challenged. So they shout inane mantras like “Trust Black Women”, tragically depriving themselves of an opportunity to learn and grow.