See the photos

The Oakland [Michigan] Press, October 23, 2001, printed a story called "Abortion Foes To Take Message On The Road."

Judy Karandjeff, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood Associated of Michigan, said she does not believe the group's campaign is effective because most people have already made up their minds, either for or against abortion.

* * *

'We are concerned about the tactics they use and the visuals they use, which are inaccurate,' [Judy] Karandjeff said. 'They would not be representative of the majority of abortions that take place in this country.'

Ms. Karandjeff is wrong. 90% of abortions occur in the first trimester of pregnancy and all of our truck photos depict first trimester babies.

World Net Daily, August 3, 2001, reported a story entitled "Controversial Billboard Trucks Roll On."

Jon Dunn, president of Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties, told The Orange County Register the mobile billboards give inaccurate embryo and fetal ages to make them appear more developed.

Mr. Dunn is wrong. All our age captions have been verified by physicians and a pathologist who are experts in this field. One example of this type of authentication can be found in a letter provided to us by Anthony P. Levatino, MD, JD. Because Dr. Levatino is both a physician and an attorney, he speaks with unusual authority in evidentiary matters:

I, the undersigned, having performed induced abortions earlier in my career, have examined the photos depicting the aborted human embryos and fetuses used by the Center For Bio-Ethical Reform in their public education projects (www.abortionNO.org). It is my professional opinion that the photos depict aborted human embryos and fetuses and that the depicted aborted human embryos and fetuses are accurately captioned as to age, in weeks from fertilization.

Feminist Majority Foundation Online, August 23, 2001, reports "Misleading Anti-Abortion Billboards Causing Congestion on Freeways."

The anti-abortion extremist group, Center For Bio-Ethical Reform, continues to harass, endanger and misinform the American public, as it takes to the streets in large trucks with pictures of aborted fetuses this month.

The feminists are wrong. We never "harass." We merely drive. The pictures, however, are another story. We never "endanger." We merely save unborn babies and their moms from danger. We never "misinform." We only make it more difficult for The Feminist Majority and their kindred spirits to misinform.

As noted above, The Orange County Register, July 25, 2001, carried a story called "Abortion Foes Drive Point Home" with a subhead which read "Trucks Emblazoned With Graphic Images Of Fetuses Shock Some Commuters:"

Critics maintain the images are distortions – 'tremendously enlarged to cause greater impact,' [Linda] Schwarz [co-chairman, Pro-Choice, Orange County] said.

Ms. Schwarz is wrong. All of our aborted baby photos also depict objects which can be used as size references. In terms of people's perception of the image, the size of the photo, therefore, makes no difference whatsoever.

The Washington Times, August 23, 2001, published a feature entitled "A Vehicle For Change:"

Feminist Majority Foundation Vice President Katherine Spillar, who is based in Los Angeles, says the campaign will accomplish only traffic accidents 'and make people mad. The typical abortion is done at 8 weeks or less and when we are talking about a pre-embryo the size of a grain of rice. Women know from their experience that those photos aren't what an abortion is.'

Ms. Spillar is wrong. Outside the lexicon of pro-abortion propaganda, there is no such thing as a “pre-embryo.” This is a political term with no basis in science. The “crown to rump” length of an embryo eight weeks after fertilization is the same size as a quarter (as in twenty-five cent coin). An embryo the size of a “grain of rice” would be three to four weeks after fertilization, at which age hardly any abortions are ever committed. Concerning what women “know from their experience”, women are almost never shown their aborted baby.

In a story (noted above) which begins with the phrase "Pro-Life Caravan Targets Florida," The Miami Herald reports in its September 5th edition that:

It is ‘abortion distortion’ said Joyce Tarnow, administrator and president of the Women’s Clinic in Fort Lauderdale. Tarnow, an abortion provider for 25 years, said … ‘What is removed looks nothing like these pictures.’

Ms. Tarnow is wrong. What is “removed” looks exactly like these pictures because these pictures are taken of exactly what is removed. We know that because we take the pictures ourselves and we take them at abortion clinics.

Here is an E-mail from a pro-abort who not only accuses us of altering the pictures, she says we manufactured bogus “experts” with whom to authenticate our “fake photos.”

