I agree wholeheartedly with your article. As someone who has been brought up pro-life, I’ve still seen the unintended effects of using these images improperly.  When I was younger, I encountered these images without warning and my initial thoughts were ‘my God! there are children around!’ and ‘I wonder if that’s helping or hurting?’. I’ve known people who were ‘generally against abortion’ get so upset by these pictures and angry at the protesters that it had the negative effect, which took a long time to undo.  At the same time, I have been all too aware that more people are ‘blissfully’ unaware as to what abortion actually entails and would much prefer to keep it that way.  We cannot let such atrocities go unnoticed and just because we don’t want to look at or know about these evils does not make them any less real.  I also must say that these images should be treated with decency (which is sometimes not the case).  This is a picture of a murdered child; a human life that was ended.
I think these pictures are necessary, but should be treated with respect, viewers given fair warning, and also should be an essential part of our christian education (though at what level is up for debate).

I think your very right, Jennifer.  I go to very few prayer vigils at abortion clinics.  When I go, and see “the regulars” with those signs, I’m disheartened. They truly believe they are doing the work of God, but do not see it from the perspective of the other side.  Even if the message is correct, if the receiver of the message doesn’t get it, the delivery’s all wrong.  And if the delivery’s all wrong, the message is lost.  No wonder we’ve been arguing fruitlessly for the past 38 years!

I agree with you on every point, Jennifer, and I’m so happy to have yet another forum in which to read your work (I’m an avid fan of your blog).

Excellent points, Jen.  I hesitate to bring my kids to pro-life vigils because I don’t want them to have to see those images yet. 

Any thoughts on how effective it is, at rallies and public places, to show beautiful, tender photos of living unborn babies, instead?  Is it just as easy for pro-choice crowd to dismiss these?  (I know the arguments:  “Well, Hitler looked like that once!”)

Thank you for another insightful and eloquent piece, Jen! I agree completely.

Yes, yes, YES!!! I wholeheartedly agree with you, having been prochoice as a young adult woman as well! Many times I have tried explaining what you so eloquently said to other pro-lifers - Thank you for putting these thoughts into words!  “We will catch more bees with honey than vinegar”!  Excellent article!!!  God bless!

Oh sheesh, now I’m one of those people that asks a question you answered halfway through your piece.  Never mind, carry on.

In the county I grew up in, there are currently protests going on outside public high schools with the graphic images. The Knights of Columbus are helping out in this “education” of public school kids. I only wish I could hand every protester this well-reasoned and accurate assessment of how their protest is flawed.

As someone who attended a pro-life seminar on Friday night, only to find out it was a methodology class on how to support with graphic images, I had to leave a quarter of the way through. Pragmatically, I’ve ended up in the emergency room the last time I watched a botched abortion movie.  But also, I tend to disagree with the concept.
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I agree with you.  There is a time and a place.  When they agree to discuss the issue with you, and with their permission.  Even on a march, I’m ok with it (but not in favor of it), as bystanders know what to expect.  But not in general advertising or protests outside an abortion clinic.
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Did the disciples go around holding John the Baptist’s head in their preaching?  Do priests favor fire-and-brimstone theology from the pulpit?  Our graphic preaching should be in humble prayer kneeling at the foot of the cross, the tabernacle, or the abortion clinic.  Though both, we are a church of the ‘yes’ more than a church of the ‘thou-shalt-not’.  Preach the Beatitudes over the Ten Commandments.  Preach the love of Christ crucified for our sins.  Let the Holy Spirit work through the hearts of abortion-minded people.  Do not alienate them and potentially cause them to go into more sin by offending them needlessly.
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The evil of abortion is not death or suffering so much - that is common to all humans, born or unborn, evils we must all undergo. The special evil at work are the sins of materialism, relativism, pride, failing to educate oneself, and tons more in the same vein.  These sins offend God so much, and I weep at the destruction in human life that they cause.
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Your blog post is so timely for me.  I looked for hours on the web when I got home from the seminar, and could find no one who seemed to embrace an opposite viewpoint.  So thanks so much for posting.

Hi Jennifer, I enjoyed your article and am excited to check out your blog. I would like to go backward in time a little and ask you what got you to the point that you agreed to look at the pictures? Was it a certain phrase, a person who gently guided you over a long period of time?

Jennifer, this is so excellent. As usual! I’ve always felt that somehow these images were just wrong to shove into unwitting bystander’s faces, but was never sure why. Thanks for the well-written, thoughtful piece.

One of the most powerful pro-life moments I ever witnessed was not at a rally, or outside a clinic but was towards the end of the “Bodies” exhibit that our science museum hosted. A group of women were all standing mesmerized, staring at a grouping of babies (these were plasticized corpses, so not models) at different gestational ages. There were awestruck remarks along the lines of “look at the tiny little toes and fingers”, “I didn’t realize how much they look like little people only 12 weeks in”. One that really stood out was a woman who appeared to be in her 50’s and she kept saying, while staring at the 9 weeks gestation baby: “there is no way they look like that at 9 weeks”, “there is no way they look like that at 9 weeks” with her voice taking on an increasingly desperate tone. I was sorry that she was so upset and hoped that it wasn’t because she had lost (or aborted) her own little one at that age but felt that might be the case. So yes, I feel that seeing non-dismembered babies is a much better welcome to the abortion debate than gore.

A note: There were ethical concerns about the “Bodies” display, where the corpses had been obtained and our diocese asked questions and cleared Catholics to attend. That said I think that photos of little ones in the womb are quite powerful as well, especially if you provide some means of perceiving the size and age of the baby in utero.

When I drove by the Friday protest at the local abortion clinic and saw a good friend holding up a poster of a murdered aborted child I felt sick.  Not only because that child was murdered but because it didn’t seem to me that the poster displayed the humanity and tragedy of that child’s death.  We don’t display murdered bodies in our society.  I wondered why they didn’t have one of those artists sketch what the child would have looked like as an adult and put murdered in 2009, like the missing children posters.  Anything would be better than a murdered baby poster on a public street.

I agree with this article. I think there is a place for the pictures, as that is how I became firmly pro-life. I stumbled upon a book my parents had on their shelf, which had graphic abortion pictures. I was a child (therefore not yet influenced by the pro-“choice” rhetoric), and abortion had only been legal for a few years. I knew then that what I was seeing was an injustice and a crime against children. They made a huge impression on me. However, I have learned enough to know that those types of images are not helpful at all on the sidewalk, because the mother going into the clinic has already psychically “killed” her child. There is no way those images will move her or any pro-choicer to anything but digging in their heels.

Very very much agree with you, I hope a lot of pro-life demonstrators read this, especially those who advocate the use of these sad images.  I’ve been put off of joining pro-life demonstrations in the past because of the blatant, unrestrained use of these images, it is just too much, and as you said, shuts people down.

This is slightly off-topic, but still on the subject of using images when discussing the injustice of abortion. 

I read a piece by a Cultural Anthropologist in which she argued that ultrasound imagery had dramatically changed the abortion debate.  She said that being able to see a photo of a fetus in-utero means that “it” has been isolated from its proper location: the womb.  Her conclusion was that Pro-Life advocates have used technology to create a false independence for human fetuses.  You know what kind of image she means: the ones where the fetus looks as if she is suspended in air, against a black background.

I could see her point; how arguing that a fetus is a human person with a life of its own is actually misleading.  That tiny life is actually ENTIRELY at the mercy of another person; she is completely dependent on the will and body of her mother.  She (or he) has no chance at all of an independent life unless she is allowed a chance to grow and develop uninhibited.

This was important, I felt, for the sake of mutual respect and honesty in dialogue.  I am not sure that it is essential to the Pro-Life cause to argue for some kind of autonomy for unborn (fetal) life when that life is being formed within the context of a relationship.  Without that relationship,  it cannot continue to exist at all.

Love the piece.  Totally agree with you.  I think context needs to be seen in this pictures.  I recently saw some images of aborted “full-term” babies.  They were held in a person’s arms.  That I think gave weight to what you’ve been saying…that is that they are people.  That should be done more.  Pictures where the image is given size so people understand that these are babies who could have survived on their own had they not been injected with something or had their brains removed. Until recently I had no idea that late term abortions were so easy to come by.  I think that is something most “moderate” pro-choice people don’t realize.  I say moderate in the sense that they have parameters such as no late term abortions unless for cases of death to mother etc.  If they knew what was going on, I think there would be more of an outcry.

Also I think situation is important.  I’m glad when the people protesting on the streets are kind enough to let you know that there are images coming up so that you can tell your children not to look (or those who get easily queasy).  But I’ve seen them just post them where ever whenever especially at the University where school children sometimes come and tour.  That bothers me.  Parents should have the right to instruct their children to avert their eyes.  After all, this isn’t an appendectomy.  Parents should be given the choice to explain whats going on as it is age appropriate.

I agree that graphic pictures are counter-productive for the reasons you mention; they could even turn off those that lean more pro-life.  I think that pictures of fetal development can be a better alternative, but as Claire pointed out I think it is still easy for people to not allow themselves to see and believe, pretend that they are fake.  I wish that I could take every pro-choice person and have them sit through a live ultrasound…see that heartbeat, the head, hands, and feet for themselves…and then try to tell me there is not a living human being in there.

“no amount of pictures of their deaths will sway people. To be effective, images of abortion must go hand-in-hand with efforts to humanize life in the womb.”

Good article.

Your quote above leads me to question why you would say in your bio that you have a child “on the way”. Isn’t this little one here, right under your nose? or a little more south of your nose. Or do you find yourself looking for the UPS to make a “delivery”? Just saying, babies are here, in the present tense, 9 months before we meet them.

My thoughts were really shaped on this issue when I was with someone out in public a few years back. Prior to her conversion to Catholicism, she had an abortion, and she worked very hard to heal and seek forgiveness along with her conversion. Knowing her story, my heart sank into the pit of my stomach as we encountered protesters ( at a shopping area, no less) who had the graphic images.

After we passed them, I asked her if she was ok. She was very upset, and I don’t blame her. She felt condemned by the same church, who on one end were supposedly supporting her on her path to healing, but yet provided a public forum to reopen her wounds.  I will never forget that experience, and it has totally shaped the way I deal with pro-life issues. We must be positive and firm, but never self-righteous. There is a time and a place for different materials.

Excellent article.

I am more often moved by the images of white crosses representing lives lost to abortion than the graphic images displayed by protesters.

Lots of food for thought!

Totally agree. I wish that more people could actually be “pro-life” and celebrate life instead of just “anti-abortion” and parade around death.

