Since an aborted fetus is not yet a baby, and certainly not yet a toddler or small boy as shown, why use pictures of children at all? If you're intending this to represent the aborted fetus' future self, a picture of a big ugly thug or an old woman would be just as good.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-05-04T07:33:35.413Z
You could go all the way to the other end of the life-cycle & show a bare skeleton, and it would be just as representative of an embryo or fetus as that sappy picture is.Children should be taught this kind of critical thinking in school so as to make them resistant to emotional manipulation.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-05-04T07:38:39.956Z
Long, long before US evangelicals decided that they were going to be anti-abortion, Catholics were; Jerry Falwell himself only started preaching against it in 1978:
Evangelicals considered abortion a “Catholic issue” until the late 1970s…Evangelicals in the late 1960s and throughout most of the 1970s by and large refused to see abortion as a defining issue, much less a matter that would summon them to the front lines of political activism…and some groups with historic ties to evangelicalism pushed for legalization…When the Roe decision was handed down on January 22, 1973, W. A. Criswell, former president of the Southern Baptist Convention…[said] “I have always felt that it was only after a child was born and had a life separate from its mother that it became an individual person…what is best for the mother and for the future should be allowed.” Baptists, in particular, applauded the Roe decision as an appropriate articulation of the line of division between church and state, between personal morality and state regulation of individual behavior…[even Jerry] Falwell…did not preach against abortion until February 26, 1978, more than five years after the Roe v. Wade decision…
And yet, Catholic education has traditionally put such a strong emphasis on critical thinking skills that some wit once pointed out that the Church was its own worst enemy because it provided children with the tools that undermine faith. I once wrote a paper arguing that anti-abortion propaganda relying on graphic pictures was immoral because it attempted to emotionally manipulate the audience rather than making a moral argument; my teacher, a nun, had some choice words for me, but still gave me an “A”. I see that evangelicals are not so principled.
I’ve been adamantly opposed to abortion since I was in college. But I always objected to using the pictures of aborted late term fetuses (babies, really) because that was not really representative of the vast majority of abortions, which take place much earlier in gestation. Tactics like that actually undermine rather than strengthen the argument, at least to someone who exercises critical thinking! So, we agree on part of this issue even if overall we don’t!
That was kind of the point of my essay: “People can disagree about moral issues, but lying to support one’s argument undermines the moral high ground.”
If women have a right to abortion, then women should have the sole responsibility for raising their children while men should have the right to abandon their children. If one has a right then one should have a responsibility. If one does not have a right then one should not have a responsibility. Responsibilities without rights is either slavery or something coming too close to slavery. If women have a right to kill their ( unborn babies) fetuses and abandon their children including their born babies as long as they follow the law then men should have a right to abandon their ( unborn babies) fetuses and children including their born babies as long as they follow the exact same laws women do.
You arguing against showing people photos and video tapes of abortion is similar to being against showing people photos and videotapes of people being maimed, mutilated and killed in wars and crimes when deciding whether it is a good idea to go to war or not go to war and whether or not to have or not have capital ( killing criminals for their crimes) punishment. I am for showing adults and older minors everything so they can make a more informed decision. I think people should report and state accurately of this is what an abortion looks like at each week when showing these photos and videos.
Most people want abortions and this includes anywhere from many to most so called conservatives and American Republican Party voters. When abortion is on a referendum in so called conservative and Republican Party supporting states such as Montana and Kentucky then most voters chose to keep and even expand the time limit on which women can have abortions. The only thing Republican politicians do is risk losing elections when they legislate more prohibitive abortion laws which means that when the Democrats get into office they are more likely to promote less restrictive laws on abortion. The best thing Republicans can do is put abortion laws up for referendum and to stay away from legislating laws concerning abortion except for showing as many people as possible what abortion looks like through photos and videos in order to stay in office and to reduce the chances of Democrats expanding abortion rights.
I am against abortion.
IMHO, humans obtain a wildly large amount of their understanding of the world by visual inputs. In regard to this issue – early term procedures look like a D&C, which they basically are. Later term ABs look like the butchering of human baby, which …
Forget what an aborted fetus at different stages looks like. The rough part is what the procedures themselves look like.