Window to the Womb

September 21, 2010 14:26


Evidence suggests that up to 90 percent of women considering abortion choose to have their baby after seeing an ultrasound image. Instead of the old 95 percent failure rate, there is now a 90 percent success rate. Women hear their baby’s heartbeat, they see their baby move and suck a thumb. Mother and unborn child bond in a way never before possible.

by Brian Caulfield at Voices for Life

Window on the Womb

Twenty years ago, when I was a pro-life sidewalk counselor outside of New York City’s busiest abortion clinic, I used to tell people that I failed about 95 percent of the time. I would stand the court-ordered distance from the clinic doors, trying to get the attention of a woman rushing by, as a pro-abortion escort blocked me, hoping to offer an encouraging word or pass off a pamphlet before the doors of the building slammed shut.

Saturday morning after Saturday morning, I would do this, joined by other sidewalk counselors and a faithful prayer group, as part of the Helpers of God’s Precious Infants, the group founded by Msgr. Philip Reilly under Brooklyn’s Bishop Thomas V. Daily.

Once in a very long while a clinic-bound woman would stop to talk, take the literature showing pictures of fetal development and a list of financial and medical resources. Even less often, a woman would walk with a counselor to the nearby pregnancy center for a consultation, and occasionally we would get the news that there was a “turnaround” – the woman had decided to keep her baby. We would put her name on our prayer list and take a collection to help pay her rent or donate items for a baby shower.

Those were the days when few pro-life centers had ultrasounds. Today, the picture is much different. Evidence suggests that up to 90 percent of women considering abortion choose to have their baby after seeing an ultrasound image. Instead of the old 95 percent failure rate, there is now a 90 percent success rate. Women hear their baby’s heartbeat, they see their baby move and suck a thumb. Mother and unborn child bond in a way never before possible.

Largely because of ultrasound, I think, America has turned to a majority pro-life nation. Who can be for abortion when every family has an ultrasound image stuck to the refrigerator door, placed amid vacation photos and report cards? We have a comfortable, face-to-face relationship with prenatal life these days, and millions of families make the connection between the baby in the womb – often shown in 3D color – and little Johnny or Jane making a ruckus in the high chair.

The power of the ultrasound image, and the effect it has on abortion-bound women are the reasons the Knights of Columbus began its Ultrasound Initiative two years ago. Long on the front lines of the pro-life movement, the Knights of Columbus sought a way to have an immediate and effective impact on the abortion issue – even before Roe v. Wade is overturned or the political winds change. Placing an ultrasound machine in as many pregnancy centers as possible was the answer the Order came up with. I am proud to work for an organization that has taken such a strong and practical step toward changing hearts and saving lives.

Thus far, the Knights of Columbus has donated about $1 million to place 52 ultrasound machines in centers located in 25 states. The Order wants to do more, so if you know of a pro-life pregnancy center that could use an ultrasound, use the contact information listed below.

You can learn more about the Ultrasound Initiative by viewing a heart-tugging video on the Order’s website, called “Changing Hearts” (14 minutes) http://www.kofc.org/un/eb/en/about/activities/culture/ultra.html. You will meet the Knights who have helped place machines in pregnancy centers, and you will hear from medical personnel about how ultrasound makes all the difference when caring for an abortion-minded woman. Then there is a personal testimony from a young woman who had her mind set on abortion. She visited a center in Nebraska and was moved to keep her baby after viewing an ultrasound.

Seeing the baby’s movements and hearing the heartbeat convinced her of what she didn’t want to face before – there was another life inside her. Even the father of the child says that if he didn’t see the ultrasound, “I wouldn’t have believed it was a human yet.” He realized he “had to step up and say that’s my child, too.”

The young woman, 30-plus weeks pregnant in the video, concludes tearfully, “I’m so glad I made this decision to keep it.”

All the familiar sayings come into play with ultrasound. Seeing is believing. A picture is worth a thousand words. And another phrase that is often misused: informed consent. It is difficult to say that a woman seeking an abortion has truly exercised informed consent unless she has an opportunity to see what would be aborted. Ultrasound gives women a powerful tool in the decision-making process.

It is truly a window to the womb, and it is changing attitudes toward abortion, one heart, one mind at a time.

(Click here http://www.kofc.org/un/eb/en/about/activities/culture/ultra.html for more information on the Knights of Columbus Ultrasound Initiative.)



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