Time Magazine has actually endorsed CBR/ProLifeOnCampus tactics! They published a photo of Aisha to (1) show people an injustice they could barely imagine and (2) communicate truth on an emotional level as well as a factual level. Sound familiar? That’s because we display photos of abortion victims for the very same reasons.

Time published the photo to support Obama’s Afghanistan policy (see earlier post).  But more relevant to our pro-life work was the statement by Richard Stengel, Managing Editor of Time.  I’ve extracted his most pertinent remarks:

Our cover image this week is powerful, shocking and disturbing.

I’m acutely aware that this image will be seen by children, who will undoubtedly find it distressing. We have consulted with a number of child psychologists about its potential impact. Some think children are so used to seeing violence in the media that the image will have little effect, but others believe that children will find it very scary and distressing — that they will see it, as Dr. Michael Rich, director of the Center on Media and Child Health at Children’s Hospital Boston, said, as “a symbol of bad things that can happen to people.”

I showed it to my two young sons, 9 and 12, who both immediately felt sorry for Aisha and asked why anyone would have done such harm to her. [Who can forget the words of little 3-yr-old Donn Garton, who asked his mother Jean, “Who broke the baby?“—FAB]

But bad things do happen to people, and it is part of our job to confront and explain them.

The image is a window into the reality of what is happening… I would rather confront … than ignore. … I would rather people know that reality as they make up their minds …

We do it to illuminate what is actually happening … Our job is to provide context and perspective … What you see in these pictures and our story is … a combination of emotional truth and insight into … the consequences of the important decisions …

Wow.  We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

Tags: abortion pictures, anti-abortion, CBR, Center for Bio-Ethical Reform, right to life

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 10th, 2010 at 8:48 am and is filed under Pro Life Strategy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.