As someone who struggles with infertility, and the daily struggle of asking God all the why’s and yet trying to trust him, this is a very sensitive topic for me. I was at a Christian music festival once where there was a pro-life, anti-abortion booth that had some graphic pictures and descriptions displayed. I made the mistake of allowing myself to look. I was so filled with anger and confusion that for the rest of the day my thoughts kept returning to “You let THEM get pregnant? WHY? Why THEM? Why would you let someone who would do THAT to a precious baby get pregnant, and not ME?” It took days to get over those feelings. There should be warnings posted “If you are struggling with infertility, DO NOT LOOK!”
Blessings!
Hannah
www.stubbornfishtales.com

I guess I am going to be the first voice here that doesn’t totally agree.  I speak as a labor and delivery nurse of 32 years and a mother of 5 daughters and a high school (all girls) teacher the past 10 years.
1.  I find it hard to believe that NO ONE’s heart is changed when they actually see the images.  Fr. Pavone’s website has comments indicating the images were the final force for change for many.  Also, I doubt very much that anyone would change from pro-life to pro-abortion after seeing these images.  Signs are now posted in most communities warning people of the upcoming vigil and suggest taking an alternate route.  America has become more pro-life SINCE the truth has been exposed, for whatever reasons.
2.  The pain caused to those who have suffering connected, in any way, to the images is much more difficult to address.  But the question arises: Should we hold back or sanitize the truth because some people are hurt by memories, etc?  Or should we do whatever we can to prevent others from suffering an equal fate?  We should be teaching truth in charity.  We should be providing truth with support (Rachel’s Vineyard, etc.).
3. We should be teaching our high school students about a major (NOT ONLY) cause of infertility - multiple sex partners and subsequent untreated STDs.  Prevention is just (more?)as loving as after the fact support.
4. Our priests and Catholic school teachers can be of tremendous help by setting the stage appropriately: teaching the truths on faith and morals as given by the magisterium, helping all those who are hurt to turn to God for healing, (rather than stopping the discussion because someone’s emotions are traumatized). 
5. When we are too afraid of honesty and truth, we allow too many to avoid the truth or hide behind self-justification.  Nothing changes.
I am as concerned as any of you that compassion and love be the guiding force.  I think this is a prime example of “the truth hurts” - but healing can’t happen until it is faced.  For many, these images provide that face.

Before I had kids, I hadn’t really thought this issue through. In graduate school, I protested with a group at my university that presented these graphic images (though I can’t say I liked seeing them, there was an additional freedom of speech problem going on at the school at the same time and multiple law suits over the school’s treatment of pro-life groups and I certainly supported fair and equal treatment for student organizations).

Later, though, my husband and I were living on campus at Notre Dame when Obama gave the commencement speech. Various groups descended on the campus, flying an airplane with graphic pictures on a banner and driving billboard trucks with the same photos around campus and town. Because I had two small children at the time, I ended up feeling like I was under seige. My kids couldn’t even look out of their bedroom windows without seeing the plane and, at several points, the billboard trucks were parked in front of the campus’s childcare facility. (In fact, a pro-life activist neighbor chased one billboard truck out of the parking lot of campus family housing.) I think that placing these images on a college campus proper, where adult students will see them is one thing, but putting them in sight of children who are in their own homes or on their way to grocery stores or the public library or preschool is something else entirely. A four year old simply isn’t equipped to understand such a terrifying image and I was really worried that, long term, seeing these images would end up hardening my kids to the real horror of abortion because of such early acclimation. (For the record, the groups responsible for the placement of these images were aware of the presence of children and did not desist in flying them over family housing or placing them near the daycare.)

My majority pro-life neighbors and my own family have been put off of financially supporting pro-life groups because of the use of these images, even though most of us believe that these images can be effective in the right context.

I honestly don’t think we need the murdered baby photos at all.  Why not just show what the child looks like at different stages of development?  That is all that is need to show the child is more then a clump of tissue.

Jennifer, thank you so much for this piece. You articulated much of what I have wanted to say about this issue! As you have said, while the truth about abortion needs to be told, we need to be mindful of how and where we do it, and who our audience is. Abortion has caused much pain and trauma in our society, not the least to the mothers (and often fathers) of aborted children who, more often than not, undergo abortion not because they callously wish to do so, but because they believe there is no other way out. So to #4, I would add that this message of support should always, always include words of compassion for those who have been involved in an abortion, and information about how to find help & healing.

This article speaks to me in many ways.  When I was 17 and I saw a picture of my baby on ultrasound, it was to torture myself with an image of the person I was going to kill.  Seeing the image did not stop me from aborting as I still had no place to go, no money, no one to help me etc.
(I have since been to Rachel’s Vineyard and am relieved to have found some healing there.) 
My closest friend maintained that she had done the right thing in aborting her second child until one late night in her home, there was a show on tv that showed graphic pictures of aborted babies.  These pictures changed the way she viewed her actions.  She has since sought forgiveness and healing.  But she had the right to turn the show off, didn’t she?  She was, as you mentioned, prepared to go there emotionally.

I am the president of our area’s pro life group and I have given a couple of speeches recently at a few churches about a gathering we are going to have.  Last year, we came across another group who has an annual “Life Walk”.  It is a family oriented gathering and everyone wears these t-shirts that say “I (heart) LIFE”.  They have a 5 km walk and have several stations along the way where people have cards punched to show they’ve made it to that station and also to provide a way for seniors or disabled to take part also.  There are prizes for the first one across the finish, the oldest walker, the youngest, etc.  The kids each get a goodie bag at the end and they finish off with a picnic and cake. 

When I told these churches about this proposition that we are planning to make a reality in June, they were VERY enthusiastic.  Most of these people are pro-life but are afraid of the political football that is abortion.  They picture protesters and graphic images in their heads. Really, who in God’s name wants to be a part of THAT?  The people who spoke to me after my speeches were very excited to be a part of something to help the movement that was positive and life AFFIRMING.  I think this is the way to go for now, anyway.  There is indeed, a proper time and place for everything.

I love the recent 2010 Jesus ultrasound photo (google “Christmas starts with Christ poster”.  I want to use that as my pro-life poster when I get enough money to make one at the printers.  Otherwise, the only posters I’ve held are simple “Choose Life” and “God loves you.”

Thanks from this random poster to all you other posters chiming in with great insights and stories.  They’re helping me gain confidence in the validity of this viewpoint.

I agree with this article. I’ve been re-thinking my ideas on graphic abortion images. I used to have no problem with them anywhere, until I had my children. Last May, we took my Mom and my cousin up to Parliament Hill here in Ottawa (Canada’s national capital). Not far from the eternal flame, there was a man with a graphic abortion poster, sitting there keeping vigil. I broke down and wept. I wasn’t expecting to see that there, and it broke me. A little boy, named Elijah, aborted because no one wanted him…the same size my 2 babies once were. But then, I thought about how glad I was my kids were in school that day, because I couldn’t imagine having to explain the sign to them, or why I was crying. So, Jennifer, I do agree with your article, wholeheartedly.

“Seeing the image did not stop me from aborting as I still had no place to go, no money, no one to help me etc.” Paula, I think you nailed it with this comment. Many, if not most, women or girls have abortions because they feel powerless to take another path and/or because the decision is being driven by someone else (parents, partner, employer, clinic staff, etc.) If a woman or girl doesn’t feel empowered to protect her unborn child, then seeing a photo won’t stop the abortion and may even add to her despair. This is why I think that graphic photos (if used at all) should be used only in limited circumstances and in company with messages of support and help for those impacted by this issue. Thank you so much for sharing your story, Paula, and may God bless your work!

Love your thoughts and especially agree with #1. When I was in college, some sort of pro-life group (I am ashamed to admit I never bothered to find out who/why) would stuff all the mailbox with graphic abortion photos.  I reacted exactly as you described, and decided to label myself “pro choice” without even thinking through what that meant.  Unfortunately, that lasted for years until I converted to Catholicism.  It’s nice to know that someone has thought through how these images could be used responsibly.

I have two reasons for disagreeing with the use of graphic abortion images for either raising awareness or for protesting the murder of babies.  First, I remember being a 7-year old and being handed one of those cards with the image of a tiny baby in pieces and a description of a partial birth abortion on the back - I was holding a sign at a pro-life walk and someone just walked by and handed these cards out to everyone. It gave me screaming nightmares for over a week; I was horrified. I am concerned that these graphic images can make their way into the hands of children and, while abortion is horrible, using these images in group demonstrations is at the expense of our children’s innocence. While I would love to bring my marvelous child to a demonstration, I cannot bring him because I won’t risk my child’s innocence and peace of mind. (My son survived coming into this world 14 weeks early and is an amazing and beautiful example of how disabilities do not destroy the value of life.)  Second, while I might make exceptions for drawings or verbal pictures, I do not think it is appropriate to use photographs of actual children. It does not seem respectful of the dignity that is due to a human being to turn a baby’s death into a tool against abortion, particularly when the photographs are artistically posed.  A dead child ought not to be a tool used to arouse horror, but then, that’s just my personal opinion.

As repulsive as this may seem to many people.  You can show me aborted babies all the live long day and you’re unlikely to get any response from me.  Try and force it on me, and I will likely do something just to annoy the “pusher” of this material. 

I’ve never had an abortion, and likely never will.  I certainly understand that it’s a human life from the moment of conception, but if you attempt to inflame my passion rather then inform my intellect, you’re going to get a nasty surprise.

I strongly dislike people trying to play or manipulate my emotions.

YES!!!!  I had a facebook friend, someone I knew from church but not very well, post these types of pics on facebook; so without warning I had graphic aborted baby pics in my newsfeed. I’m already pro-life, I understand that those are BABIES, and it was very disturbing to me.

@Hannah—my hugs and love to you.  I’ve always been pro-life and I wanted a half dozen children.  It wasn’t to be.  I was working as an attorney prosecuting child abuse cases.  I asked the same questions you did.  I asked them for years.  To this day, I still don’t know why some people get blessed with lots of children, especially those who seem to not know what to do with them, and others don’t.  I know my healing began when I overheard another woman say, “Who am I to question my God?”

I thought I was all better, until last year, while working one day at the pro-life emergency pregnancy clinic.  We had a new set of laminated posters come in.  One showed a baby at 8 weeks gestation—exactly the age where I miscarried.  It was not a graphic photo—it’s really a very nice, sweet poster.  But, even knowing as I do that babies are not a “blob of tissue” at that stage, the development was further along than I’d previously allowed myself to consider.  I ended up in tears, needless to say.

Hannah, I can’t promise you that dealing with infertility ever gets easier. All I can say is that God has a reason, even if we don’t see it now.  Can you turn your desire for children towards other children and their needs?  You don’t need to answer that here.  Just pray on it.  Perhaps God wants you to work with children in the USA who are not getting proper parental care.  Maybe He wants you to support a child elsewhere in the world.  Maybe He wants you to join the pro-life forces to end abortion.  Maybe it sounds too easy, but I know when you take your pain and turn it into positive action to help someone else, you stop focusing so much on what you don’t have.  It takes time, but God will help you if you ask Him.

I will keep you in my prayers.

@Claire—go further with your comments, however, about the unborn baby being entirely dependent upon the mother. . . so is a newborn.  Granted, the newborn is able to breath air, but without continuous care from someone, he/she, too, will soon die.

