Shoberg 1

Jordyn Shoberg

Professor Stoltman

English 110

30 October 2018

Abortion

There are multiple issues that people debate on in the United States today. One of the

most controversial topics is abortion because of how it affects everyone. In order to keep up the

population of the world, people need to have children and have discussions regarding abortion.

“Nearly 4 in 10 pregnancies end in abortion” (“Abortion Facts”). This fact shows how prevalent

abortions are in the US. Since abortion is a prevalent topic, people have strong opinions on both

sides, either pro-life or pro-choice. Many will go out and protest to try and persuade others to

join their side, and one way of doing this is with images. There is one specific image that stands

out over the rest of the other abortion images. A lot of images that relate to abortion are morbid

and graphic, but this one is unique. This image portrays a negative connotation about abortion

and brings up conflict that we have in the United States.

The image is of a mother who is noticeably far along in her pregnancy journey with

someone holding a black handgun to her stomach. She is wearing an all black outfit that is tight

fitting, with her shirt rolled up. The background of the picture is all white to create contrast

between the women and the background to make her and the gun have a strong presence. This

also creates no distractions from the background and eliminates any other focal points. The

image’s message tries to persuade women that abortion is murder, and that it is equal to taking a

gun to your stomach and having someone pull the trigger. As was stated earlier, most abortion
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images are graphic and show images that can be harsh for some people to view, but this one

takes a different approach. Instead of showing pictures of an actual baby being aborted, the

author used a gun to make a strong statement relating abortion to murder. This image has a

strong meaning behind it and anyone who looks at this image will see how powerful it is.

When looking at this image, anyone can be affected by the message. Whether someone is

pro-life or pro-choice, the image will cause everyone to stop and think. The targeted audience is

women, specifically soon to be or current mothers. The visual directly shows harm to a woman

who is pregnant so that any woman who is thinking about receiving an abortion or has had an

abortion will think of this image. The visual displays just the stomach and the gun on purpose

which is intended for every woman to picture themselves in that situation. The author does not

want to single out any one age group because teen pregnancies are becoming just as relevant as

someone in their 20’s. “Twelve percent of abortion patients in 2014 were adolescents: 18–19

accounted for 8% of all abortions, 15–17-year-olds for 3% and those younger than 15 for 0.2%”

(“Induced Abortion”). Since the face is hidden, the author made the image more relatable to

anyone. Another group that is being targeted are the doctors who perform the abortions. This

image shows a person who is holding a gun, which represents the doctor who does the surgical

procedures. The author wants the doctors to see this image before they perform every abortion.

This affects them because when they are doing the procedure, they will see the gun and put a

meaning to what they are doing. The doctors will think about killing a living and breathing baby.

All of the audiences are affected differently, but the image still creates an impact.

The picture is to the point and does not leave the audience guessing. The author wants the

mothers who see this image to think about what they are doing if they participate in an abortion.
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The image is truly showing what happens when one gets an abortion. Since the image is intense

and has the gun pointed right at the stomach, the author is hoping to persuade all mothers seeing

this image that abortion isn’t the right option no matter the circumstance. The author wants to

show the viewers that abortion is murder.

As everyone knows, murder is illegal. Murder is something that everyone was taught is

wrong since they were just starting to understand the world around them. As a society we try to

do everything we can to stop murders, which is why children are taught at a young age that it is

wrong. The image is trying to represent murder when the gun is placed towards the woman's

stomach. The author is using prior knowledge to associate a gun pointing towards someone

means murder, which then means bad. Even though guns are not used when performing an

abortion, the image creates a feeling of guilt because everyone knows you are terminating a

pregnancy. The author is using a smart mechanism to make mothers feel like they are murdering

a child when they are having an abortion.

Although killing a 40 year old versus killing a four year old child has the same amount of

consequences, our society has created this societal norm for it to be worse killing a child. “The

death of a child is one of the most painful events that an adult can experience and is linked to

complicated/traumatic grief reactions” (qtd. in Rogers, et al.). When someone kills a child, the

child has not lived to see the world. They are still young having just entered into the world and

then it all is abruptly taken from them. Whereas, an adult has already got the chance to

experience a lot of what life has to offer. When any person, especially a parent, sees a child

killed they have more of an emotional connection. They can feel for the parents because they

know if it happened to them how they would feel. So, when the image shows a gun pointed
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toward the mother’s stomach, people start to associate it with a child being murdered. With this

message being portrayed in this way, it may have some disadvantages with getting the message

out correctly.

Although this image is used to persuade the viewers that abortion is not right, there are

some limitations. The first limitation is if people are not educated on how abortions are done,

they could think the baby could be killed by a gun. Even though it sounds outrageous, if

someone is not educated about abortions and how they are done, they would have no idea. That

could easily create a negative connotation for someone who does not know about abortions, but

maybe would have supported it if they were more educated on the topic. The author knows that

abortions are not performed in that way, but they are trying to use a dramatic image to prove an

extensive point to the viewers. The intention of the author isn’t to tell people that this is how

abortions are done, but to show this is theoretically what is happening. Another limitation is how

some people could be turned off by this image. Having a gun pointed to the stomach is to the

point and makes a bold statement. For those who have had an abortion, this could be somewhat

offensive to them and make them as a group feel targeted. Also, some people who are religious

could see this image as too violent or disturbing because it is blunt. Even though the author is

trying to make a point, to some it could be offensive.

