Toronto Against Abortion volunteers have used abortion victim photos on campuses to expose the deadly reality of the procedure and successfully promote the pro-life position.
(LifeSiteNews) -- Abortion victim photography is changing hearts and minds on the Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) campus.
This spring, volunteers with Toronto Against Abortion (TAA) are routinely visiting TMU (formerly Ryerson University) to engage in pro-life street activism, sparking conversations surrounding abortion victim photography and forcing pro-abortion students to face the reality of abortion.
"We believe it is essential to bring persuasive evidence into pro-life education, and abortion victim photography brings people face to face with the reality of abortion," TAA founder Blaise Alleyne told LifeSiteNews.
"As our culture seeks to dehumanize pre-born children, we use photos of abortion victims that rehumanize them," he continued. "In these photos, you see the face of a unique, unrepeatable, individual human being in all of their mystery – yet, also the tragedy and awful horror of how this person has been treated."TMU has become a regular spot for street activism, with many of the pro-life volunteers being students themselves. From September to April, the group attends Toronto universities and colleges regularly, including the University of Toronto, Toronto Metropolitan University, York University and George Brown College, as well as going about once a year to Centennial, Seneca and Humber colleges.
Recently, the group's activism was highlighted in the TMU newspaper The Eyeopener. In the article, the paper disparages the group for showing abortion victim photography, arguing that it is wrong to force students to see visually disturbing images.
“Seeing such graphic photos and images is not something that you want to be implanted into your mind,” TMU student Dehrica Alviento told the paper. “Sometimes you can see [protestors] early in the morning and then you’re gonna have to be thinking about it for the rest of your day.”
Ironically, the article appears to have inadvertently stumbled upon the purpose of abortion victim photography: to expose the gruesome reality of abortion in the hopes people will change their mind regarding the deadly practice.
Indeed, Alleyne explained that while the images are disturbing, they are vital in changing hearts and minds as they allow one to see firsthand the violence being perpetrated against the unborn. He further revealed that in some cases, just seeing abortion victim photography is enough to change someone's mind on abortion.
"Sometimes, we get to hear from them afterwards – like a U of T student who came by one day, said he'd seen us around twice before and was reflecting on the photos of abortion victims from a distance," Alleyne recalled, adding that the student revealed he had been asking himself why the pro-lifers were showing such "awful photos," but ultimately reasoned that if those images reflect abortion then it made sense to show them, and that it also didn't make sense to permit abortion, even if one is in a difficult situation, because of what it does to another human being.
"And he just spoke to my friend for 4 or 5 minutes, monologuing and explaining how, step by step, he'd reasoned himself to the pro-life position just from reflecting on the photos of abortion victims from a distance while seeing us around campus," Alleyne revealed.
