During the Super Bowl, the abortion industry was complaining about a Doritos ad featuring ultrasound images of a baby in the womb. Abortionists were angry with Doritos for “humanizing” a fetus and called it “anti-choice” rhetoric.
The funny thing is, the ultrasound image was real (minus the animation that made the baby chase after Doritos, the product being advertised). It was footage of the director’s son, and he was very human, indeed.
The complaint of “humanizing” a baby in the womb sounds silly and even cruel, but the last thing the abortion industry wants is for people to see that abortion doesn’t remove “clumps of cells,” but actually ends the lives of growing babies that have beating hearts at just three and a half weeks from conception.
After years of producing exposé videos on the abortion industry and showing them to millions of people, one of the most common and surprising responses I get from those who used to call themselves pro-choice is, “I never realized that’s what happens during an abortion.”
We’ve found that the majority of people – especially young people – have no clue what abortion really does to a child in the womb, how developed the child actually is during an abortion, and the risks of abortion to the mother’s health and safety.
Much of the public’s ignorance is because abortion groups have masked the procedure in euphemisms and, like with last week’s Super Bowl ad, tried to shame people who considered a child in the womb human. Instead of saying abortion ends the life of a growing child, they say they are simply “terminating the pregnancy” and that the experience is “liberating.” They misleadingly refer to the baby inside the womb – with arms, legs, fingers, toes, and a brain – as a “tissue mass” or the “product of conception.”
Even the National Abortion Federation’s own manual, which shows illustrations of how to perform abortions, incredibly leaves the baby out of the illustrations and shows an empty womb. That’s because reminding abortionists of the humanity of a developing child might leave them with less of a stomach for doing abortions.
That is why, last week, Live Action unveiled a new web video series that’s going to change the debate about abortion in this country. These videos may be the most groundbreaking we’ve ever produced, because our experience shows us that once someone has seen the reality of abortion, it’s hard for them to ever justify it.
Unlike our previous investigations, these new videos don’t show undercover footage of abortion workers breaking the law. Instead, they feature Dr. Anthony Levatino – a man who performed more than 1,200 abortions during the early part of his career as an OB/GYN – using nothing but the cold, hard facts of medical science to guide viewers through the abortion procedure. In four short minutes, using animated depictions inside the uterus, we let people see exactly what happens during an abortion — something the abortion industry has been trying to cover up for decades.
While the videos don’t show graphic photos of abortion, the medical animations allow people to see the violent reality of these procedures.
The four videos separately address four of the most common abortion procedures: the abortion pill that deprives the baby of blood and nourishment until it dies, the suction D & C that uses a vacuum to pull the baby apart, the D & E abortion that uses forceps to tear limbs from larger babies, and the chemical injection abortion that stops the fetal heart and causes the mother to deliver the baby stillborn a few days later.
Live Action’s social media platforms allowed us to reach over 60 million unique visitors in 2015. Last year, our investigative videos alone were viewed tens of millions of times on Facebook, YouTube, and other sites. With this kind of reach, plus help from other pro-life organizations spreading the videos, we expect tens of millions more people will be exposed to them. In just five days, the videos already have been viewed over 10 million times.
We also built a companion website, www.AbortionProcedures.com, to house the videos and serve as a resource for people to get help, including women who are considering abortion or who are post-abortive.
Finally, I’m issuing a challenge to the abortion lobby – Planned Parenthood, NARAL, and the rest – to respond to these videos. After seeing the truth about what abortion does to a baby and her mother, most people would have a difficult time telling a woman that abortion is “health care” or “empowering.”
My hope is that this series will open many eyes, and that by showing the inhumanity of abortion and the reality of how we treat the most vulnerable among us, it will become a game-changer in America’s debate over abortion.