For your information, Pro Choice people are NOT pro 'abortion' we simply would rather have THREE options to us instead of TWO! How dare you think it's right to take away our rights to choose .… I think you need to take this Website and shove it. You all are nothing but sickening frauds. Pro 'abortion' doesn't exist. And YOU know it. Call yourselves professionals? Puhleez! You need to be a little more educated on this subject. Oh sure you can make up FAKE medical professionals. Anyways, Pro choice does NOT NOT NOT NOT Mean pro abortion. GET THAT RIGHT! Morons.

These pictures produce some serious anger. Someone who thinks it should be legal to lynch African Americans is a racist and someone who thinks it should be legal to abort unborn babies is a pro-abort. Would we call lynchers "pro-choice?" No, but at one time lynchers wanted to be called proponents of "states' rights."

Allegations that CBR is guilty of “photo fraud” almost always come from abortionists but almost never from the general public. Some abortionists, for example, make the strange charge that our photos are actually pictures of stillborn and miscarried fetuses. This gambit doesn't even pass the snicker test. Obviously, neither stillbirth nor miscarriage will tear off a baby's arms and legs, or rip off its head and face or scald its skin with chemical burns. The bodies of the babies in our pictures all display the unmistakable injuries of abortion. It should again be noted that we took all of our photos at abortion clinics. Women don’t typically go to abortion clinics to miscarry pregnancies. They go to have their babies killed. If pro-aborts are going to lie, surely they can do better than these feeble falsehoods.

As regards suggestions that we misrepresent late term babies as embryos or early fetuses, no accusation is more easily debunked. As noted above, every one of our photos includes some common object which acts as a size reference. When CBR conducts our Genocide Awareness displays on college campuses, we carry medical textbooks (also quoted on our Website) which can be used by skeptics to confirm the accuracy of the age captions on our aborted baby pictures. Our accusers need only compare our size references to the textbooks' prenatal development scales. We encourage anyone who wishes to verify the truth to compare our pictures with the embryology photos in the following academic texts, used in medical schools the world over:

The first source is the authoritative, William's Obstetrics, 20th Edition, Gary Cunningham, MD, Paul C. MacDonald, MD, Norman F. Gant, MD, Kenneth J. Leveno, MD, Larry C. Gilstrap III, MD, Gary D. V. Hankins, MD & Steven L. Clark, MD (Copyright 1997 by Appleton and Lange, A Simon & Schuster Company) beginning at page1026, Table 44-4, "Predicted Menstrual Age (MA) in Weeks From Crown-Rump Length (CRL) Measurements (in Centimeters)."

CBR's physicians also use a highly regarded book called The Color Atlas of Clinical Embryology, 2nd Edition, Keith L. Moore, T.V.N. Persaud & Kohei Shiota (Copyright 2000 by W. B. Saunders Company) at page 49, Table 2–1, "Criteria for Estimating Developmental Stages in Human Embryos." This reference contains age to crown-rump length relationships, etc. from 19-21 days post-conception through 56 days (the end of the embryonic period). At page 52, Table 3-1, you will find criteria for establishing age through the fetal period, including age-crown-rump length relationships from 9 weeks through 38.

Dr. Moore has also published a popular text entitled The Developing Human, Clinically Oriented Embryology, Keith L. Moore & T.V.N. Persaud, 6th Edition, (Copyright 1998 by W.B. Saunders) which can be used for aging unborn babies by turning to page 91 (see also, tables on pages 4 through 7).

How persuasive is all this supporting evidence? If the skeptic is inquiring in bad faith, no amount of evidence will be convincing. Pro-aborts would deny that the photos were legitimate even if they had taken them themselves. After the release of the “smoking gun” video in which Osama bin Laden took credit for planning the September 11th attacks, his fanatical loyalists simply said the tape was fake. The Los Angeles Times, December 14, 2001, reported a story which began with the phrase “Tape Stirs Widespread Doubt in Already Skeptical Arab World.” The article quotes a true fanatic: ‘This tape is fabricated evidence,’ declared Hani Sibaii, a London-based Islamist.” The Orange County Register, on the same day, carried a similar story headlined “Tape stirs up divisions.” It read “‘Of course it is fabricated said Dia’a Rashwan, a Cairo-based expert on Islamic movements ....” Also on the 14th, MSNBC.com carried a story headlined “Reaction To Bin Laden Tape Mixed.” Egyptian Moatez Mohamed said “I think the American government has made the tape and America can do anything by modern technology and computer.”