Why the images?
The most frequent question I get asked while doing my work is some variation of “why are you showing these terrible pictures here?” I understand that the reasons for using Abortion Victim Photography (AVP) in the public square aren’t immediately clear to most people. In fact, it can seem like the absolute worst way to go about things! This blog is a bit long, so if you don’t have time to read through everything, I’d highly encourage you watch this powerful 2:30 video of a student whose mind was changed through the use of images, and what she has to say about them.
During a recent trip to a campus in Florida we used AVP. We also kept track of how many conversations we had, and how many of those conversations ended with the person going from pro-choice to fully pro-life. We had several hundred conversations, and of those conversations, about 25% of the students went from pro-choice to FULLY PRO-LIFE in just one conversation. On this same campus, we were approached by the leader of the student pro-life group on campus. His group had all had a meeting after the first day we were there, and they’d unanimously decided that we were going about things the wrong way. We were “doing more harm than good” by upsetting students. But when the leader of our group replied to him and explained the reason why we use AVP (which we’ll get to soon), and followed it with data of changed minds, the student leader was stunned. In all of his discussions with pro-choice students, he’d never seen a student change their mind on the spot. Not one time. By the end of the exchange between the two leaders, the student was so convinced that he asked us to come back and show his pro-life group how to use pictures!
Gregg Cunningham says “Abortion represents an evil so inexpressible that words fail us when attempting to describe its horror. Until abortion is seen, it will never be understood.” Charles Spurgeon has a famous quote to the effect that “a lion doesn’t need people to defend it, it just needs to be let out of the cage.” Today, the Lion is AVP.
In Ephesians 5:11 we are told to “Have nothing to do with the deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.” The simple truth of the matter is that most pro-choice or neutral people don’t walk around thinking about abortion and what it does to a child. If given the choice, we’d all prefer not to see. But as Alveda King, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s niece has said, “America will never be able to reject abortion, until America sees abortion.”
There’s actually a long history of images bringing about social reform. One example is how missionaries used cameras to expose the atrocities done against villagers in the Belgian Congo. From 1884-1908, The “Congo Free State” was the property of King Leopold II of Belgium. Under King Leopold II the Congo Free State used mass forced labour to extract rubber from the jungle for the European market. As consumer demand grew King Leopold II's private army - the Force Publique - used violent means to coerce the population into meeting quotas, including murder, mutilation, rape, village burning, starvation and hostage taking. Alice Seeley Harris and her husband Reverend John H. Harris were missionaries in the Congo Free State from the late 1890s. Alice produced a collection of images documenting the horrific abuses of the African rubber labourers. Her photographs are considered to be an important development in the history of humanitarian campaigning. The images were used in a number of publications. The Harrises also used the photographs to develop the Congo Atrocity Lantern Lecture which toured Britain and the the USA raising awareness of the issue of colonial abuses under King Leopold II's regime. Mark Twain even wrote a satire about the King, in which the King said he could have gotten away with it if only the kodak camera hadn’t been invented!
We can see many other examples of how images of atrocities and injustices are critical to change. The English abolitionists in the late 1700s widely distributed drawings of the terrible living conditions and punishments of slaves that were far removed from visibility in the West Indies. Bringing this suffering and abuse to the public’s attention was what started to change public opinion, and helped the movement eventually see victory.
Moving into more recent history, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would intentionally stage marches and rallies in areas he knew would provoke police brutality, because he also knew the media would be there to cover it for the world to see.
Another example I frequently use with college students who question why we’re using images is the death of George Floyd. The outrage and riots that were sparked from his death were a result of millions of Americans seeing his treatment. No amount of words in an essay would have sparked the same outrage that seeing the event did.
In conclusion I’d like to add that showing the images is unpleasant for everyone involved, but obeying God doesn’t always look like what we might imagine. For example, the prophet Isaiah was commanded by the Lord to deliver his message naked for 3 years! This would have disgusted people and traumatized children, just like we’re accused of doing. But it has to be done.