Amazing images of unborn babies waving or sucking their thumbs have young women re-thinking their views about abortion.
In an interview with the New York Post, opinion researcher Wes Anderson said ultrasounds really have changed the way women of childbearing age think about the abortion issue.
Anderson, a GOP pollster, said he has been conducting intense research about abortion for more than a year, and it’s clear that unborn babies’ images on 3D and 4D ultrasounds are making a difference.
“The conversation has changed because of the advancement of medical imagery more than anything else,” he told the Post. “It sounds overly simplified, but it’s not. Ultrasounds are actually the driver.”
In recent years, ultrasound images have become much more clear, making it so mothers can see their unborn babies’ faces and bodies in great detail. It’s technology mothers did not have access to 50 years ago when the U.S. Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade.
Now, mothers can see their unborn babies’ fingers and toes, watch their facial expressions and observe them sucking their thumbs. Many babies in the womb even begin showing a preference for their right or left hand. In recent experiments, scientists have watched unborn babies’ facial expressions, seeing them grimace in response to tobacco smoke or smile after their mother eats food they enjoy.
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“The people who are consistently wrestling with this phenomenon more than anyone else are women under the age of 40 in particular,” Anderson said. “We found that women over 40 had long since made a decision on whether they were pro-life or pro-choice, and they were less likely to be swayed by this technology. But younger women are struggling mightily with that.”
The images disprove the notion that an unborn baby is just a “clump of cells,” he said. In the focus groups, Anderson told the Post that people kept bringing up ultrasounds.
“… and they just said, ‘Well, that’s a baby,’” Anderson said. “The science of imaging has moved to a point where your average voter now says, ‘I’m not going to argue over whether that’s a baby. I know it’s a baby. Now, let’s talk about how we balance all this out, and balance that with the rights of the mother.’”
The report pointed out that providing free ultrasounds to pregnant mothers is a key goal of many pro-life organizations, including Focus on the Family. The organization provides grants to help pregnancy centers buy ultrasound machines.
Danielle Pitzer of Focus on the Family said ultrasounds help mothers realize that their unborn babies are already unique and valuable living human beings.
“Ultrasounds make the pregnancy real,” she told the Post. “When a woman has an unexpected pregnancy, there can be a lot of fear… [but] an ultrasound cuts through the noise, the fear, the ‘what ifs’ and helps a woman see the life inside her.”
