One of the best, most impactful opinion pieces I have ever read can presently be found on the New York Times website: Early Abortion Looks Nothing Like What You've Been Told. The column displays images showing what early pregnancies actually look like. It is masterfully written by two doctors, members of My Abortion Network, who provide abortions as part of their primary care practices. But the force of the piece is carried by its pictures, worth many thousands of words. In the comments section, woman after woman thank the paper for displaying these images, and removing any false sense of guilt they had felt about terminating their pregnancy.
The piece also refers to their earlier images, published in the Guardian, that were the subject of previous DKos stories by ygdrasi and SFSister. But I think and hope the NYT column, in the “paper of record”, will give higher visibility to the organization, and the images. I’ve read coverage on the recent March for Life, including favorable coverage in that very paper. And it makes me feel that we have to step up significantly the level of confrontation. I would happily contribute to any organization that will conduct a campaign on television and social media that uses images like that shown here and in the Times piece to make these basic points:
- Doctors and women will be arrested and jailed over this.
- Providers and users of medicinal methods for obtaining abortions will be arrested and jailed over this.
- Women will risk their health and lives, some will die, some will be permanently injured, over this. And women will come to fear pregnancy as a result. Over this.
- Women will forfeit the ability to live the lives they wish to, and will lose all control over their economic futures, because of this.
Yes, there is the danger that if it anyone dares to form an argument around what tissue actually looks like, that this will provide more ammunition for anti-abortionists reinforcing the bloody images they parade around where a fetus is discernible. But the point is that they have been lying about all of this. All of their arguments about 6 week fetal heartbeat bills is shown to be a complete and outright lie. All of the arguments against medicinal abortions, the great majority of which occur within the first trimester, are all revealed to be lies. They are promoting vague mysticism over people’s futures, freedom, and very lives.