Personhood USA

Tier 1


Cal Zastrow

Cal Zastrow


Tier 1 - Personhood Now


Cal Zastrow advocates enforcement of the God-given right to life of all preborn children from the beginning of their biological development.

Cal: "Revival!"


  • Cal Zastrow co-founded Personhood USA with Denver's Keith Mason.

  • Personhood USA is one of the leading forces bringing the truth of the God-given right to life to legislative and initiative battles in state after state throughout America.

  • Cal Zastrow was a leading force in Colorado's historic statewide personhood campaign which has ignited personhood efforts nationwide. 1

  • Cal's organization comes to local prolife leaders with the question: "How can we help you?" 2

  • Personhood USA provides free online database services to local organizations who may need help with such technical infrastructure. And they provide feet-on-the-ground support, experience, and training for leaders who work to protect every child by love and by law.

  • Cal recommends legal language that will defend all children regardless of their method of reproduction, including all natural twins and children created through technology, such that the term "person" applies to every human being from the beginning of the biological development of that human being.

  • Cal is America's premier trainer for the initiative and petition process. He has personally encouraged and taught hundreds of people in principled activism including preparing organizers to run statewide ballot initiatives through citizen-initiative petitions and signature gathering.

  • Cal's love for the Lord Jesus Christ is contagious as he evangelizes unbelievers and encourages pro-life people to share the Gospel as they explain that abortion violates God's enduring command, Do not murder, and that pro-life activism fulfills the Lord's command to Love your neighbor as yourself, for no one wants their arms and legs torn off. 3

  • Zastrow and his wife, Trish, began their pro-life activities in the late 1980s at a Christian pregnancy resource center in Flint, Michigan, then they began rescuing babies through peaceful sit-ins at abortion mills.  Today, along with their four home-schooled children, they work with the Rev. Flip Benham of Operation Rescue National/OSA, with Judie Brown of American Life League, and with dozens of other local and national personhood organizations.

  • Zastrow, like half of those in the New Testament's Hall of Faith in Hebrews chapter 11, the apostles, John the Baptist, and the Lord Himself, have been arrested and jailed for prayerful and peaceful Christian action. Cal's incarceration for loving his neighbor is in the tradition of men like John Bunyan, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Alan Keyes, and Martin Luther King Jr. His longest jail sentence, of 90 days in the Saginaw County Jail, Michigan, leads Cal to conclude that going to jail isn't as bad as being dismembered by Planned Parenthood.

  • Cal knows that increasing the social tension over child killing is part of the full-court press to re-criminalize abortion and he therefore participates in various street protests and peaceful sit-ins, and he prays that more Christians will determine that there will be, "no child killing with tranquility!"

  • When asked why abortion is wrong, Zastrow states simply, "It is wrong to murder innocent people." 4

  • When questioned about the so-called "hard cases" of rape and incest, Zastrow states that the criminal should be punished, not the child. Concerning the life of the mother, Cal opposes killing the mother to save the child, and he likewise opposes killing the child to save the mother. Mr. Zastrow teaches that doctors should try to save both the mother and the baby, and if it is necessary to deliver the baby to save the mother, the doctor should never delay their care for the mom by stopping to kill the baby.

  • As of the summer of 2009, Personhood USA has never paid Cal a salary but he has raised his own support as a pro-life missionary working for the law to recognize the God-given right to life of the preborn!

  • Zastrow's pro-life heroes are Corrie Ten Boom, 5 Eva Edl, 6 Jim and Elisabeth Elliot, 7 Darlene Deibler Rose, 8 and David Livingstone. 9 He and Trish have honored them by naming their children after them.

  • Zastrow's favorite pro-life quote is, "Be strong Paul, be strong." (Jack Donelly to his son as the police arrested the boy and then the father for rescuing.)

  • Zastrow doesn't know how many babies have been saved through his family's efforts, but Cal's co-workers know that the Zastrows have personally saved hundreds of children scheduled to be killed by Planned Parenthood and other abortionists. Cal says whatever the number, it isn't enough, and that they will not stop fighting until abortion in America is as common as slavery now is.

  • Zastrow believes that abortion will end in America on the day that churches act pro-life instead of just talk that way. He hopes the Lord will enable him and his family to be there when the last abortion facility in America closes. Cal says on that day they will lift up a Christian flag over the last closed mill while shouting REVIVAL and singing ALL HAIL THE POWER OF JESUS' NAME!

Summary:


Cal Zastrow is a leader in America's resurgent personhood movement. Because "exception" means to support the intentional killing of an innocent child, Cal Zastrow opposes all "exceptions." Mr. Zastrow likewise opposes efforts to regulate the killing of any child. Cal lives the gospel of Jesus Christ as he calls upon others to love God and their neighbor, including the preborn child