Jesus crucified — a drawing by Saint John of the Cross
A reader of HSH blog and a great supporter recently sent me a pro-life video promoting the use of graphic images. I googled the title and decided that it is a video that I don’t want to see. It seems that the video involves footage of an actual abortion, that is, not just the remains, but video of the actual abortion, unedited.
Now, I agree that graphic images of the remains of babies destroyed by abortion have saved lives perhaps more than all other methods put together (outside of prayer, of course). I agree that they should be used. The more the better. I don’t think pictures of the remains of the babies are pornographic (as some think) any more than I think that pictures of mountains of corpses of the Jewish victims of the holocaust are pornographic, or any more than I think that a crucifix with but a scantily clad body of Jesus is pornographic. Those who think such images are pornographic are either disingenuous or altogether ill in the head.
Having said that, I disagree with the use of video of the abortion itself. Why?
Not because I think such images are meant in any way to be pornographic in and of themselves, even though the privates of a woman might well be shown. That’s not pornography, meant for titillation. Those who think so are well and truly sick in the head.
However! It seems to me that many women who get abortions are, in fact, girls, minors, who are there not because they want to be there, but because they are forced by rapists, “boyfriends” and/or family, often under threat of death, to get the abortion. They are already compromised. I see no reason to compromise them further by showing their privates to the entire world. There are, by the way, those who are terribly sick in the head, who get their kicks out of ripping children limb from limb from the mother’s womb. Why feed their sickness?
Having said that, if the images of the private parts were totally removed, frame by frame, so that it was clear that this was an abortion in progress but which did not show any of the privates of the woman, and this can be done, then – hey! – go for it. That would help to stop many, many abortions.
Am I wrong on this? I don’t think so.
Accompany me, Father George David Byers, S.S.L., S.T.D., as I begin life as a Catholic Priest-Hermit by choice. Holy Souls Hermitage is dedicated to the sanctification of my fellow priests, bishops, deacons & seminarians going through the purgatory of this life or the next. Prayer and sacrifice go up, of course, for both Benedict XVI and the next Successor of Saint Peter. 
Sorry, but I must disagree. If the mother is there under duress, as is often the case, it still seems to me to be a further violation of her dignity – even if modesty is respected. Then again, I spend much of my workday dealing with HIPAA, so I’ve got that bias.
Father, the Sexual Revolution has made for so many victims. I cringe when I see magazines like the Cosmopolitan when I go to the drugstore. All of this promotion of sex leads to unhappiness, disease, and abortion. That is my true belief.
This is a tough one Father. I could argue all sides of it. I think what it comes down to is that every abortion that happens, no matter how flip it may seem to some or how they try to make it, happens because of a chain of events or circumstances that make it impossible to lump all together as the same thing. Maybe if there was a graphic image outside of the clinic where I went for my abortion, maybe I would have turned around and ran in the other direction. But most probably not since I probably would have been sent back the very next day. I believe that graphic images are the only way some people will understand, but I think too that the technology of today that provides 3D and 4D imagery of the baby in the womb may be enough to change minds. Had I heard a heart beat back then or had a photograph to take back to my Mom and show her… what if? My main concern with the graphic images and in your face videos are the millions of post abortive women out here who could be the biggest force in turning the tide in this war, but if they walk up to a prayer vigil and are slammed in the face with a giant poster of an aborted baby, my guess is they will turn around and walk away. Most of us already torture ourselves about our abortions on our own. We don’t need the help. I’ll watch the video you describe on a bad day just to torture myself some more when I’m giving in to the despair some day. So I guess I don’t really have an answer. I would just say to people, be care of what you say and do because chances are, and statistics prove, that someone in your prolife group or audience has had an abortion themselves.
Hmmm…I have watched a partial film of an abortion – and turned it off. As a former EMT, I can assure you that it is not because I have a weak stomach or fear of gore. Nor is it because of the exposed private areas – since I suspect no one would be identified that way – nor recognize themselves, for that matter – so I don’t think that they further compromise the woman. To me, it’s about the baby….. I won’t watch the abortion for the same reason that I avoid “faces of death” and news videos that show someone’s death.
That said, although I don’t like the images (who on earth could?) I agree the graphic photos that they use have a place. When pro-abortion people want to change the language to “pro-choice” and “products of conception” and “medical procedure” they are trying to hide what they are really doing and saying. I remember the films of the German citizens being walked through Buchenwald – the smiles on the faces before and the horror on their faces after – it seems to me that the two are very similar. Everyone needs to know THIS is what you are talking about when you say “choice” and “reproductive rights” etc.
Yet, for me, there’s a difference between seeing the moment of death vs. after – but that’s just a me thing I guess.
Father you are correct. I pray they will do as you suggested. Children are so precious. It is incumbent that we continue to protect them so by what ever means we have at our disposal.
I should say legal means.
Blessings