Recently, I was going through an old box and found a picture of my father. As I held it in my hands, I remembered his life, and it was amazing how many emotions the picture communicated.
I continued through other boxes, finding more and more photographs, and was struck again by the fact that, in every instance, I was looking at pictures of life.
Then it dawned on me—this is why the left hates ultrasounds, which are just another type of picture of life. They hate the emotion, the possibilities, and especially the metaphysical connection one life communicates to another, even in pictures.
And this goes a long way in explaining the all-out assault on ultrasound laws we’ve seen from the proponents of the culture of death in the last few years and especially in the past few months.
They want to hide the pictures in order to hide the life.
A simple Internet search for “ultrasound” and “abortion” uncovers myriad clips and articles on the subject, including a February 2012 exchange between the hosts of The View concerning the Virginia ultrasound law that was predominant in news coverage at that time.
The exchange begins with one host complaining that such a law would force “girls who are pregnant to see the child, the infant, the fetus, whatever at that point.” In a politically correct, egalitarian approach, the host was saying whether you call the baby a child, an infant, a fetus, whatever at that point, her problem was forcing girls to see what was inside them.
The irony came when another host, who was listening to all the names that could be applied to what the girl was carrying, interjected unwaveringly—“the fetus,” i.e., don’t call the baby a baby! After all, that’s one of the few four-letter words that the left does not want to hear.
This entire exchange, the terms used, and the terms avoided, revolve around a fight to prevent pictures of life.
What the hosts of The View and so many of their friends in other pro-abortion circles know is that none of their “word-smithing” will matter if a 17-year-old girl is allowed see pictures of her baby. At that point, words like “fetus” are irrational, for a mother is looking at her child and can no longer deny its humanity.
When such light is shed, the darkness of denial is lifted.
Pictures of life are important. And whether we’re talking about the one I found of my father or the one a distraught young mother will see of the child she’s carrying, they all remind us that life is too precious to be discarded.