I heard something presented as a joke, but there’s an element of truth in it: viability is not a good test, because most children aren’t viable until they’ve graduated from college.  The point is, ability to survive outside the womb is not a logical test, either.

I have to keep going back to Fr. Pavone’s position:  America will never reject abortion until America sees abortion.  That is where the images of what abortion REALLY is are necessary.  Abortion has become, for the vast majority of Americans, a sanitized, private, medical normality and it will take the shocking truth to break through that thick, willful ignorance.  I do believe adults (not children) must be confronted with the awful, bloody reality and be jettisoned out of their comfortable “choice” mindset. People are lulled by political and legal rhetoric so much that they are happy to forget or ignore the brutality of tearing a tiny baby limb from limb.  Many people do not even know or believe that such a thing happens in an abortion.  They have been told it is something very clean and clinical and practically benign.  Reality will be shocking, but we cannot make it more palatable.  It’s horrendous.  People SHOULD be angry about it and upset by it and haunted by it. 

I do agree that such images should not be forced on children.  Adults—absolutely.

Great article.  A sidewalk counselor once shared with me a way to put these ideas into practice.  At prayer vigils, she carries pamphlets that show pictures of living preborn children, as well as small pictures of abortion victims.  When a mother agrees to speak with her, she first shows her what her living baby looks like.  Then, with the mother’s permission, she shows her the graphic pictures.  She and those who work with her do not use any large graphic signs at their vigils.  This counselor had a very high turn-around rate.

The admittedly gross pictures are needed to overcome the lies the innocent have been told; “It’s not a baby, just a blob of tissue” “products of conception” et. al. All that has been said, won’t overcome those basic lies. The truth is shown in the pictures - the US Army occupation films of the liberation of the Concentration camps was similarly convincing and are still needed to overrule those who would deny the Holocaust occurred. A positive alternative is the use of Ultrasound Devices. Jesus died for our sins as shown by Mel Gibson - hard but effective.

Wow, this post is so timely for me! Not sure where exactly I fall on the issue. Great tips that I will seriously consider. My son was delivered at 14 weeks, 2 days. Since we practice nfp I know exactly how old he was but was shocked - as his prolife mother - how much he looked like a BABY at such a young age! Because our photo of him is so personal, I have been conflicted whether to share it. But it is also so powerful that I feel a sense of obligation to share it in some way. I did pass it along to our local pro-life clinic in the event one of their clients may be moved by the photo and I trust the counselors know when that would be the case.

@Kim: that is not correct.  The unborn child is dependent upon their mother in a way that newborns are not.  Any number of abandoned babies can survive (and thrive) if they are entrusted into a responsible someone’s care—even a man’s, even an older child’s.  The pre-birth relationship is unique.

As a sidewalk counselor of 15+ years, I understand the graphic pictures are disturbing to say the least.  Guess what?  That’s their purpose.  No one - not one person - has the right to be “comfortable” as long as we, as a society, tolerate this unconscionable slaughter.  If you don’t like the pictures being “forced” upon you and the others, consider that these tiny victims have had the brutality of abortion “forced” upon their tiny persons.  I might also add that these pictures have actually saved lives, as many “pro-choice” people don’t understand the grisly reality of abortion.  Why do you think “pro choice” activists try to stifle the display of these?  So for the many lives saved, I suggest those of you with queesy stomachs and overly-delicate sensibilities get used to it Offer up your own discomfort in reparation for any past complacency in regard to abortion.

I agree with the article! Great job Jen!

I also agree with DM: I am more concerned about those trying to heal and find forgiveness after an abortion when it comes to graphic images. Remember pro-lifers, if we are pro life it is in all cases…including pro life in regards to the mothers harmed by abortion. This means protecting their hearts and helping bring them to healing!

Thanks for your reasoned argument on this issue, my wife has been absolutely against the use of graphic images, some good friends in the pro-life movement support them wholeheartedly and I’ve been on the fence. I’m now on the side of the use of graphic images only in select limited situations.

I was as pro-choice, just about, as one can get, for most of my adult life. I have seen, years ago, a huge sign with pictures of aborted fetuses emblazoned on it, being driven around town and up and down residential streets on a large truck. At the time, as a result of this, I thought that pro-life people were barbaric. This was only deepened in me when I saw “pro-LIFE” people murdering abortion doctors. What hypocrisy! I later saw, and actually sought out, pictures that are graphic, of the babies who had been aborted. Again, this did not touch me in a way that would change my mind. What DID touch me, however, was listening to Dr. Bernard Nathanson, first on ‘Catholic Answers’, and then while I watched, online, “The Silent Scream”. That image of a moving, living being, desperately trying to get away from the abortionist’s instrument, was what changed my mind. I could relate to that helpless being & I knew, right then, that abortion was intolerable evil. In my opinion, anyone who sees material of this sort would have to have something to tie it to, in their mind; such as truly wanting to know what abortion does to the victim, in order to be affected in a constructive way. I don’t really think graphic abortion pictures are helpful; although I do think they should be available to people, if they wish to take a look.

Janet to address some of your points:
1) no one is talking about rights here, much less a right to be comfortable, people are talking about how to be charitable to others.
2) being forced on analogy: two wrongs don’t make a right
3) pictures have saved lives – so have abortions of future would-be abortionists saved lives – doesn’t make it right
4) “pro choice” people may easily wish to stifle them for reasons that have nothing to do with being pro-choice; testimony here seems to confirm that
5) telling a person to get used to it is to deny them his/her free will – Christianity isn’t meant to be browbeaten across the non-believers.
..In general, there’s no doubt that these photos have done some good, but that’s not how God treats us, and we should learn from God’s modus operandi.  The photos, as demonstrated by these comments, have a lot of potential for causing others to be more obstinate in their sin.  As a counselor, at what percentage would you treat a patient with an antidote that has a decent possibility of making her worse than if you did nothing?
..I think we need to be humble and pray and let the Holy Spirit move their hearts, using the photos for education when the time is right.

I am sure that there are some women who have turned away from abortion after seeing these graphic images, I am also sure that some women’s hearts are hardened when they see them, I think that we need to be very careful when using these images, I was walking into church one morning when a piece of paper was pushed into my hand by a lady with a lovely smile, when I looked down at the paper it was a picture of a pile of aborted babies in a black bin liner, what that lady had no way of knowing that I had miscarried my baby during the week.  My poor husband had to cope with a very emotional wife collapsing in the porch of the church, resulting in the fact that we could never support that charity again,

Absolutely agree. When I was pro-choice, the pictures felt like an irrelevant emotional assault. Of course the fetus looked like a baby: the question was not whether it looked like a baby, but whether it actually was one. And of course pictures of any kind of surgery would look revolting.

The way I became pro-life was by (1) becoming open to the possibility because I’d become a practicing Christian, and (2) having the mental and emotional space and quiet to think through the intellectual question for myself. Graphic images absolutely were not helpful.

Great post, Jen—I agree completely.

Great Post, Jen!!

I think that sometimes those who fight for life get so caught up in the brutality and gruesomeness of abortion that they forget that those on the “opposing” side (and especially those women who are so lost and confused that they think abortion is the only answer) are made in the same image and likeness of God as the little babies they are defending. 

They forget that these souls are just as precious to God and have just as much dignity as the unborn souls.  Their sin or contemplation of sin doesn’t take that away.  They are not the enemy, just lost and confused victims of our culture of death.  I believe they should be spoken the truth clearly, but with love and compassion, as Jesus would. 

We, humans have a tendency to get caught up in a cause and it becomes “us” versus “them”.  The other is seen as the enemy.  When one is working for God, I think it is very important to be humbly grounded in prayer so that God can work through them.  I sometime wonder what is the drive behind these militant pro-life workers.  If one isn’t constantly encountering God’s will in the depths of their souls, we have things like pro-lifers taking the life of abortion doctors.  (How pro-life is that and how can that be of God?)  The focus becomes lost and the aim, self-seeking.

Sorry about my soap box.  Thanks for the post. Absolutely beautiful and well said!

I totally agree with your 4 points.  God is the one who changes their minds and works in their hearts.  We are just a tool in His hands.  I feel your 4th point is of extreme importance.  We are called to love our neighbor as ourself and that love is shown in relationships.  Thanks for all you do to keep us thinking.  Audrey

Mrs. Fulwiler,

I commend you for you conviction of your belief’s, but allow me to share with you mine. I am a Catholic Convert, and I believe a person can wear two hats in this debate. While I personally detest abortion, in that regard I am Pro-Life, I do not believe that it is morally right to force my ideal on someone else. I would not be on the picket line protesting abortion. The fact is abortion is legal, however morally rehensible. If ever in a situation similar I would give the person, if they asked my advise or counsel, the facts; a infant’s heart begins to beat at 10 weeks and after the neuraltube it is the second organ to devolpe. When an abortion is completed it is my belief that a murder is commited. That is my belief and not nessicarily that persons. I would then refer that person to my Priest for spiritual guidence that I am not qualified to give.

Personally I find abortion imaginary offensive, I am a medical professional and I see imagary of that type every day. When an abortion is performed the damage is already done. I feel the proper and morally right frame of mind at this time would be forgiveness. Perhapes that mother has only at the end realized they have errored, it is our place to forgive and welcome that person despite the fact they committed a mortal sin. Keep that in mind here; it is no human’s place to judge, or forgive the sins of another. That right is reserved for God and God alone.

You said that when you were Pro-Choice you would lay down your life to protect a woman’s right to choose. Well I would too, in fact I do it every day. An American’s right to free-will and to choose is my duty to protect, and its a duty I take very seriously. I am a Catholic and I am Pro-Choice. Its an American’s God given right.

As someone who was literally front-and-center during the whole Notre Dame Obama ‘scandal’ a few years back, I have to say that the protests staged by those well-intentioned pro-lifers were scarring for me and for the families who lived by the university.  Planes flew overhead every day trailing banners with graphic images.  People yelled at eachother on every street corner: some holding images of aborted children, others pushing ‘blood’-covered baby dolls in strollers.  As someone who is staunchly pro-life, the whole display made me sick. Where was the respect for human life here? Where was the reverence for these children, whose mangled bodies were being displayed for thousands to gawk at? Where was the concern for the mass of parents who were forced to try to explain these images to their children on the way home from school?

This was an extreme example, but it has made me question the efficacy of the shock-factor. In my experience, an ultrasound does a whole lot more to change hearts than graphic images ever can.

Evan what you are saying is in clear contradiction to the Church’s Magisterium.  Please talk with a faithful priest very soon.

@Evan, by that same logic, the abolitionists who worked against slavery prior to the Civil War, and the resistance movements who fought the Nazis were doing wrong. Is that really what you think?

@FILIUSDEXTRIS, I will take your referal into account and consult a priest as soon as possible for clearifcation.

