Instead of showing pictures of pre-cut tress in all their glory, environmentalists began circulating before and after photos. We started carrying around photos of acres of stumps where hundreds of redwoods had been cut down. I don't know if you have ever seen a field of tree stumps, but it is a horrific sight, not unlike a battlefield. The public outcry was immediate. They only put people to sleep.
Educators universally acknowledge the value of graphic visuals when used properly.
High school students, for example, are routinely shown grisly pictures of the Nazi Holocaust against the Jews. Images of mutilated bodies stacked like cordwood communicate the horror that raged in the death camps in a way no lecture can. Faculty acknowledged the disturbing images, but argued that students would not understand the holocaust unless they first saw it. The same can be said about teaching the controversial histories of the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement. Teaching the abortion holocaust with any less academic rigor is intellectually dishonest.