Dear Editor,
In Jan. 24’s Collegian, Mr. Nolan Ryan criticized Created Equal, the organization I work for, for showing the victims of abortion at the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. The article was measured and researched, but because Mr. Ryan specifically named Created Equal, which has written much on the topic of victim imagery, I thought it necessary to offer a response to Ryan’s specific objections. First, I need to offer a disclaimer.
We live in an age where it’s considered rude to tell people they are wrong or offer any kind of criticism, regardless of whether it’s constructive. Created Equal does not believe this, and we appreciate constructive criticism wherever it is found. Because of this belief, I’ll be up front and say Mr. Ryan is certainly wrong. Ryan presented three arguments.
First, Mr. Ryan said there are few pro-choice people at the March for Life.
But Mr. Ryan underestimates the number of marchers that aren’t solidly pro-life or are “pro-life” with exceptions. Many college and high school students travel to Washington D.C. because, well, it’s a trip to the nation’s capital with their friends. We have seen this time and time again, and we have also heard many testimonies of changed minds from these individuals.
It’s also important to keep in mind that thousands of powerful, pro-abortion individuals live in D.C., and sadly, they are in charge of deciding whether the preborn live or die. We know they see us too.
Almost every pro-life leader I can think of became an activist because of the images. We attend the march with images of abortion victims to get pro-life people to take abortion seriously, and we have seen that happen in the seven years we have marched in D.C.. Seeing the victims inspires bold action.
The second claim Mr. Ryan makes is that parents should decide when and where their children find out about abortion.
Kids are often taught about abortion apart from their parents’ knowledge or permission, whether that be through school, media, or friends. In some states, they’re even allowed to get an abortion without their parents’ consent. This means pro-lifers need to be proactive in addressing abortion before the culture sets the terms for when and how we can address it, or before the culture addresses it without giving us the chance to speak first.
Most important, parents who attend the March for Life with children in tow made the conscious decision to bring young minds to an anti-abortion march. The choice to inform their child about abortion was already made, and it doesn’t seem reasonable to expect that information regarding that injustice will not be present.
Lastly, Mr. Ryan argues that showing images of abortions is tantamount to showing images of sex trafficking, which any sane human being would rightfully oppose. This is an inherently difficult claim to address because it’s not clear what Mr. Ryan meant by “images of sex trafficking.” If by this the author meant an image of a sexual act involving a trafficking victim, I would agree with him. Such images would be obscene and inappropriate. But abortion victim images are not comparable. They are not images of sex crimes and they are not obscene.
But if Mr. Ryan meant that we would not show images of the aftermath of sex trafficking, like a woman’s beaten face or bruised limbs, I would disagree. In fact, I think some of the most powerful responses to sex trafficking have been public visual representation. Showing such images, like images of the abandoned preborn, re-humanizes the victims.
There may be good reasons for opposing victim images at the March for Life, but I haven’t heard them. Preborn children can’t testify — not with words at least. This is the only way to represent the injustice done to them, the cruel taking of innocent lives. These are the last photos of forgotten children set adrift into eternity by parents who were supposed to protect them.
Yes, these images are hard to look at, but seeing the victims of abortion shouldn’t change, we should change by seeing them. A culture that doesn’t believe unborn children are fully human deserves to see the abhorrent abuse they endured. God is greatly grieved at the plight of the murdered unborn. We must be as well. And to adequately grasp the injustice and grieve for it, we must see the victims.