Sometimes the truth hurts. Often, people want to hide it because it is graphic, and violent. Sometimes, they even call the police to take it out of sight.
When the Clinton County Sheriff's office was called to Rombach Avenue Tuesday evening, here is what they might have found: several tiny, dead bodies.
Small ribcages smashed. Arms and legs dismembered. Little hearts, quiet and still and exposed in the evening light.
Hands, perfectly formed, still balled up in little fists as though they fought for life at the last moment.
This is the reality of a legal first trimester abortion.
This is the truth nobody wants to see.
Instead, the sheriff's office was called out because of some pictures.
Understandably, people didn't like seeing all that blood; they didn't like to see dead babies.
They found it difficult to tell their children, "Oh, that is just a 'voluntary interruption of pregnancy,'" or "that is responsible family planning," or "it is just 'a normal part of the reproductive cycle,'" or any of the other adult terms children have a way of seeing right through.
It is hard to dodge the reality when the photos are looking at you in the face.
The thing is, the pictures are only as bad as the reality, and the reality is what is truly offensive.
The business of cutting out unborn babies is the very biggest "blatant disregard for families," not the pictures.
The pictures only portray what abortion really is, what everyone wants to believe it isn't: a violent end to life.
I did not see the protest on Tuesday, but I am not at all surprised that someone became offended and called the police.
Photos of the holocaust are just as horrendous, and people are always trying to forget about that.
If the protest had been pictures of starving people in a concentration camp in North Korea, or a child soldier missing an arm or a leg in Darfur, they would have been just as offended.
Before the civil war, it took decades for people to stop saying that slave owners treated slaves like their own children.
People did not want to believe they were treated like animals, sold and flogged and killed. It was all too much blood and violence.
They took care to shield their eyes. Today, we have the same issue: people know that abortion happens hundreds of times a day.
But when they see a photo of it, they become disgusted - not at the reality, but at the picture.
And they close their eyes when the truth is thrust before them.
Instead of blowing the whistle on the lies, they call the police on the truth.
Frankly, I can understand closing your eyes.
Those pictures make me sick to my stomach.
But I look at them. I look at them often, so that I won't forget the reality of abortion, and the urgent cries of the innocent.
The truth about slavery outlived a generation of closed eyes. The truth of the holocaust outlived years of smothering.
And the truth about abortion will outlive all of us.
We can hide it, but not for long.
We can dodge it, but it will still exist. We can lie about it all we want, but the truth will survive when all our lies crumble.
Take it or leave it, it's the truth. What you choose to do with it is up to you.
EDITOR'S NOTE - Katie Wright is a freelance writer living in Wilmington. She was the president of the Clinton County Right to Life from 2004 to 2006.
Reader Comments Posted: Thursday, May 03, 2007
Article comment by:
Chris Jones
Thank you Ms. Katie Wright ...and may there be many more like you.
Posted: Wednesday, May 02, 2007
Article comment by:
Leslie Hanks
Awesome piercing truth that the nation needs to hear!
Please consider reading it on video to post at Youtube.
Leslie Hanks V.P. Colorado Right to Life
Posted: Wednesday, May 02, 2007
Article comment by:
David Rydholm
Thank you, Katie Wright.
People always want to say that it is offensive to display photos of those killed by legal abortion -- but what the offended ones never seem to explain is, why are the pictures offensive? As you point out, if the picture is offensive, isn't the reality that the picture portrays much *more* offensive?
Posted: Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Article comment by:
Andrew Maul
You said: If the protest had been pictures of starving people in a concentration camp in North Korea, or a child soldier missing an arm or a leg in Darfur, they would have been just as offended.
No, I don't think so. Americans aren't complicit with those attrocities in North Korea or Darfur, but many ARE complicit with abortion. This is most offensive to the offender of abortion, the most Americans who partake (sins of commission) or look the other way (sins of omission).
Posted: Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Article comment by:
Doyle Chadwick
What a truly beautiful, courageous commentary. I have never seen the valid reasons for showing the pictures expressed any better. Thank you!
Posted: Saturday, April 28, 2007
Article comment by:
Marjorie Reed
Excellent article. You could not have said it better. The gruesome pictures are not pretty. Many complain that they are offensive. But what really is offensive and an abonination is, of course, the slaughter of the preborn.
Thank you for speaking the truth.
Marjorie Reed
Posted: Saturday, April 28, 2007
Article comment by:
Rev Spitz
Yes, people need to know the truth that abortion does indeed kill an innocent baby. The people who were out were very couragous
Posted: Saturday, April 28, 2007
Article comment by:
amber
Turn your headclose your eyes it will never go away. Mothers are killing their small innocent, helpless children everyday. While people/families struggle everyday just to keep their children alive. You think you have a bad life or that you are a bad person for getting pregnant. But just wait until guilt sets in and the sound of a crying baby haunts you for the rest of your life, screaming murderer. That innocent child never had a chance in life. It is illegal to walk down the street and shoot someone or to sell a minor cigarettes. But it is perfectly legal to abort(murder) an unborn child. This is the truth and reality that Katie is talking about. Why are we so worried about children seeing hurtful, bloody pictures when they have seen worse in video games. There are ten year olds out on the streets having sex and buying drugs. But we look at this as an everyday normal thing! So ask yourself, can I live with this truth?
Posted: Friday, April 27, 2007
Article comment by:
Amy Wright
I have been reading your articles for awhile and I just want to thank you for being one of the few who are truely willing to stand up and voice the truth even when it may mean people don't like you. It is encouraging to me and my generation to have you stand up when so many of us just turn and walk away instead of standing up for what we believe in. Thank You!
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