@Karen LH, please explain how fighting for the right to live and be free is a bad thing. The abolitionists were fighting against “continuing” travesdies against another human being, a slave. Assuming I was alive during that time, which I was not, as human being I find slavery offensive. My feelings toward slavery have nothing to do with this discussion. An act of abortion is a singular act, once its done, it done. As in the days of slavery I would not keep slaves but free men working for me for a profit, and given the oppertunity to become more then a day labor. In regards to the fighting of the Nazis, the Catholic Churchs’ position at the time of neutrality is well documented. When I stand before God, Jesus, Blessed Mary and all the Angels, I will be judged on my life, not the lives of others. Everyone must come into the light by their owns means at their own time.

@Evan, the abolitionists and the resistance movement both fought against legal institutions. The abolitionists opposed the rights of slaveowners to own other human beings, the resistance movement the rights of Germans to murder Jews. Why did they not have the duty to protect those slaveowners’ and those Nazis’ freedom to choose to enslave and murder then, while you feel that you do have the duty to protect an abortionist’s freedom to choose to murder now? What’s the difference?

@Karen LH

You make a good point. The difference is, I am not them. I am not a German Nazi, and I am not Colonial Slave Owner. Despite their legality I do not feel the duty to lay down my life to protect thier rights. No where that I am aware of is genicide permitted in the bible that I am aware of. So that is a mute point, and a distraction.

As for slavery, while I find it distasteful there are passages of the Old Testiment that refer to slavery as acceptable and it was not until 1965 that the Second Vatican Council declared slavery as a infamy that dishonored God. Infact in the age of the Civial War and even afterwards Catholic relgious orders and Popes owned muslim, unbaptised slaves. The Chruch was resolute that the baptised should not and will not be kept as slaves, however the unbaptised could be owned as slaves. Personally, I would still fight for a persons right to own slaves by upholding the current laws at the time of the Civial War, 1/2 of the Nation were slave states and the other 1/2 of America were free states, while educating slave owners of my personal views. Which is what my course of action would be when faced with abortion. I do not like it but its legal.

Evan, God permits various evil now, that doesn’t mean he approves of them.  God permitted various popes to commit public sin, that doesn’t mean he approves of the act.  God permitted prominent Bible figures to publicly sin, that doesn’t mean he approved of the sin.  If slavery is in the Bible, you have to ask and prove that it is a truth that the Biblical author was trying to address.  There are various errors in fact in some Bible passages; that doesn’t mean that at the same time they were lacking in truth (especially with regards to what the author was trying to address).
..Therefore, none of your unsubstantiated points regarding slavery, even accepting them as true for argument’s sake, provide a rational basis for slavery.  Slavery is against the dignity of each human person created in the image and likeness of God; it goes against free will.  It says that some individuals or groups are superior to others in nature which is a lie.  There is a lot of Biblical support for this understanding.  Catholic thought may or may not have taken a while to develop on this issue but any delay doesn’t mean that the truth the Church preaches on slavery is less true because of the delay.

@FILIUDEXTRIS I would like to continue this discussion because I am truly interested in your point of view. However, I can see that our discussions have vered away from the topic at hand. I will say this, yes you are correct that the time it takes the Catholic Church takes to delay ruling on an issue is of no real importance that fact that is wrong before God at any time I agree with. Now because a person feels that it is against God’s law is a personal choice and belief. If the act is legally accepted as in the case of abortion now and slave ownership from the days of Roman Empire to the civial war it is not for a person to take justice into his or her own hands. Thats vigilante justice and has no place in modern society.

Just a internet reference off the cuff:
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09079a.htm
http://users.binary.net/polycarp/slave.html

Evan, you wrote: “Now because a a person feels that it is against God’s law is a personal choice and belief.”  That is true, but it also ignores that there is objective truth.  God has an opinion on the subject too.  If your opinion differs with God’s, then you are in objective ignorance (perhaps sin, if acting upon it).  Your subjective sin may be minimal if you didn’t know about it.  In other words, God may not hold your ignorance against you.  So if you commit an abortion, you are objectively guilty according to the Church, but perhaps subjectively not very guilty at all if that goes against your understanding.  However, that is not enough.  If, however long ago (decades?) you did not do a good job at conforming your conscience with the teachings of the church, say, through laziness or anger or obstinancy, you might still have the guilt that would make your abortions a very serious personal subjective sin.  Only a good examination of conscience and prayer to the Holy Spirit will reveal that.
..Also, societies sometimes enact unjust laws.  The fact that some activity happens to be legal doesn’t make it moral.  What if the American people were to change the Constitution to provide for the execution of all people named Evan.  That, I suppose, would be legal, but it would be a horrible immoral injustice.

@FILIUSDEXTRIS An interesting point you make there. However, as I have stated before the topic has vered off course and may detere others from participating in the topic at hand. I give the topic over to those reading who may wish to comment and remove myself from the discussion.

@Claire—you are correct that a born baby can be cared for by someone other than it’s mother, but that does not change the fact that a born baby will die if someone does not care for him/her.  THAT was the point I was making.

@Evan:  “The fact is abortion is legal, however morally rehensible”

So?  Just because something is currently legal does not mean it has to remain legal.  If it is morally reprehensible, then its legality needs to be changed.

Contrary to popular belief, there are things over which morality should be imposed.  Lawmakers have been doing so throughout the history of civilization.  We hear, “the government can’t tell me what to do with my body.”  Oh, really?  The government tells us we must wear seat belts.  Why?  Because I might die in a car wreck if I don’t?  So what.  How dare the government impose that upon me, particularly because the only body involved in that decision is mine.  Abortion adversely affects two bodies. . . the mother and the baby.

This whole “it’s legal” as being the end of the discussion is so misguided.

An American’s right to free-will and to choose?  Come on @Evan.  You’re spouting rhetoric, without even thinking about what you’re saying.  If you’re well-versed in Catholic catechism, then you should know that “free will” is what God gave us, and it does not mean we can decide for ourselves what is and is not moral and right.  “Free will” means that God has given us the ability to choose to do the right thing or to reject God.  But if we reject God and do the immoral thing, then God is not going to say, “that’s okay. . . you exercised your free will.”

Back to the subject of pictures. . .  there are times and places where graphic pictures of dismembered babies are appropriate and there are times and places when they are not.  On this issue, there is no “one size fits all” rule.  Every person is different from another, and even from themselves at different points in time.  In making a decision of which pictures to display, one must consider the audience.  At the crisis pregnancy clinic where I worked, we had the graphic photos available and we had a variety of videos.  We allowed the women to decide what they wanted to see, and even if they wanted to see the “Choice Blues” video, we gave them the remote control so they could shut it off whenever they wanted.  The graphic photos and the videos affected each of the women differently.

And for a bit of good news—I just learned 30 minutes ago that an employee of one of the 3 abortion clinics here has left that employment, after the monthly archdiocesan Rosary outside the clinic.  Praise God!

I personally think there are better ways to make your point then to go straight to the gutter. Images of fetuses at different stages of development had more of an impact on my change of view, then to see a picture of some aborted fetus next to a picture of a holocaust victim to drive home a point.  The former made me think.  The latter offended me and firmed me in my pro-choice convictions.

Jesus didn’t preach by forcing images on people. He asked people to follow him and only when probed, showed his miracles to aid in the process of conversion. 

I am pro-life now because rational, peaceful arguments were made, not in your face shock images.

I have met a number of women who have seen the graphic images when they were CHILDREN, and have told me that is the reason they are now pro life 100%. They have never forgotten the images. We do Face The Truth events every 6 weeks or so , and have had many positive responses including ones who have said ” It’s a baby!!, It really is a baby!”  There are many pro life venues. Graphic images are one of them. Pregnancy Centers, Fetal models, picketing, sidewalk counseling, are other venues. If we delete any of these ways, babies will die. We need them all, and they all save babies.

I Do believe that showing graphic pictures are a neccesity. How long do we have to ignore the facts of what abortion truly is? People aren’t listening to reason and explanations, and seem to jump on the bandwagon that because it ‘doesn’t involve me personally, I don’t care’. Some people DO need visual ‘facts’ to comprehend what abortion truly means. Of course, the pictures are not warm and fuzzy, you just can’t pretty-up abortion! Did people stop showing pictures from Auschwitz because of the evil there? NO. Even children in school see the pictures of dying or dead people in the concentration camps. We see pictures of war-ravaged countries. This is no different. Evil is evil. Ignorance is bliss. We DO need to show these pictures so maybe, just maybe some will take their head out of the sand and finally realize exactly what abortion means. As Fr. Frank Pavone asks, “Is this what you mean about abortion?”

Hello from Abortion free Ireland!

Graphic images completely woke me up and are why I’ve spent the past 3 years of my life working to make sure Ireland stays that way.

The fact that we show these pictures on the street and inform the public is the key reason why abortion is still illegal in Ireland. They really do save lives and change hearts and minds.

I believe that the images must be shown.  These images are the victims’ only voices and only proof that they even existed.  We use graphic images all the time on television of starving and abused children, starving and abused animals, victims of war and genocide, etc.  These images in these commercials move people to want to act, to want to help.  What issue could be more important to show the victims than the murder of innocent unborn babies?  These images are absolutely necessary.

I think that the difference in response depends on whether the audience already believes that they are looking at a child. If they do, then the images will shock them in a good way: how can anyone do this to a CHILD?!? But if not, they will simply feel manipulated and you will drive them away. I think for the latter folks, it may be more constructive to concentrate on fetal development and to try to get them to think about what difference there could be between a child before birth and one after birth that could possibly justify killing the former but not the latter. (And if you run into a Dr. Singer type ... well, then you’ve got another discussion entirely on your hands.)

Jennifer, thank you for saying so eloquently what I have been debating about for so long with Pro-Life groups who use these images for street corner protests. I hope that they take your kind and wise words into careful and prayerful consideration!

The problem with the images is that we don’t use them enough. 

The Priests for Life web site alone should be enough to convince anyone that the images are extremely effective in converting hearts and minds.  The overwhelming testimonies from so many people are not something unusual; it is the normative experience when showing the images publicly because these images convey, in the most powerful way possible, the reality of abortion and how the child is destroyed.

Our culture has no idea what abortion really is and words alone cannot make the tragedy of the act a reality in the mind.  Only the images will do. 

In a way too, these images do convey the intrinsic goodness of all human life, because it is a shock to see, sometimes for the first time, what human beings are capable of doing to each other.  In other words, this is not a movie, it’s the real thing.  The children are allowed to speak through the images in a way that we are not able to. 

It has been my experience that using these images is the most powerful and effective way of converting hearts, changing minds and educating people.  Nothing else even comes close, because nothing else has the potential to reach the most numbers of people in the shortest period of time with the most powerful message we have. 

Many people are concerned that children will become upset at seeing these images and it is my experience that this does not happen.  If anything, children become upset when their parents overreact to the images.  Think about it.  Do not children become upset when their parents are arguing?  Are they upset over what the parents are arguing about, or the fact that their parents are arguing in the first place?  Children will largely react how the parents react. 

The long history of social reform clearly shows that exposing injustice was an essential element in ending injustice.  People will go to great lengths to remain ignorant, but that does not remove our responsibility to firmly show them the truth.  We do not need, and should not seek to ask for, their permission to inform them of the truth. 