The image is trying to prevent abortion, but it also leads to some sensitive debates. One

of them is the debates about contraceptives and views on sex. There are many different opinions

when it comes to contraceptives and sex. A lot of people's opinions are because of their religious

views, that they don't intend to change. Some people believe you should wait until marriage if

you want to have children, while others believe you can have sex whenever you please but you
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should wear protection if you don’t want a child. You are taking a risk of becoming pregnant

because contraceptives are not 100% effective. This group also believes if that small chance

happens and you end up conceiving a child, you can either give it up for adoption or abort it.

Another group believes you can have sex whenever and don’t have to wear protection. This

group has the highest chance of conceiving a child, but like the other group they can chose to

abort it or give it up for adoption. Since there are many different views and opinions, it makes

the abortion debate difficult. People have the right to be a part of whatever religion they want, as

well as believe whatever they chose and this can lead to even more debates.

The next conflict this image could bring up, is the debate about when life starts. The

whole abortion debate is centered on this specific question. The topic of when life starts is a fine

line which makes it difficult for anyone to create laws regarding abortion. Some people believe

life does not start until the baby leaves the mom’s womb. Others believe life begins when the

heart starts beating and some believe it begins as soon as the egg and sperm meet. This creates

tension because if some believe life starts when the baby leaves the womb, then they wouldn’t

think abortion at any point is murder. Whereas, if one believes it starts as soon as the egg and

sperm meet, then they will think at any point in the pregnancy an abortion is murder. These

arguments allow for the image to have a deeper meaning even though the image itself is simple.

All of the specific details within the image creates its complex and powerful meaning.

In this image, there are four pieces that are significant. The first one is the pregnant

stomach. Without the stomach looking pregnant, the author would not have been able to get their

point across to the audience. Having the stomach round and pregnant shows the audience that

there is a baby in the stomach being killed. Another piece is the mom who has the pregnant
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stomach with a gun held to it. The mom is telling all moms looking at the image that if you make

this choice like I did, this is what you are doing to your child. The third significant piece of the

image is the gun. The gun is the most influential part of this image because it has such a negative

meaning when it is pointed at a person. The gun is the main focus of this image, which allows for

the audience to realize what the meaning behind the image is. If the gun wasn’t in the image, no

one would know what the message was supposed to be. The gun is representing the action done

to babies when they are being aborted. The last piece is the person holding the gun. This shows

the audience that there is someone who does this for a job and actually “pulls the trigger.” The

hand represents every doctor that does these procedures and how they affect the mom and the

baby. There are many different aspects to this image and all of them play a crucial role in how

this image is portrayed to its audience.

This image reaches a lot of different people because of how broad it is. The visual does

not show any faces so any mom can picture themselves in that situation. Another audience the

author could possibly target is the fathers. The image only shows the mom and the person killing

the baby. An effective way to make this reach a bigger audience is to have a dad holding the

mom's hand next to her, or holding onto her stomach, which would increase the meaning of the

image. Having the dad in the picture would put pressure on dads as well. Although it is the

women's choice, they still made the decision together in the beginning and it could help the

author get the point across even more. Even though this may ignore the mothers who were raped,

“about 15,000 abortions are attributed to rape and incest — representing 1.5 percent of all

abortions” (Earll). There is a small group of people that get abortions due to rape and adding all
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the dads would add a bigger crowd that can influence the mothers. Making this simple change

could add a lot of meaning to the image.

This image is simplistic, but makes a big impact when one sees it. The author wants the

audience to believe abortion is murder and that it is the same as killing a baby with a gun. The

image does a great job of reaching multiple audiences, but it could have some limitations

because of how intense the image is. Although some may be disturbed by the image, the author

chose an effective way to get the message out.

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Works Cited

​Abortion Facts. ​Students for Life of America.​ ​2018,

https://studentsforlife.org/high-school/abortion-facts. Accessed 24 Oct 2018.

Cassidy, Matthew. ​Pregnant With Gun To Belly​. The Liberty Conservative. 22 Feb, 2017.

https://thelibertyconservative.com/right-kill-equal/pregnant-with-gun-to-belly/. Accessed

26 Oct 2018.

Earll, Carrie G. ​By the Numbers: U.S. Abortion Statistics​. Focus on the Family. 2018,

https://www.focusonthefamily.com/socialissues/life-issues/dignity-of-human-life/abortio

n-statistics. Accessed 24 Oct 2018.

​ uttmacher Institute. 2018,

Induced Abortion in the United States. G

https://www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/induced-abortion-united-states. Accessed 24 Oct

2018.

Rogers, Catherine H, Frank J. Floyd, Marsha Mailick Seltzer, Jan Greenberg, and Jinkuk Hong.

Long-Term Effects of the Death of a Child on Parents’ Adjustment in Midlife. ​NCBI. 17

March, 2010, ​https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2841012/#R25. ​Accessed

24 Oct 2018.