CCBR's Graphic Abortion Images Shock Calgarians

First news report issued about CCBR’s Reproductive “Choice” Campaign, launched yesterday in Calgary.

Graphic abortion images shock Calgarians

Thu, August 9, 2007

By CP

Some Calgarians are expressing shock at a large truck covered with huge photos of aborted human fetuses driving around the city.

On one of the approximately three-metre high images, a photo that is allegedly an image of an 11-week old aborted fetus is shown.

Fingers and toes are visible amid a dark-red blood-like substance. A Canadian nickel is

shown next to the fetus, which is roughly twice the size of the coin.

"I think it's a shocking advert," an elderly woman said yesterday as the 11-metre-long truck hit the city's streets for the first time.

"It's really harsh," said another woman. "But that's reality, it's what happens when you have an abortion."

The truck is part of a national campaign by the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform to "reignite" Canada's abortion debate.

"Our goal is to make abortion unthinkable," said Stephanie Gray, director of the Calgary-based centre.

"In many cases, we have found that once people see the images, they do instantly conclude that abortion is not an option for them."

In a release, the centre acknowledged the images may be disturbing to many people, but that they convey the truth about abortion, just as pictures of diseased lungs show the results of smoking.

The centre also shows the photos and the truck on its website.

But sexual health workers question the organization's methods and say bombarding people with graphic images will not promote meaningful debate.

"These tactics are the visual equivalent of being screamed at," said Laura Wershler of the non-profit group Sexual Health Access Alberta, formerly Planned Parenthood Alberta.

"I think most Calgarians are not going to appreciate being screamed at."

The centre is also responsible for the Genocide Awareness Project, a series of posters comparing abortion to the Holocaust and genocide in Yugoslavia.

The centre is connected with an American group, the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform based in California.

The Canadian group says it is non-sectarian.

You can always expect a rational response from “sexual health workers” and Planned Parenthood.

Killing defenceless human beings—perfectly fine. No issue.

Screaming at people—definitely wrong. “Bombarding” tactics.