I am going to take a wild guess and say that most people who oppose the use of these images or who wish to place restrictions on how they should be used have never taken part in a Face the Truth tour or a GAP Project. Take the time to participate in one of these events, see the reactions of the people and listen to what they say. 

Like I said, the problem with the images is that we don’t use them enough.  I can think of 3 cities that have Face the Truth tours on a regular basis.  GAP and other college-based organizations get to a handful of campuses every year.  Yet, millions upon millions of Americans remain un-evangelized.  Let’s not debate whether or not we should use the images.  Let’s figure out how to get as many people as possible to see them.

Here’s my say on this for what it’s worth. Great article by the way. I’m a pro-life activist in Ireland, and it kinda makes me sad to see everyone splitting hairs on this issue.
I think that between all these comments, I’ve read so many arguments for and against the use of graphic pictures. I’ve been part of lots of different types of pro-life activity, rallies, counseling outside of clinics, protests, street information sessions. Some of activities work best when using graphic images, others not.
In one case, each year, we have a rally for life, a wonderful celebration of life, where we have balloons, colour and a festival atmosphere, we don’t use pictures for this. Each week I take part in a street info session, where we distribute info to the public, on our information boards we display information about abortion alongside that of the developing child, both with images of abortion, and the developing child. It’s not easy to do this, as we meet a multitude of people who all react differently. I’m still amazed by the volume of people in Ireland who still are not aware of the reality of abortion, and I’m convinced that this constant kind of pro-life campaigning over the past 20 years has been pivotal in the battle to keep abortion out of Ireland. I see hearts and minds changed each and every time I do this, and I see the mothers and babies who have been saved from the horror of abortion. I’ve sadly met women and men who have been hurt by abortion, and have been able to direct them on to further counseling. This can be done with love, and I believe that telling people the truth is the most loving thing we can do, its not an easy thing to do, and despite the abuse we sometimes get.
Sadly, these graphic images are the only evidence that these tiny, helpless people ever existed. If we choose to hide them always, then I feel that we are denying the world proof of their very existence. They exist in my heart, and it is for them and their brothers and sisters that I give up my Saturdays each week.
The use of images, graphic and otherwise, to expose an injustice has been shown throughout history to be pivotal in bringing about change. We’ve seen the photographs taken the concentration camps in Nazi Germany tell the world of the horror endured by the poor souls imprisoned and murdered there. We’ve seen the images used by Equiano, Sancho and Wilberforce to bring about the abolition of the slave trade. See Link for images that changed the world. Ironically some of the images have been censored due to their graphic content…
http://pinguy.infogami.com/blog/vwm6
The most instrumental image of them all, and one that often causes huge controversy, is the image of Jesus, crucified and bloodied on the cross. A very distressing and violent thing, one of which that we are exposed to each day. I wonder, in the future would we be having the debate on whether or not to show images of Christ crucified in Churches, or just use images of his resurrection, so as not to disturb or cause offence to those present?

I had to stop reading the comments because there were just too many, but I thought I would share my experience just for reference. For background I consider myself moderately prochoice (with a bajilion caviats) but I cannot think of an instance when I would choose to abort. I now have a child and am trying for another. The experience with these images that I think of most happened as a young adult. I was on a bus with small children stuck in traffic. We were stopped directly in front of a large group of protesters holding these signs. Every single one of those children aboard that bus saw the horrific images and were incredibly shaken up. I will never forget trying to comfort a small child who really did not understand (one in particular wanted to know if that would happen to the baby in her mommy’s belly). To this day, I have been reluctant to even enter into a discussion about abortion and have not even considered helping with the pro life movement based on my experience on that bus.

@ Andrew- AWESOME, COULD NOT HAVE SAID IT BETTER MYSELF!!!!=)

@Leslie-I’m very sorry for the loss of your baby and even more so that at such an emotional time you were assaulted by the reality of abortion.  I know from experience that at such an emotionally trying time that the damage done is irreversible.

One of many things that I’ve learned from the loss of our two precious babies at 9 weeks 1 day gestation is that I can choose what to do with the hurt that was caused often by the choices of others.

I can choose not to show love because my family refused to love me or I can choose to show more love to my children and others because I didn’t receive it when needed.  I can choose not to fight abortion because these graphic pictures hurt me or I can choose to fight the need for these pictures by doing everything in my power to stop abortion.

I would however suggest you notify the organization as to how their pamphlets were used and let them know of your fragile circumstances at the time it was shoved at you.  They need to know so they can properly train individuals in the use of these materials.

Again I’m extremely sorry for the trauma that this caused you.

@ Evan-It saddens me that you call yourself a medical professional giving a person the facts! If so you should get them right.  Babies hearts are beating long before 10 weeks.  I know I’ve seen it for myself as I’ve had 6 babies (including two who died before birth).  All had ultrasounds as early as 6 weeks or as late as 9 weeks and all but one had a heartbeat present. That one had died, at 9 weeks and one day, just days before the ultrasound.  When I asked the ultrasound tech how they were sure the baby had died they said that if the baby was six weeks they ALWAYS see a heartbeat. Therefore that baby had had a heartbeat for at least 3 weeks and maybe longer before they died.  By nine weeks the heartbeats of my babies that would live were not only visible by ultrasound but also audible using doplar.

The most beautiful example was of our babies ultrasound at 6 weeks and all you could see was the heartbeat.  The baby’s body hadn’t yet formed around it (not in a way that was visible by ultrasound at that point).  Yet there was a beautiful little beating heart.  This baby also died before birth at 9 weeks and 1 day.

@Everyone
Pictures of abortion are gruesome and graphic because ABORTION IS GRUESOME AND GRAPHIC. The pictures will hurt and offend some they will also change some hearts.  If they don’t they will be used as evidence against those who choose not to be changed by them.  The Lord will be able to say I tried everything to give you a chance and you chose not to see.

Rather than debating their best use we need to do our best to combat the need for them.  In a society that is dead to pain and suffering sometimes only a shock can be the beginning of a very painful awakening.

I agree with Shasta. I have participated in the demonstrations and so have my children. My high school son stood on the street in a very large city and debated with a man about abortion and the use of the signs. All of children find them difficult to look at as do I. They actually make me weep but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be shown. For all the people who talk about how their children were so upset I just have to wonder if is just these signs that you don’t think your children should see? Unfortunately, our children are exposed to more horrible images than I ever was at their age, on tv, in games, in books etc. When teaching the holocaust do you not allow your children to see the bodies of the people that suffered and were murdered. To me it is all the same. I refer to abortion in the US as our Holocaust. Whatever it takes to end the holocaust needs to be done even if it makes people uncomfortable. There are so many lies told to these poor woman that have abortions I am comforted to know that there is someone telling them the truth. The possibility of saving the baby is worth it.

I’ve learned from Abby Johnson that she became most ashamed when the protestors were merely praying (during the 40 Days for Life campaigns) than when graphic images were shown.  I would like to read her book to learn more.

I’ve learned from Abby Johnson that she became most ashamed when the protestors were merely praying (during the 40 Days for Life campaigns) than when graphic images were shown.  I would like to read her book to learn more. Now, if a Planned Parenthood executive says that, then who are we to argue? And, Fr. Frank Pavone does not force people to see photos of abortion on his website(s).  You are given an opportunity to see it for yourself, but on your own.

All of the people here, I guess it is time to take down the crucifix of Jesus Christ. It is disgusting. I mean what if children see Jesus all bloody and beaten on a cross. It is dehumanizing. Can’t we just tell people what Jesus did.

Really, we don’t need any of those terrible pieces of art portraying Saints being martyred either. I mean seriously, a picture is worth a thousand words. And why should we be honest about the truth. We should hide the truth from everyone. Jesus, told us to hide out lights under bushel.

We should never show people the consequences of their sin or confront them like St. John the Baptist. He was so controversial. Just like so many of the Prophets and Martyrs of the Church, they really had no idea of how to be tasteful and think about people’s feelings before the innocent victims.

It is really ridiculous to think someone could have a change of heart by seeing a naked bloody person on a cross. Take down your Crucifixes, we don’t need anyone seeing the light. We should all be content with the status-qou. The last thing we need is someone getting all religious and saving babies lives or having a conversion.

The truth is Dr. Nathanson is the voice of reason you should listen to not some worthless, collaborator with the baby-killers. There is a playbook for victory, not showing the images of the injustice only omits the truth and abets the criminals.

Dr. Nathanson was a “abortionist” co-founder of NARAL and is a witness just like many priests, I have personally met, that bear witness to a conversion after being confronted with the images of murdered babies.

If you think you are helping anyone by hiding the truth then you are surely helping Satan. He is the one who hides in the darkness. The weak flee have fled from battle and demand that the brave follow them in their retreat. I will not comply with evil! I will continue to do what annoys and exposes the wicked, and I WILL NOT QUIT FIGHTING! Flee and leave the innocent to die undefended in the losing strategies that have never prevailed if you must or choose to learn from the victorious social revolutions of the past.

ON TO VICTORY, WE ARE MORE THAN CONQUERORS IN CHRIST JESUS. SHOW THE TRUTH, THE BABIES DESERVE JUSTICE!

I don’t agree with your article - at all. I was told “it’s not very Christian of you to post this video” when I posted a graphic comparative video from the The Center of Bio-ethical Reform one facebook. Later it was taken off my page - CENSORSHIP. I hope every single person that views this video is disturbed at the horrors of the abortion. When do we shut the Auschwitz Museum down, because the photos of emaciated Jews and dead corpses is not a nice way to show what happened in World War two; because you apply your logic of Rwanda to the Holocaust and this just doesn’t make sense. You’re not being rational about the worst illogical situation on earth, abortion of humans.

Should we instead have pictures of living Jews right after the end of the war? NO!!!!!!! We have movies about the survivors of the 10 million people lost in WW2 and I know that this abortion is a divisive one and needs to be addressed, however, the moment we comfort ourselves and our hurt hearts with lovely little baby pictures, that will keep the horrors of abortion in the secret closet so many don’t want to acknowledge. We don’t need to be Miss Etiquette when it comes to the most worst evil in our society. It’s not pretty or nice and everyone should be aware at what happens with every single human that makes the decision to have an abortion and should see all images nice or evil. The truth is not to make us comfortable, it’s to make us be mad so we can change a hurting and evil and lost world/generations we live with everyday.

I want to agree with the premise that the pictures are ‘too much’ but the more I think about this, the more I believe the pictures should be out there.

No, I don’t like the idea of kids seeing these pictures.  But I also don’t like the idea of kids being brought up as moral relativists.  I have been in homes with small children whose parents are conservative, Christian, etc. and have seen things playing out on the TV set that made me embarrassed.

If these were photos of tooth extractions would there be this hue and cry?  Of course not.  That says something right there.  I read a comment on a website that was discussing born-alive abortions recently.  There were commenters who refused to believe that this was even possible - they thought people were making it up - because they believed the products of abortion were not even discernible as human body parts, let alone a fully formed baby.  Let them see those pictures and then ask their opinion.

