REL 406: Religion and Reproduction

The National Right to Life released this diagram in 2003 detailing a dilation and evacuation (D&E(v)) procedure [1]. In 2001, the National Right to Life (NRL) organization launched a campaign to educate the public in the methods of second trimester abortion. The early 2000s political climate was strife with conflict over which abortion procedures should be approved or denied [2]. Methods such as partial birth abortions, dilation and curettage (D&C), dilation and evacuation (D&E(v)), dilation and extraction (D&E), and intact dilation and extraction (D&X) all came under fire from pro-life organizations for being cruel and inhumane [3]. Pro-abortion movements and organizations of the time aimed to show the public that these procedures benefited the mother by being safer and having less recovery. They generally argued that all of the aforementioned procedures were essential in the care of the mother and any ban would have detrimental effects on the reproductive rights movement [4]. Alternatively, the pro-life movement set out to do simply the opposite, prove that these procedures were simply inhumane, unsafe, and unnecessary. Based on their success using images and films in the 1970 reinvention of the pro-life movement, images again were a crucial part of the campaign against partial birth abortions and similar procedures. [5]

The general claim made by this diagram is quite simple. It aims to show just how gruesome these procedures are and attempts to tug at the heartstrings of viewers by depicting the procedures as an act of violence. Most physicians of the time pointed to this diagram being quite erroneous in the medical portrayal of a D&E(v) procedure [6]. What's more, the diagram and associated rhetoric attempted to argue that D&E(v) procedures were being used as an elective abortion method. Claiming that there was no medical emergency or some other extraordinary circumstance requiring an immediate medical abortion. The truth is the vast majority of D&E(v) procedures were performed in an emergency setting due to its ability to quickly abort a second trimester pregnancy when viability was not certain [7]. Despite this fact, the pro-life movement needed to gain public support and by painting partial birth abortions as violent and gruesome they were able to do so [8]. The goal of this piece is to make it as simple as possible for a general audience to understand. The creators wanted to ensure that no prior medical knowledge was needed to fully understand the diagram. While still wanting to make it simple the pro-life movement needed to maintain credibility in the eyes of the public. This diagram is an example of the intersection of a simplistic yet medically focused abortion diagram used to sway public opinion.