Are the Pictures on This Site Real?

One common reaction to looking at the bodies of aborted babies is disbelief. How can this be real?

How can it actually be going on, in clinics all over America, thousands of times a day? Many pro-choice people, in particular, doubt the truth of these photos. After all, they run counter to everything they have ever heard about abortion from groups such as NOW and Planned Parenthood.

But the facts of fetal development are easy to verify.

Simply pick up a book for expectant mothers at the library.

I recommend “A Child is Born” by Lennart Neilson- it is a classic and contains photos of unborn babies at various stages. You can buy it on Amazon for a very low price and can most likely find it in your local library.

Two of the best resources that you can find on fetal development are 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)”

This book can verify that the pictures are labeled accurately. The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform, which supplied most of the first trimester photos, uses it as one of its references in verifying fetal age. Another book is 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.

CBR also presents a letter from Dr. Anthony Levantino, lawyer, physician, and former abortion provider, saying the following:

“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 since fertilization.”

Note that the age of the embryos and fetuses in the photos is given from the time of conception. As explained on the index page, this date is two weeks after the woman’s last menstrual period. This is the way fetal ages are given in embryology textbooks. Length of pregnancy is sometimes counted from a woman’s last period, however. When speaking of unborn babies, it makes more sense to label them as to age, the way embryologists do. Therefore, if the picture of the baby is labeled as nine weeks old on this website, the woman would have been eleven weeks along when she aborted. This two week difference is vital to note.

Drawings of unborn babies at various stages can be found at the non-abortion related site Babycenter. This site uses the lmp (last menstrual period) method of calculating pregnancy, and these drawings are approximations, and not as detailed as the photographs. But if you look at the drawings at Babycenter, you will see that the photos on clinicquotes are accurate. Just remember that the age of the baby is two weeks less than the length of pregnancy. Allowing for this discrepancy, the pictures are similar to the photos of aborted babies.

Ultimately, though, the best way to see the similarities is in one of the books I mentioned earlier, which uses actual photographs. A glance at one, picked up at your local library, can easily verify the pictures on this site.

If all of this still isn’t enough to convince you, Priests for Life has most of the pictures from the first few trimester’s on their website. These are accompanied with notarized statements like the ones below. I have not reproduced all of them here, but you can find the collection in it’s entirety here

If you’re wondering where these pictures come from, some examples are here.

http://clinicquotes.com/category/articles/what-to-do-with-the-bodies/pro-life-group-finds-fetal-remains/

http://clinicquotes.com/category/articles/what-to-do-with-the-bodies/unborn-babies-found-in-trash/

http://clinicquotes.com/category/articles/what-to-do-with-the-bodies/disposal-of-babies-cases/

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