Images of abortion are helpful in the abortion debate

Thanks for taking on the debate, lets hope we can both learn from each-other and improve for further discussions. This debate isn't about whether abortion is right or wrong, it is whether abortion images can be helpful in the abortion debate. I will present three general reasons why I support the use of images of abortion and why I think they are helpful in the abortion debate. 1. Abortion images, assuming they are legitimate pictures are true representations of abortion and add a physical context to the term. This can be helpful because many people acknowledge the term 'abortion' but do not always connect it with the violent act committed against a less developed although whole human being. An act that results in their death, since they were previously alive as a whole self-directed, growing and distinct human organism. 2. Images are powerful. It is well known that images can produce powerful emotions that can sneak under an individual or cultures ideology. Producing emotion is not necessarily a bad thing, images that demonstrate violence and the abuse of other human beings should rightly make us angry, empathy is not a bad thing. How do images of the holocaust, starving children or those murdered by drug cartels make us feel? Rightly we are morally disgusted that such things have happened and it is the same with images of abortion, they should make us feel disgusted and encourage further discussion, I've seen it many times. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries slavery was seen as something socially and morally permissible. This was because British culture for instance had presented a number of reasons why it was reasonable to treat non-whites as less morally valuable and subject to white men and women, it was argued that they were morally and intellectually inferior. It was their different colour tone and perceived inferiority which made their treatment justifiable. The term slavery like abortion was not always connected with the reality of the act, this was because like abortion it was hidden, done in secret away from the public eye and this made it easier to justify. Slavery was something done on the Caribbean colonies away from societies eye so naturally few people questioned its legitimacy. However, the moral power of images can be seen demonstrated in the production of images of British slavery commissioned by the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade . One example is the the way African slaves were packed onto slave ships, next to dying slaves in their own faeces and urine, this is seen in the truly shocking images of the Brookes. Like the images of abortion they ruffled feathers and angered people, especially those who were making money from trading and using slaves. But it was such images that presented people with a moral crisis, clearly the way slaves were being treated was wrong and the images made it difficult for people to ignore. Images of abortion likewise make the way unborn human beings are being treated in our own culture more difficult to ignore. If abortion is something to be celebrated yet its results are horrific to look at then we need to start answering some serious questions. It is my contention that images make injustice difficult to ignore and encourage us to ask important questions. 3. People may not like the images, I don't personally like them either they are horrible, but nevertheless they are true representations of abortion that focus the debate from something abstract to something that if we are wrong about is like the image itself, truly horrid. People have thought exactly the same about many of the things we find no-longer find morally repugnant and images have served the purpose of rousing our consciences. For me the Pro-life position has persuasive scientific and philosophical support and I need not rely on images but they certainly are helpful in the abortion debate. Thanks for taking the time to read and respond in advance.