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The Truth About Anti-abortion Pictures of
Alleged Aborted Fetuses
by Sara B.
Journalist and Volunteer, Life and Liberty for Women
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| Since the genesis of the anti-abortion
campaign, pro-life activists have used pictures to further their
cause. However, many of these visuals present glaring contradictions
and inconsistencies that have long been ignored (perhaps because
of the delicate nature of the debate). Life
and Liberty for Women is willing to call these propagandists
out on their half-truths and blatant lies. |
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| Misrepresentation |
| A considerable number
of anti-abortion visuals feature an almost fully
developed fetus. Abortions preformed at this stage
via hysterotomy or D&X abortions are rare. Only
about 1.5% of abortions are performed at 21-weeks
or older, according to according to a 2000 study
conducted by the Nation Center for Chronic Disease
(CDC). A July 1992 LIFE magazine article, The
Great Divide, reported that Reverend Robert
Schenk, member of anti-choice coalition Operation
rescue, attended a demonstration outside an abortion
clinic in Buffalo, NY, with "Baby Tia", a 7-inch,
gray-tinted and formaldehyde-soaked dead fetus.
In the escalating madness of the crowd, the fetus
was dropped onto the sneaker-trodden street. Authorities
arrested Schenk and confiscated the fetus, which
was taken to a coroner, only to be identified as
an approximately 20-week-old stillborn. The article
reads, "Many pro-choice supporters in Buffalo are
angry about the distance between their reality-what
they see in the clinics-and the images the anti-abortionists
present as fact. 'What they are showing to the public
is a lie,' says Joni Ladowski, a nurse at a nearby
clinic, as she unfolds a length of gauze. In the
center lies what appears to be a clot the size of
a peanut. It is a fetus, nine weeks old. 'This
is an abortion,' she says." |
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Photograph by Robb Kendrick
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| Tear-drop baby |
| First used in the anti-abortion
campaign by Dr. J.C. Willke, president and founder
of International Right to Life, in his 1971 book,
Handbook on Abortion, this picture has circulated
through anti-choice brochures and websites without
much question of its origin or accuracy. This picture
depicts a ruptured tubal pregnancy that Willke would
like you to believe is 6-weeks-old. |
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| A 6-week-old fetus, from
crown-to-rump, measures 4-5 mm, according to William's
Obstetrics, or 1/6-1/5 inch (the size of a BB pellet).
The fetus in the photo, when compared to the fingers
holding it, appears to be about an inch in length
or the size of an 8- to 10-week-old fetus. |
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| We have also posted a
photo of a 6-week-old fetus that was published in
A Child is Born, by Lennart Nilsson. The two are
demonstrably different! Accurately labeling the
fetus's gestational age is important because this
photo represents the mortality of developing life.
One may look at this picture and see a fetus only
into its second month of development and think,
"look how far it's come." But when labeled accurately,
this fetus would be approaching its second trimester,
a period when only 12% of abortions are performed,
according to the CDC abortion surveillance. |
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| The least apparent, yet
possibly the most disturbing element of this photo
is its attribution. Although the caption reads,
"Photo by Robert Wolfe, with permission Bell Museum
of Pathology, University of Minnesota," the Bell
Museum at U of M is a natural history museum; it
always has been. And when we asked Willke for information
from his copy, he said it was simply not in his
possession anymore. This photo gained its popularity
partially because of Willke, yet he doesn't even
have his original copy. |
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| Gestational Age |
| Accurately labeling the
fetus in a picture is a testament to the source's
credibility. Unfortunately, a collection of pro-life
web sites and brochures label their pictures through
a method inconsistent with medical practices. Gestational
age can be labeled by the date of conception or
by the last menstrual cycle. The medical establishment
goes by the latter. However, when I asked Willke
which method he used, he replied in an email, "This
all depends on the picture, the source references
and the use in reference." Willke labeled the picture
to the right as a 10-week-old fetus in his book,
Handbook on Abortion. However, it was later
identified as a 12- to 14-week-old fetus by Dr.
Andrew Ross, Denver ob-gyn. Apparently, consistency
was not a priority in the identification of this
photo, nor were the standards of the medical community.
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Malachi
Malachi, the literal poster-child for the anti-choice
campaign, is a gruesome example of inaccuracy. The back
of this 3 x 5 inch card claims that the fetus's life ends
in pain. However, judging from the fetus's gray skin,
it was aborted via laminaria through an intra-amniotic
injection or was done to preserve the mother's life, Andrew
Ross. If the procedure was done while the fetus was alive,
its skin would be the pinkish color of its left leg. |
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Photograph by Chet Kilgore
N2639 Hwy. Z G143
Dousman, WI 53118
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Choice
is Abortion
This picture, also distributed on a 3 x 5 inch card and
used in numerous anti-abortion campaigns is equally inconsistent.
If the forceps securing its head over the jar are standard
OR ring forceps, the ring is 1 x 0.5 centimeters, which
would mean that the head is too small to be in its third
trimester, yet one less developed would not have that
much hair, says Dr. Ross. "I strongly suspect that this
picture is fake, and the information on the back of the
card certainly does not match what's shown," he adds.
The second, and most obvious, fallacy lies within the
description. It says that the pictured fetus was aborted
in 1987 in Texas. However, that was the year that third
trimester abortions were banned, rendering the alleged
procedure altogether illegal. |
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Photograph from Foundation
for Life
10900 NW Freeway #112
Houston, TX 77092
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| Fetal Brain Waves |
| The National Right to
Life Committee released a pamphlet, When Does Life
Begin, which states that at six weeks, a fetus has
measurable brain waves detected by a an electroencephalogram.
But using hard-to-pronounce medical terms to gain
credibility does not add substance to this dubious
claim. Even at 7-weeks into development, a fetus's
brain is the size of a pinhead. Detecting minute
brain activity through all the muscle contractions
that go on inside a woman's mid-region is a medically
unsubstantiated assertion that has not been published
in any peer-reviewed journal. |
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| The same pamphlet also
cites an article, "What the fetus feels," from the
British Medical Journal. This article, lacking any
references to studies, supports the organization's
claim that the fetus can feel pain. However, in
its conclusion, it reads "It is hardly surprising
that infants delivered by difficult forceps extraction
act as if they have a sever headache." A severe
headache?!? How does a newly delivered infant act
as if it has a severe headache? This article is
simply an example of how anti-choice activists use
flawed sources and fallacious information to prove
an often medically-unsubstantiated point. For example,
Willke, despite outright refutes from The National
Cancer Institute, the American Cancer Society, and
the American Coalition of Obstetricians and Gynecologists,
insists that abortion causes breast cancer. |
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