Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform executive director Stephanie Gray
In a Canadian first, the truck, plastered with photos of miniature bodies covered in blood, was due to take to the streets, stepping up a battle that is normally heavily supported by the Catholic Church.
However, Bishop Henry, who opposes the group’s use of graphic images, sent a letter earlier this year to all Catholic schools, churches and Knights of Columbus chapters stating he was withdrawing his support of the organization. In it he said: “In no way may these pictures be construed as healing, nor can the project be described as ‘tough love,’ and I am not in favour of this kind of pedagogy (teaching). In my opinion it does more harm than good to the pro-life cause.”
The move came as a shock to the CCBR, which relies heavily on support from Catholic parishioners, but the organization was undeterred. For an indefinite amount of time, Calgary drivers may see the truck with its images of torn-apart, blood-soaked torsos and miniature limbs. The images are juxtaposed with the word “choice,” in a carefully designed plan to bring the abortion debate back into the mainstream media.
“We have studied successful social reform movements throughout history, and one of the things they all had in common was that they dramatized an injustice with shocking imagery — from the civil rights movement to the fight to stop child labour,” says CCBR executive director Stephanie Gray. “Until women are more horrified with abortion than they are currently terrified of a crisis pregnancy situation, they are going to go to the abortion clinic every time. I think people will be really surprised by the trucks, because it is something they haven’t seen before. But if there is nothing wrong with abortion, the images shouldn’t bother them.”
The tactic has created mass controversy in the U.S., where newscasts show residents so upset by the images they break down in tears. According to Gray, there are more than 100,000 abortions in Canada every year and 10,000 in Alberta — more than 5,000 of which happen in Calgary.
Michelle Smith, an 18-year-old secretary from Temple, says she would be shocked to see the truck, but doesn’t see a problem with it. “The pictures are a bit gross,” she says, “but I see surgeries all the time on TV, so what’s the big deal with seeing an aborted baby? It happens, right? I hope it makes some girls think twice about having an abortion.”
Joyce Arthur, a spokesman for the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, has condemned the truck plan as pointless and offensive, particularly to women and children.
“I would like to think the Canadian authorities would not even allow the trucks to be driven down the streets of our cities,” she says. “The pictures could be deemed to be obscene, because they will be upsetting for so many people. And it’s a traffic hazard.”
Jennifer Thompson, a waitress and single mother of one says, “I am not necessarily for or against abortion, but I would rather it be an option than not. Whether the trucks are driving around or not, my opinion will not change. I don’t want my three-year-old daughter seeing them. It's irresponsible to present these images in public. If my daughter can’t go to The Simpsons Movie, then why should she see aborted fetuses when walking down the street?”
The CCBR is the same organization that brings the Genocide Awareness Project — which compares abortion to historical atrocities such as the Holocaust — to the University of Calgary campus every year. “During a pregnancy a baby is an abstraction to a lot people,” says Gray, who is based in Calgary. “I debated a professor in Lethbridge who called them parasites — the very thing Hitler called the Jews. But we are talking about human beings here. We don’t condemn the women who have had abortions, or the men involved, but we must condemn the action.”
For Arthur, comparing genocide with abortion is unfair. “It sort of portrays women as murderers,” she says. “Pro-life groups want abortion to be considered as murder, but they say they don’t want women to be thought of as murderers — which doesn’t match up. A woman making a decision about an embryo, or to improve her life or her family’s, is not the same thing as genocide.”
As far as shocking children with the images on the truck, Gray says they target an older audience wherever possible, but in this case, parents will have to use discretion and possibly use a truck sighting as an opportunity to teach their children about what abortion is.
