In what is being called the largest “pro-life” effort in history, the Christian organization Focus on the Family will set up 4-D ultrasound images in Times Square, New York.

The idea here is that if strangers see an image of a fetus in the third trimester of pregnancy, they’ll never want to have an abortion… even though only about 1% of abortions occur after 20 weeks of gestation and suggesting all abortions are late-term ones is wildly misleading and par for the course for these kinds of anti-abortion groups.

I guess being honest and showing a woman taking a pill wouldn’t be as convincing.

“We’re looking to fill Times Square with pro-life Americans, and it will feature live music, compelling and inspirational speakers, and best of all, live 4-D ultrasounds broadcast on a massive digital marquee in Times Square, powerfully showing the world that a baby inside the womb is fully human and should be given the chance to be born,” Focus announced. Jim Daly, president of Focus on the Family, believes the images will have a powerful impact. “We’ll have great speakers. We’re going to have music, but we’re also going to do a live ultrasound of a third-trimester baby. And with the 4-D technology that we have, it looks like a picture of a 1-year-old. There is no way a person is going to be able to say, ‘That is not a child.’ It is a child and we want everybody to see it,” he told CBN News Tuesday.

I agree the images will have an impact — but not the kind that Daly thinks.

I can’t imagine how triggering these images will be to couples who made the devastating decision to abort a third-trimester baby with a terminal illness. That’s the only kind of abortion happening at that stage of pregnancy: the loss of a wanted child whose parents wish to spare him or her prolonged suffering outside the womb.

What’s more, the amount of money being spent on this demonstration could probably feed low-income families for weeks — the people who are most likely to consider aborting unplanned pregnancies because they can’t afford another mouth to feed. If Daly wants to prevent abortions, there are better ways to spend the money. He could donate the amount to food banks, homeless shelters, domestic violence safe houses, and even Planned Parenthood, which offers affordable birth control to prevent unwanted pregnancies in the first place.

Instead, he’s going to mislead people about when nearly all abortions occur.

Spending money to misinform the public: That’s the most on-brand thing Focus on the Family could do.

(Image via Shutterstock)

