(LifeSiteNews) — On The Van Maren Show’s first episode of the new year, Jonathon discusses the use and success of abortion victim photography in a post-Roe world with Christen Polo, executive director of Protect Life Michigan. The interview was conducted in the context of a video Protect Life Michigan released late last year, about which Jonathon wrote an article last month.
Polo tells Jonathon that the release of the video was motivated by work with other pro-lifers, including Jonathon, as well as questions within the Michigan pro-life movement regarding what to do after the passage of Proposal Three in 2022, which made abortion a constitutional “right” in the state, as well as in light of similar pro-life defeats. “We wanted to respond to those questions and offer a strategy that has been proven to work,” she tells Jonathon.
Demonstrating the strategy’s effectiveness, Polo recalls how several years ago Protect Life Michigan and another pro-life group were demonstrating on college campuses across the state, and how the other organization experienced greater success at changing people’s minds on abortion than her own in the course of three days by “98 to 1,” according to her own estimation.
“I needed to see that, that it worked, because that was what moved me beyond, ‘Okay, I might have a few people who don’t like that I use this, because none of us want to see a human body destroyed, it’s not a comfortable thing to stand next to, but if it causes someone to change their mind about abortion, then that’s ultimately what matters,’” she explains.
“That’s what we see,” she continues. “We don’t see people any more mad with these displays versus others. We track all of it, but the number of minds that we change with these pictures, even more so with these videos when we show a video, it’s incredible. Thirty percent on average of college students [sic] will change their minds about abortion right on the spot. People think that’s impossible, but they can come to campus with me and see it happen firsthand.”
Polo posits that abortion victim imagery works because people understand that violence against the innocent is morally wrong – it shows people the reality of what an abortion is and puts the victims of abortion at the “center” of the discussion while the abortion industry attempts to hide the truth of the matter. She also says that the attempt of some in the pro-life movement to hide images of abortion victims upsets her.
Polo further explains that even though younger people are increasingly becoming more “progressive,” they are still “people of justice” that, despite any difference in worldview, may be led to change their opinion on abortion if they see what it is. She further observes that social reform is affected by “tension,” and notes that while the United States has seen a deal of social tension surrounding abortion for a half century, pro-lifers need to “dial it up further” in the face of state-level defeats. They need to make people uncomfortable with abortion and see a pro-life victory.
Polo also addresses some of the objections from within the pro-life movement over the use of the images, such as the objection that their use would disgust people and turn them away from the pro-life position. To the contrary, however, what shocks Polo about the use of the signs is that people when seeing them could react with apparent apathy. “I think we have this perception that, ‘Oh, this is [an] unsightly way to go about pro-life activism that people just won’t tolerate,’ but the reality is their apathy is so much stronger than we even realize as a movement,” she says.
Discussing the morality of using abortion victim photography itself, Polo points to the work of Catholic pro-life activist Dr. Monica Miller, who maintains that abortion victims have the right to be “shown” while the abortion industry attempts to hide them, that the pro-life movement has the “responsibility” to “tell their story,” reveal their humanity, and try to right the injustice they suffered.
Polo also maintains Protect Life Michigan has been “overwhelmed by the positive response” to its video discussing abortion victim photography. “We’ve gotten so many emails and stories from people of other examples in social reform, of people having their minds changed through imagery, and have been just really overwhelmed by the response.”
While she says there is a perception that pro-lifers with images of abortion victims may seem as though they are there simply to argue with people or get them angry, Polo states that what is actually happening is a “loving, truthful dialogue … paired with effective arguments.”
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