Whoa, Andrew, please carefully choose your rhetoric.  There is a huge difference between the mediums of painting and sculpting and a photograph.  That’s being disingenuous to try to argue otherwise.  I think a lot of the posters here would have less problems with the former as a potential first contact in the abortion issue.  And all these depictions in their full-blooded glory weren’t used in spreading the Gospel message to non-Christians.  And when you say naked, bloody person on a cross, remember that our art removes a lot of the blood and imposes a loincloth where most likely there wasn’t any.  You ignore the fact that a lot of people are convinced of Christianity by its reason.  I give you Tertullian’s “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.” but it wasn’t a photograph of the martyrs.  Some converts were eyewitnesses, sure, but again, elective eyewitnesses.  Early disciples did not go around walking with John the Baptist’s head in their hands (or anything like it).  Dr. Nathanson was not converted by aborted images shoved on him from others.  A person praying and preaching and loving gently can be a far more effective light, far from bushel-shading.  You’re just not making apt comparisons.  To do so, you’d have to prove that the disciples used the most graphic images available in their day.
..Your tone is nasty and ironic.  None of these posters or the author is a “worthless collaborator with the baby-killers.”  They are not the “weak who flee from battle” nor are they “evil”.  Shame on you for insinuating.  They (and I) may even be wrong, but that doesn’t make your words helpful.  It is this kind of vitriol which poisons hearts and is scandalous since people become mired in their sin in objection to your anger and not to your reason.  No one here is decrying use of aborted images; they are trying to use love to discern when best to use them.

To all, if you were not aware, abortion supporters are planning a nation-wide “Walk For Choice” this Saturday, February 26th from 12 pm - 3 pm in more than 40 cities to protest efforts in Congress to ban federal funding of abortion. The theme of this effort is “We Have A Voice, We Have A Choice.”

We are asking pro-lifers everywhere to provide a counter-presence at these events using the theme of “They Have No Voice, They Have No Choice” to re-direct attention back to the child in the womb that is destroyed during an abortion. 

Find out more info on our web site at www.prolifetexas.org.

And yes, it is a good idea to bring the images to these events.  Like previous posters have indicated, many people remain unaware of the deadly nature of abortion and make a big effort to stay ignorant.  We must “conquer by convincing” (Benedict XVI) and show the truth even when it’s uncomfortable.

I feel like I have to say something so here goes.

@Tammy and @ Andrew, abortion is very ugly and gruesome and one of the greatest injustices of our time, if not THE greatest injustice of our time.  It is understandable to get caught up in wanting to save God’s beautiful babies at all cost.  It provokes anger because of the ugliness.  WE are humans, we can’t help but take that road.

However I believe there is a much bigger picture here.  I believe that after constantly growing in closer union with God, the purpose of our life here is to bring others to Christ.  My experience of growing in closer union with Christ is that He gives you at thirst for souls, ALL SOULS HE died for.

Where is the love in your words and actions?  You may not want to hear this, but those “criminals” are just as precious to Jesus as the babies they are killing.  Attacking them, judging them, and calling them names is only going to send them farther from Jesus and I think THAT is the main goal in pro-life.  INTRODUCE OTHERS TO THE LOVE OF JESUS.  THAT is how we are going to end abortion. THAT is how we are going to change the world.  We can only do that if we allow Jesus to work THROUGH us.  When it becomes all about “US” and “OUR AGENDA” (even if it is the noblest of causes), it becomes self-serving and others can’t see Jesus in us because, frankly, we aren’t allowing HIM to do the work.  We have taken control away from God who knows all and is all. 

So, YES, we always called to speak the truth, we do it with LOVE and not anger.  There was alot of anger in your post not only towards the “baby killers”, but toward us who are ALL PRO-Life, as if we were “against” you or “on the other side”.  There is only God’s side and that is LOVE and winning souls for Christ. 

I would encourage you to spend time with JEsus in adoration and LISTEN to Him speaking to your heart.  Jesus IS LOVE.  Condemnation and hatred are from His enemy.

God Bless you and you will be in my prayers.

I often wonder how pro-lifers who display aborted baby photos would view anit-war protesters using graphic photos of soldiers’ and civilians’ bodies blown to bits and multilated because of war? I know some pro-lifers who are not anti-war would consider it inappropriate and unpatriotic. But isn’t the goal the same of both groups: to turn a visceral reaction to their advantage? Both groups would say they were showing the world the truth.

I think that each of us is called to participate in the battle against abortion and that each of us must pray as to what our role is, ie prayer warrior, political activist, etc. Graphic images have their place and I would ask that you not judge the people using them nor discount their effect. Just because it didn’t work to sway you to the pro life side doesn’t mean that that graphic sign won’t be in the right place at the right time for someone else.

Many have commented that images of healthy pre born and born babies would be more effective. I assume then that we will be seeing more of you and those beautiful images at the 40 Days for Life Prayer Vigils that are starting up nation wide at the beginning of Lent? Time to get off the couch people!

BTW, I don’t use graphic images. I am a prayer warrior at an abortuary. I too questioned their use but these images helped me get off my couch and into the battle. “Pro lifers” are also turned off by what goes on outside abortuaries so they stay away. The truth is, the TRUTH of abortion is painful and graphic when you pray (in person)for these women and babies, you see the faces of these men and women walking into the death house and you see the joy of the “clinic” escorts. It is very difficult to watch evil but it is time to GET OFF THE COUCH people, no matter how turned off you are. Less talk, more action.

@Andrew—thank you for the heads up on the “walk for choice.”  I found the website to check the cities:  http://walkforchoice.tumblr.com/participating.  I’m grateful there will not be one in Kansas or Missouri.

I’m still intrigued that this argument for-against graphic pictures is raging.  To each of you who feels strongly one way or the other, what do you have against accepting the idea that there are appropriate times, places and audiences for each type of picture?

God has used me to save a number of babies of which I’m aware, and who knows how many more I don’t know about, from abortion in the past 25 years.  Graphic photos of dismembered babies were used a couple times, sweet/beautiful photos of unharmed babies in the womb were used other times, and mere words were used other times.

Stop arguing with each other—this does the pro-life movement no good whatsoever.  Open your hearts to what God wants you to use. . . and stop thinking that there’s only one way - your way - that is correct.  If you stop thinking you know best and listen to God in each situation, He will guide you.

Since I am someone who opposes the use of graphic images, let me put it this way.

Would posting pictures of mutilated American soldiers be acceptable as a means to stop War?

Would posting pictures of naked kids being sexually abused by Catholic priests (graphically) be an effective way to bring awareness to that issues.

Would posting pictures of women in the action of being raped stop that issue?

Would posting pictures of young (Moslem) girls labia’s being mutilated be an effective way of stoping that or bringing awareness to that issue?

Most people would say the above four “go over the lines”, but somehow, an aborted fetus (especially when posting them besides pictures of starving auchwitz victims) is effective?

I mean if we are going to defend the use of grpahic images to stop illegal/immoral actions, let’s not be discriminatory in our use.  If the Catholic church deems certain television images/shows/music to be offensive to children, then why would showing grapic images of a featus being murdered be accepted.

@Danielle - You pose an interesting question, for sure.  It might seem very difficult, but the answer to all of your questions is “yes.” 

Many who fight pornography advocate showing the actual videos uncensored to make people understand the depravity it has descended to. 

It’s simply not enough to provide a description of injustice.  It’s not enough to simply be emotional about the issue.  It’s not enough to talk about bringing the love of Jesus by being nice.  It’s not enough to worry about how people are going to react.  And, my friends, it’s simply not enough to pray. 

We can’t be afraid to go out into the deep and expose the great genocide of abortion. This is literally the fight of our lives and you are worried that someone may not like it? I disagree. 

The problem with the images is that we don’t use them enough.

@ Andrew.

To a certain extent, I do agree. But here is another issue.  If the point of showing graphic images it to create dialogue and promote pro-life, then are these ads effective?  Are they already appealing to the already converted? To those who are already pro-life or pro-life"ish” anyways?  That’s all fine and great. 

But for those who are not pro-life or are on the fence, then this is just another inflammatory “crazy catholic” thing. And I mean it. As a convert in 2009, I can say that before my faith journey, when I was firmly pro-choice, those ads just pissed me off and furthered my convictions, because I found them tasteless and not very “christian-like”. That those ads were not reaching to people at where they are in their lives.  The people that liked those ads were the people that were pro-life anyways.

When I actually saw tasteful pictures (and actual featuses at an exhibit) at various stages of life, that is when I was converted over.  Then I started my faith journey and RATIONAL arguments were presented to me.

So I guess my point is, how effective are those adds to those who don’t agree with you anyways.  If it’s to convince the already faithful, then score.  But what is it saying to those are not?  Is it engaging in dialogue or is it just confirming the “you are a crazy fanatic” belief that turns people away from the truth?

Great article Jen!

I was going to say something, but Erin covered my thoughts.  The pro-life movement can be effective if you understand your audience and always come with love!  Coming at people with graphic images, when they are lost, unloved, controlled and manipulated just shows them that their is no love in the world and that God is not ever present.

@Danielle—I would answer each of your questions “yes.”  Then I would refer you to my multiple comments in which I qualify that by noting that when to use graphic images of any horrific subject depends upon the time, place and audience.  So once again. . . neither extreme in this debate is universally correct.

@ Erin. Have you heard of ‘righteous anger’. If we don’t get angry over issues, then what. What did Jesus do in the temple, where people were selling offerings and goods. Did He say to them. “Oh my dear brothers and sisters, please stop selling these things. Please see that this is my Father’s house and you know what we can sit down and talk about these things being sold and let’s think of a different way to have your wears sold outside of the temple.” NO. He did get mad, and it was in all the righteousness of Christ, He was righteously angry in perfection toward the sellers at the temple. He actually threw up stalls! What do you think Jesus would do when He would talk to an abortionist doctor? Tell them they made a mistake and not to sin anymore - He likely would say that and I really think our Agape Loving, Beloved, Perfect, Righteously Angry, God in the Flesh Jesus would approach them with maybe both ideas of techniques to get those to see what they are really doing when it comes to deciding to abort a living human being. What about 90% of all down syndrome babies being aborted? Doesn’t that make us mad - it should - it’s a cost to our society that we will never know the countless lives that could have been saved by those potential DS humans. Look at the end of the day, I won’t cast the first stone because I am not without sin, but I’m covered by grace thankfully because I made a decision to become a Catholic. I just want this travesty, injustice, unfairness of murderous decisions to stop. Thus I won’t be strategic, but I’d rather people not rest easy when they watch the videos I post or pictures I post. I want them to be disgusted to the point that they talk about endlessly then realise ‘wait a minute, this is wrong, I’m really pro-life’...that’s what we all want - yes?!

@Tammy
I appreciate your passion your intentions are good, but the point is that all things don’t work for all people. There isn’t a one size fits all for fighting abortion.  Yes, one thing worked for you, but it may inflame and empower others to go the opposite direction.  As Jen was stating in her article be smart about how you approach this know your audience.  The Bible is very clear on how we should address issues.

