More on Graphic Images

I have been doing more research on the use of graphic images as a tool to end social injustice, as described by Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life. They have a good page regarding the efficacy of this tool: http://www.priestsforlife.org/articles/graphicimages.html


I have a feeling I am going to be in the minority on this one, but I cannot change my opinion even after reading very well-written and logical arguments in favor of using them. Why do you suppose that is? Is it because everyone else in the pro-life movement is so well-adjusted and I am not? Well, I’m not, obviously, (!) but I can’t be sure that’s the answer. I would like to hear from more women on this issue.

Perhaps I won’t have many supporters precisely because most post-abortive women who cannot face the images also cannot face the text and the other reminders of their abortions. They won’t be looking at my blog. They won’t be anywhere near the pro-life movement. According to the Elliott Institute, when polled, fewer women will report they have an abortion in their past than is possible, knowing as we do the number of procedures that have been performed. Many of us deny we’ve ever had one, which I did for many years.

Consequently, they aren’t here to support me when I say that the images are intolerable. They can’t be here. They can’t see it, they can’t hear it, and they won’t think about it. Yet, those who have been doing this for thirty years say the images are important to recovery.

Images and sounds can be used effectively to treat people with post-traumatic stress disorder. It is called “exposure therapy:”

“Exposure therapy is one form of CBT that is unique to trauma treatment. It uses careful, repeated, detailed imagining of the trauma (exposure) in a safe, controlled context to help the survivor face and gain control of the fear and distress that was overwhelming during the trauma. In some cases, trauma memories or reminders can be confronted all at once ("flooding"). For other individuals or traumas, it is preferable to work up to the most severe trauma gradually by using relaxation techniques and by starting with less upsetting life stresses or by taking the trauma one piece at a time ("desensitization").”
http://www.ncptsd.org/facts/treatment/fs_treatment.html


The patient is being reintroduced to something traumatic and is deliberately re-traumatized, but in a safe place with assistance. If exposure alone were effective, there would be no PTSD or PASS, as everyone would eventually desensitize to the triggers that bring about emotional turmoil and the physiological stress reaction. We see enough violence in our world to be desensitized to a great deal of it. This doesn’t happen to PTSD sufferers though, which makes it clear that the therapy is only effective because of the therapist’s assistance and the safety therein.

The woman suffering from PASS who runs across your photos by accident is not desensitizing. She may feel threatened by the photos and turn away, as I did. She is avoiding. She is dissociating. She is running away. She is not coming forward to help you, because she cannot. The internet is not a safe, controlled environment. I don’t surf in the presence of a licensed therapist just in case I come across something that upsets me. Therefore, I question not the actual use of the photos – since they do work for those who don’t have the experience – but what I consider their overuse. Not every website has to have the photo of tiny arms next to a dime on the front page in order to show what abortion looks like. Place them in a more strategic area, place a warning, and put at least one more action between the viewer and the photo. People are curious about these things, and they will make an effort to click one more time. They will see your pictures, and they will have the desired effect on the people who don’t know the truth.

Post-abortive women already know the truth, whether they find it in pictures, sounds, doctor’s offices, gynecological exams, or even the mere word, “abortion.” Post-abortive women who are traumatized cannot be helped or brought into the pro-life fold without compassion and care, and that must include attention to those things that cause them pain. And there are so many of us now. Too many.

Yes, our pain is of our own making. But mercy and forgiveness must prevail. The ex-Bishop of my Catholic diocese has the distinction, poor man, of being the only American bishop convicted of a felony. He was driving home one night and hit a pedestrian with his car. The accident victim died at the scene. The Bishop was charged with hit and run, but not with the man’s death. Apparently, the accident itself could not have been avoided. Still, I am positive that the Bishop suffers anyway from guilt about the man’s death, as his supporters report. Do you think it would be emotionally healing for him to show him morgue pictures of the accident victim over and over again? It was a violent accident. How would it help the bishop to know what his dead victim looked like? He was there when it happened, even if as he reports, he didn’t know what he struck. In hindsight, he knows what made the hole in his windshield. He knows already. He lives with the man’s death on his soul every minute of his life, and guilt is a part of that whether we mitigate his responsibility for him or not.

The tiny arms and hands. Little feet. Heads. To some, the photos are tools against social injustice. For post-abortive women, these are our children. If you asked me if you could use a photo of my dead child to save the lives of other children, I would give you a resounding “yes.” He would want that, too. But I do not want to see it (again) for myself. Fair warning – that’s all I ask, so I can look away while the people who need it can look and look and hopefully, learn.