The following is a response to a letter to the editor entitled, “Don’t Force Abortion Pictures on Anybody.”
Ms. Habighorst is traumatized and takes offense to pictures of aborted babies. This is understandable; after all, those of us holding the pictures are deeply offended by them as well. But could someone please explain why Ms. Habighorst — and countless other Americans indifferent to the daily slaughter of unborn human beings — is more offended by an image of unspeakable injustice than by the injustice the image depicts? If abortion is a morally acceptable “choice,” why do pictures of it make pro-aborts so angry?
Ms. Habighorst is horrified that her children might be subjected to pictures of abortion. It is regrettable, and we never target young children with these images. Yet it is undeniable that these photos change minds and save lives. And so we must decide which it is we care more about: the sensibilities and feelings of born children, or the lives of unborn children. We at the Anti-Choice Project (www.antichoiceproject.com) operate under the principle that lives trump feelings, and so we will be using the photos. We will be bringing them to an intersection near you.
Let there be no mistake: we are very sympathetic and extend our condolences to Ms. Habighorst who discloses that she herself suffered a miscarriage 10 years ago. But if we acquiesce under the pressure of hurt feelings and painful memories, and concede to participate in the cover up of “Choice,” America will not stop the killing. Yes, the truth hurts. But the lie hurts so much more. As Dr. Martin Luther King wrote in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, “Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured.”
When abortion is hidden, abortion is tolerated. When abortion is seen, everything changes. And for those who would argue our efforts are in vain — that they will not save even a single life (and you’ll have a good degree of trouble convincing us), it does not matter. We may not be able to stop the killing in Kitsap County; we will stop the pretending.
Tom Herring,
Co-Founder of the Anti-Choice Project