Romans 12:17 Never pay back evil with more evil. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honorable.

I totally agree.  I once showed “Eclipse of Reason” to college students and one guy thought the images were “cool”, something he had never seen before.

I am an atheist against abortion.  Don’t worry, America will be converted.

Tammy,

I know your passion comes from a loving heart that is so deeply moved by the injustices done to the smallest of God’s children.  I think all of us feel that and when you have been “IN” the movement, “on the front lines”, (to borrow an analogy from you and Andrew) it does begin to feel like a war.  Yes, you could argue that it is.

Yes, there is one mention in the bible of Jesus becoming angry in the temple.  I’ve also heard that same arguement used to by Catholic-hating protestants who believe the Catholic church is the !@#$% of Babylon in the bible and fight militantly against her.

People can use any means to justify their anger.  What about Judas who thought Jesus was going to come in righteousness and “FIGHT” or “Conquer” the Romans and was so disillusioned when he started to understand that Jesus’ way was to love and save sinners?  He didn’t start a revolution against the Romans, even though it was needed and grave injustices taking place.  He brought His love and healing to people, to individuals, and dramatically changed lives. He died on the cross and showed us the value of sacrifice. Jesus fought and still fights His battle with love and sacrifice.  He calls us to do the same.

Just like Jen and most posters here, I’m not advocating that those images should not be used.  I believe they should be used in love, to change hearts and bring more souls to Jesus.  Again, this is the only way we are going to end the atrocity that is abortion.  In your face, anger and the         “me” versus “you” will never win.  Love, love is the answer.  Love is the way, the truth, and the life. 

The 40 days for life has been very effective in changing lives and bringing souls to Christ while saving babies in the process.

I just hear alot of anger and maybe hatred in your voice when you speak of “baby killers” and “criminals”.  There is no love.  Don’t let your passion for the babies (a good thing) harden your hearts (not a good thing).

Stay grounded in Jesus.

@Danielle - More good points you raise. 

As to your question about converting those who hate us, I’m not sure the graphic images do anything for them.  They may very well continue to think we are mean, hateful etc.  But they will think that way no matter what we do or say.  At least the presence of the images is a constant reminder that what they are doing is wrong, and it may be the only time they will ever be shown the truth about abortion.  If it provokes a person and they become “pissed off” I say good!  At least were getting a reaction.

For those on the fence, pro-life’ish, then I would hope that the images would push them over.  If not, then they can continue to think we are unchristian. But how other people feel about evangelization is not a criteria to determine whether or not we should carry out that evangelization. I am not opposed to using the big, pretty pictures, but they don’t have nearly the effect that the graphic ones do.  Not even close. 

From reading through the many comments on this blog post, it seems that most of them are coming at this issue from an emotional angle. I think the emotion surrounding the debate is a distraction.  The concerns about children reacting poorly to the images is totally unfounded, there is no evidence to support any of the claims made by people that children are harmed when they see them. 

The problem with the images is that we don’t use them enough.

Therese60640,
I tend to agree with the following statement:
“3. We should be teaching our high school students about a major (NOT ONLY) cause of infertility - multiple sex partners and subsequent untreated STDs.  Prevention is just (more?) as loving as after the fact support.”

My problem is when girls remain virgins until they are married and are still infertile.  How do explain the mother with 6 kids by 6 different fathers?  She had multiple sex partners and she’s not infertile? How do you explain that after you’ve taught the above statement?  I think what we’ve learned in the past 60 years is that scare tactics don’t work.  Kids are a lot smarter than you may think they are, if they see one example that debunks your statement they tend not to agree with it.

I went to a Catholic highschool in the 70’s. One of our all school assemblies was to view a film which showed an actual abortion. It was disgusting- I remember a kids throwing up in the aisle. It was, however, incredibly effective as far as showing the violence of abortion. I’ve always been interested to see how many of us that viewed that film would even consider, let alone have an abortion.
A couple of years ago, during another abortion vote, there was an “anti-abortion” truck traveling the city with VERY graphic pictures of aborted babies on it. My kids were appalled. And I really struggled with how appropriate I thought it was. On the one hand, it is an act of violence. And I don’t see anything wrong with letting joe-public view the violence being done. Most of the pro abortion people that I know personally don’t want to discuss anti-abortion laws in a logical/realational way. They want to express their “truth” and then shut out detractors. In much the same way they shut out and dehumanize the gross pictures. However, I also wonder if graphic pictures of concentration camps would have caused the allies to rally sooner. THere is alot of violence on T.v. just as a matter of course, so I’m not sure that what even registers with people as “real.”
So, I’m not sure. God softens hearts and draws people to Him. But what part do we play? Certainly Abby Johnson’s testimony indicted that it was prayer and actually seeing an abortion take place.

I stopped reading at this phrase: “When someone forces you to look at something distasteful…” “Distasteful”. Abortion is “distasteful”. A violently murdered baby is “distasteful”. The product of a woman’s being violated by a doctor who coerces her into believing that it’s for her own good is “distasteful”.  The ongoing abuse of women by ripping their children from their wombs is “distasteful”.

I personally don’t care if I offend baby killing supporters, and neither should anyone who is pro-life.

A graphic abortion video shown in our high school caused one of our pregnant teenagers to CANCEL her abortion appt. In today’s visual
climate some shock value is sometimes the only thing that will ‘open’
the eyes and minds of our youth.

Well I’m not going to reply to this in my own words but instead share some words of the Lord that may help those who have ‘eyes that can see’. May you be comforted.

“As you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me

  Matthew 25:31-46

31 “When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, 33 and he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left. 34 Then the King will say to those at his right hand, `Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; 35 for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’

37 Then the righteous will answer him, `Lord, when did we see thee hungry and feed thee, or thirsty and give thee drink? 38 And when did we see thee a stranger and welcome thee, or naked and clothe thee? 39 And when did we see thee sick or in prison and visit thee?’ 40 And the King will answer them, `Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.’ 41 Then he will say to those at his left hand,

`Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; 42 for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 44 Then they also will answer, `Lord, when did we see thee hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to thee?’ 45 Then he will answer them, `Truly, I say to you, as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me.’ 46 And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Disclaimer: opps sorry wrong blog. had two windows opened at the same my. my bad. kindly disregard the above. not meant for this post.

cheers

As an adult adoptee, I’ve always been pro-life, but I’ve always felt that perhaps the Church and society as a whole could do more to offer practical, concerned, and sensitive support to women who are challenged with an unwanted pregnancy.  I don’t really think that those graphic images do much of anything to people who have already made up their mind.  Several years ago I was recovering from shoulder surgery and had to go see my orthopedic surgeon whose office was in the same medical building where there was an abortion clinic, and on my appointment date there was one of those huge pro-life rallies, the kind where people from all over the region were bussed in.  Far from being an orderly and prayerful demonstration, the cacophony, discord, and confrontational behavior of the demonstrators was frightening to walk through.  Remember, this was not a freestanding clinic, it was a large medical building which housed everything from general practitioners to dentists to cardiologists and neurosurgeons.  Still, the picketers effectively blockaded the perimeter.  With one arm in a sling, in midwinter, I was wearing a large woolen cape, which made me look to the casual observer as if I were in an advanced state of pregnancy. Because I could not drive my mother had driven me to my doctor’s appointment.  Several demonstrators literally got in my face, screaming, “Let your baby live!”  There were a couple of cops standing nearby, looking bored.  I finally threw back the cape to expose my immobilized shoulder, and said, “I’m here to see an orthopedic surgeon!  Let me through!”  The demonstrators had no business whatsoever to know why I was going to any medical appointment in that building on that day, or the nature of that appointment.  I could have been going to a dentist, or any kind of doctor at all for anything.  Their behavior soured me to offering any sort of support to their cause.  I will, however, donate generously to those causes which address why women would seek an abortion in the first place, in an effort to get this horrendous procedure to stop.  The entire experience left me with the impression that a message is best delivered by kindness and compassion instead of by nuclear strike!

@Carol—I don’t know where you live, but I’m sorry for your experience.

However, the Catholic Church does provide resources for women who didn’t plan to get pregnant and are considering abortion.  The Church has been instrumental in starting up crisis pregnancy clinics all over the country.  For example, the one in my part of the metro KC area provides free medical-grade pregnancy tests, free sonograms to date the pregnancy (and to show abortion-minded women that they are carrying a living human being), free counseling about all choices a pregnant woman can make and the consequences of each choice, referrals to pro-life ob/gyns who work with the woman’s financial condition, educational resources to help during pregnancy, referrals to adoption agencies if that is what she chooses, educational resources to help with infant, toddler and child-care issues, diapers, baby items, baby and toddler clothing, referrals to area agencies that help with housing, food, utilities, etc.  The women are not charged for any of the services provided by the clinic.  The clinic operates on donations and volunteer help.

Perhaps if your area is lacking such a facility, you could meet with your priest or bishop and see what can be done to establish such a clinic, so that the abortion-minded women in your area have an alternative.

God bless you, and I hope your shoulder has healed well!

“Sadly, these graphic images are the only evidence that these tiny, helpless people ever existed.”

But they’re not!  As people have been saying, ultrasounds and photos of peaceful, living fetuses are widely available and may work better.

I agree that the graphic pictures are very important and useful in their own way.  Viewing these images on the internet as a young teenager set my pro-life beliefs in stone.  But I was *already pro-life*!

Most of us need to get over our need to feel liked by everyone.  But when you become an activist, you often develop a rarified desire to be *disliked* by everyone.  I remember praying in front of PP and a man driving by, shrieking obscenities at us, and thinking (as a young, shy college student) “Well, I must be doing something right.”  We say things like, “We have to do this, even if people hate us and spit on us.”  And how else can we steel ourselves for work that sometimes becomes harrowing and raw?  But fundamentally this isn’t about our feelings, whether good or bad.  Tactics should be judged by their effectiveness, not by whether they give us a frisson of ancient Rome and the gardens of Nero.

These are just my thoughts, and I’m not trying to hate on either side.  Peace all.

What is worse: showing the picture or murdering the child?  Some folks get so hysterically self-righteous over the former that the immorality of the latter is conveniently forgotten.  Maybe their objection depends on the goal of the campaign, as most of them probably support graphic anti-smoking ads.
Health Canada believes in using more and more graphic photographs of diseased body parts and smokers nearing death in its anti-smoking images on billboards and cigarette packages. HC is prochoice and anti-tobacco, but knows that graphics are effective in changing behaviour.  Maybe we should shield our children from these public taxpayer-sponsored images.  Seems our “choices” do have consequences:  perhaps prolifers and prochoicers can agree on that.  That said, one is simply an unhealthy lifestyle, the other is the deliberate killing of human life.  Perhaps our born children don’t need the overprotection from this simple truth we adults seem to crave;  their innate moral sense may be what finally saves their unborn brothers and sisters.

