According to Pro-Aborts, Even Pictures of Babies in the Womb are “Graphic Images”

By Jonathon Van Maren
National Right to Life

Pro-lifers uncomfortable with most forms of educational outreach often pinpoint their discomfort very specifically on one thing: Abortion victim photography makes people upset. There are a variety of responses to this, of course—images of abortion victims should make us upset, because little human beings are being physically torn limb from limb. 

But often, I point out the fact that regardless of whether we choose to use photographs of abortion victims in our outreach, people will always get upset, and they will always accuse pro-lifers of being extreme. It is the truth that we bring that upsets people, not the method we use to bring it. That’s why pro-lifers have been attacked at Life Chain, while sidewalk chalking, and virtually any other form of outreach you can think of.

Let me give you one example. Recently, the city of Peterborough reluctantly allowed the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform to run pro-life ads on the backs of city buses (they will be running for the next three months.) This is how the Peterborough Examiner covered the story:

A plan from city council to make changes to their advertising policies to prevent a pro-life group from ever running pro-life ads on public transit – with graphic images of fetuses – was ratified by council on Monday night, even after several women told council they failed by not blocking the ads in the first place.

Two ads are coming to public transit this week – likely Tuesday. They come from the Canadian Centre for Bioethical Reform, and they feature graphic images of aborted fetuses.

There’s one problem with that description: Our ad does not include any photographs of aborted babies. It simply shows two photographs of children in the womb followed by a blank red circle, with the words “Growing, Growing, Gone” beneath them. 

A photo of the ad was included in the story that made this claim, so the journalist writing the story obviously knew that she was misrepresenting the advertisement. She also twice referred to the images as “graphic images of fetuses” and quoted a post-abortive woman who complained that the images were “spewing bigotry.”

National Right to Life continues

Editor’s note. This appeared in April at endthekilling.ca, a Canadian pro-life organization, and is reposted with permission.