and...
I have seen this truck or something similar in SD last year. Unfortunately, it may not exactly have the effect they wish it to.
While the Bound4Life prayer tent was in Sioux Falls, I spent time there. One of the things God laid on my heart was the weight of the burden carried by the post-abortives. The church has increased their guilt and shame, when the church was meant to be there in love, mercy and grace. The church needs to wake up, repent and change how it receives the post-abortives (men and women, alike).
The Truth Truck and anyone bearing the gore of those type of pictures is causing a renewed harm, pain, guilt and shame to anyone who is post-abortive. It re-opens the wounds. I have to wonder if those pictures, in reality, really do stop anyone from aborting. This is my opinion, as well as my observations and what I have heard from those who are post-abortive. If the pictures are driving the post-abortives further away from the church, away from their healing, increasing their pain...I question if it is right.
I also feel the pain, when I see those pictures myself. I lost my son at 6 months along, a stillbirth. The pictures cause me great pain because of the size of the babe pictured, etc. It re-opens my own wounds of pain and I have not aborted.
A flip-side of that coin that should be seriously considered.
Pro-life groups actually help women who regret their abortion. For instance, here’s one that was linked on priestsforlife.org:
http://www.silentnomoreawareness.org/resources/
For over 16 years, women and men have been coming to Project Rachel, the post-abortion ministry of the Catholic Church, for help in healing their emotional and spiritual wounds. The priests and counselors in the Project Rachel network understand the pain and loss that follow abortion. They have led thousands of grieving women and men from despair to hope and peace.
That's really the only question to consider. As horrific as they are for us to look at, do they work? Is there an objective way to determine how effective they may be?
The goal here is obvious. If it advances us towards the goal, use them. If not, do not use them.
If holding up celery sticks did the job.... what I'm getting at here is the decision on whether this is a valid tactic needs to be, solely, to they discourage women from having an abortion who otherwise would more so than another image, say, of a live child via a sonogram.
Very hard to focus group, as you might imagine.