My first comment on those pictures comes from a day in front of a baby killing business. The mother had walked pass everyone else. Then she stopped and listened to the group holding the horrible signs. And when she changed her mind and was left standing there with no ride home, she accepted their offer to get her home and got into the car with those horrible signs.  Was it worth offending all of you?  You betcha! Would I let them do it every day, all day long if it would only save one more family? Oh Yeah!

It also strikes me that many who say they were pro-choice have encountered these pictures and professed that they did nothing to help them. First you saw the graphic horror of abortion and were offended, maybe not offended by abortion but you had a reaction. Later, sometimes years later, you encountered the beauty of a small child and decided to convert. My question is; Would the beauty have touched you enough if you did not have the horror to compare it too? Can we really say that those encounters did not set us on the path?  In other words, sometimes we have to hit bottom before we allow God to touch us with His beauty.

To have made your conversion and still only be concerned with stopping the messenger? Perhaps, you’ve just not realized how long and hard God has been working in your life.  May we all continue on our journey of conversion and not be so ready to judge base only on our personal reaction at the time.

I used to be pro-choice and the images always made me angry (couldn’t tell you why).  Now that I’m pro-life, I’ve gone back and forth on the whole thing.  I have a young child and I choose to still take her to pro-life vigils - she doesn’t seemed disturbed by the images, just concerned for the babies. 

Recently I took a pro-life apologetics class, and it was explained how not only is the image of Jesus on the cross graphic and effective, but the graphic image of the late Emmett Till (a 14-year-old young black man who was beaten to death for whistling at a white woman) in the newspaper was the catalyst for Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat on the bus.  Now that’s incredible to me.  One graphic picture of a murdered boy helped start the civil rights movement of the 1960s.  Powerful! 

I still have mixed feelings and I see your point in this article.  It’s a tough call because while some lives have been saved, I’m sure other people have just become angry.  I suppose we should keep coming at the abortion issue from all angles since we’re all affected differently.  God bless all the activists, prayer warriors, and general pro-lifers out there!  Keep fighting the good fight!  And pro-choicers, you’re in my prayers, too!

Marie, you said that the pictures “saved some lives” and “made others angry”.  Well, that is the normal effect of truth; some will accept and some will reject - there is no “middle ground”.  The reason why you were angry as a pro-choicer is because your conscience was pricked by coming into contact with the truth.

The use of the pictures, IS charity, FILIUSDEXTRIS

I understand the points everyone has made but I disagree with most of them about waiting for the proper moment to show them.  How many babies will die while you wait around for the “right” time to show the pictures?  I’m not saying to be all in-your-face-crazy about pulling out the pictures while in line at a grocery store or at the PTA meeting.  However, used in the context of abortion protests, they show what REALLY happens to these babies.  The graphic images are what speak to me most about what is REALLY happening.  The murder and senseless violence.  When I think about why I am anti-abortion, it is the pictures that immediately come to mind.  Until you see the pictures, its all just rhetoric on a page.

When a baby is murdered, and the body is left in a car trunk, for instance, the decomposing body of the baby will emanate a distinct odor of death.

If death were in the abstract, meaningless, and capricious, then the way the bodies of babies would decompose would also be in the abstract, capricious in nature, with varying outcomes. Sometimes the bodies of the babies would sprout little statues of birds, or turn into little balls of twine, or maybe their fingers and toes would become edible cookies we all could enjoy.

But exposed death of human babies is not arbitrary and capricious in nature, and therefore the outcome of death is almost always the same ( the bodies of decomposing Saints being miraculously exceptional): the smell of human death is horrible, rancid, putrid, never to be forgotten. The smell is so horrible, and especially so is the sight of a decomposing dead baby’s body, that when one sees and smells such a scene, one wonders if He is a God who cares for the innocents, has a rational purpose for life, and if He has any Heart at all to not intervene, and stop this from happening. One begins to wonder, finally, if God exists at all.

He does. He exists in the body of the broken flesh. He exists in the odor of death that surrounds the rotting flesh. He is there. And on His face, there is no smile.

This may very well be the one comment you will never see:
I had emailed Father Frank Pavone maybe 6 months ago and asked the broader question of why we had the “catholics come home” television commercials last year and no pro-life commercials at all on secular TV? He had a saying that “America won’t reject abortion until America sees abortion.”  Is it only a moral priority but not an economic priority to put SOMETHING pro-life on TV? It doesn’t even need to be graphically disturbing!

Great write-up.  I found this post when Googling on the topic of graphic, “shock” images forced upon people.  Last weekend I drove 10 minutes to chew out a group of protesters after my wife felt traumatized by their photos (and we’re already pro-life).  If my kids had seen them, as they certainly would have if they’d been in the car, I would have been so enraged that I would have escalated my confrontation to a physical level.  The protesters seem willing to disregard my rights as a parent to choose what to expose my children to and what they’re ready for.  I was hoping to find precedents for banning/illegalizing these graphic, psyche-assaulting methods.

@ Jeff Benson: I congratulate you on a very though-provoking message, and for being a good father who protects his children’s innocence. I’m glad they didn’t see the graphic images, but am saddened that your wife was traumatized by them. I sincerely wish that we all lived in a world where the reality of barbarism were a thing of the past.

I’m glad we’re living in a country that has never seen all-out Civil War but once, and that was fought for the noble cause of freeing slaves from the barbarism of slavery. As we both know, the Civil War didn’t really end discrimination against Blacks; that took more. Thankfully the barbarism of racial hatred is diminishing as the years roll by; hopefully some day we can all look back with pride at whatever we or our ancestors did to end the barbarism of discrimination based on race.

My heart swells with pride when I see movies like ” Gettysburg “, especially the speech Chamberlain made before his Maine troops went into battle, telling them that they were the first men in history to fight a war not just for their own freedom, but for the freedom of men they didn’t even know. It would be beautiful and noble if that’s all there was to the Battle of Gettysburg. But there was more .

The men who heard that speech went into the battlefield and some were killed horribly or maimed, some lost limbs,or were horribly crippled and never functioned as whole persons again. Matthew Brady’s photographs of the battlefield dead are beyond human ability to understand how horribly wrong a country must be when brother kills brother, flesh and blood kin kill one another.

But these men have my respect, because despite the fact that they had to leave their homes, farms, factories and families, they went TOWARD the enemy, and didn’t retreat in the face of that enemy. They advanced and held the ground, and finally defeated the enemy. The enemy of barbarism, slavery, and discrimination.

One side had to lose, so that Freedom’s Promises might be advanced, with a tattered battle flag, but advance it did. It must advance again.

Although this article raises some interesting points, I think that the author has failed to acknowledge the wide spectrum of human behaviour and - more telling - the realities therewithin.

Bob Geldof
PETA
RSPCA
NHS & all anti-smoking campaigners

That’s just 4 organisations off the top of my head that use not only graphic images that are delivered OUT OF CONTEXT (usually on the television when Im about to dip into dessert or light a cigar) but in a “shock” capacity; and they are not nice!
please don’t suggest that these campaigns haven’t worked, no one I know has ever been able to get the images of emaciated, starving children out of their minds and most of my friends have kicked their smoking habits DIRECTLY as a result of having images of bad teeth and cancer-ridden lungs on their cigarette packets (I myself quit my 20 a day cigarette habit and now smoke 2-3 cigars a day).

The fact is, that many people react in anger when they first see something distressing. But that doesn’t mean that the images don’t go in and to assess the impact based on the FIRST reaction is simplistic.

Lastly, I would like to say that seeing the images of piles of dead Jews has never left my memory and the last time I saw those images was years ago; they had all the more impact because I didn’t want to see them and they were not in context because it was a documentary about the war, not the holocaust specifically (I was expecting a history lesson, not graphic imagery). Showing me pictures of healthy Jewish people beforehand had the effect of providing CONTRAST. 

I don’t mean to be rude, but this article - if anything - dishonours the lives of the little ones who have been lost. It is all well and good displaying pictures of healthy babies, but without the contrast, the reality of the brutality that is taking place and without getting the LONG TERM attention of the people who are supporting murder, people who should know better but don’t, will continue to deceive themselves and others.

Abortion pictures ARE horrible. When I first became involved in the pro-life movement, I lost my sex drive, my appetite and needed help getting to sleep as a result of the things I was seeing and I wouldn’t wish that distress on my worst enemy. But there are little lives involved and if - as adults - we cannot or will not stiff up and face the reality of what we as a species are doing then what hope is there for us? As adults aren’t WE supposed to be the strong ones?

Apologies if this has come across as insulting in any way but I do disagree with the majority of your article and the world would be a strange place if we were all the same.

I forgot: Thomas Clarkson. Largely regarded as the most hated man in England at the time because he was posting “extreme” images of slave ships in public locations - against the will of the public.

He was instrumental in ending slavery.

Better HIDE the crucifixes…they are too graphic!!  Bah.  I don’t buy this polite stuff.  Which side are you on?
CHOOSE LIFE or CHOOSE DEATH, it’s one or the other.

How do you know that through all the people’s prayers, all the people in Abby’s life - (as she states in her book) like her mom and her husband who proclaimed God’s word to her and all the pro-lifers protesting against abortion in front of the clinic (including all the pictures of the aborted babies).....didn’t continually disturb her conscious (like the nun Abby spoke of on her knees, praying and crying, that barely moved the hearts of the people working there-but somewhat did) and then one day when she was seeing the baby struggling for its life, while being murdered by the doctor, in that ultra sound it finally hit her. Maybe it took Abby that long for the TRUTH to hit her that abortion is murder, but who says that everyone thinks like Abby. Some people reject our Lord’s works of Mercy and truly there are many different ones, that came Abby’s way. Many people have converted by just seeing pictures of aborted babies. MANY. Many moms and dad flee from the clinic after seeing these pictures, maybe the hardened workers don’t, but many women going in for the abortion, flee after seeing these graphic pictures and babies lives are saved. Truly, is Abby only concerned about saving the hardened workers? Truly, all the people working IN Jesus, all have different gifts of the Holy Spirit, regardless if they are praying, counseling, using graphic pictures, ultra sounds machine etc…and are truly stirring peoples hearts. We need all the works of mercy possible. Graphic pictures saves babies lives and seeing the truth, helps people who are not so hardened to FLEE, from these murderers and liars (so called doctors of health care). Abby needs to stop, attacking pro-lifers who are saving babies through graphic pictures (it is not just about Abby and how she was saved, it is about saving babies, period). so maybe these workers all need to see the ultra sound etc… then do so, but don’t forget the many babies lives that have been saved through these graphic pictures. Father Frank says they work and any work of Mercy is needed, to end abortion.

Abby Johnson’s daughter when four years old saw a graphic picture of an aborted child at a pro-life walk and handled quite well…..so I hope that this little child example can lead the world and Abby too on how to handle graphic images that are saving babies lives, because moms and dads flee from abortions clinics (whose hearts aren’t so hardened) and babies are saved from these graphic images. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/09/29/parents-tell-your-kids-about-abortion-the-baby-is-broken/