Frank Almonte

TORONTO — A number of politicians in Toronto, Canada are seeking ways to ban signs and flyers featuring photos of aborted babies after some residents have complained that the images are “upsetting.”

“Women find them very upsetting,” City Councillor Sarah Doucette told reporters. “If you have lost a baby, this is very hard to see these sorts of images. Residents are just saying to me, ‘We don’t want to be going about our day-to-day lives and be confronted with these giant images.’”

She said that she plans on speaking to her colleagues about passing a law that would ban the display of such signs.

Fellow Toronto Councillors Paula Fletcher and Mary Fragedakis, along with Toronto District School Board Trustee Jennifer Story, have also sent a letter to Attorney General Yasir Naqvi, requesting that he seek an injunction from the courts regarding the matter.

“These images are placed in people’s mailboxes,” they wrote. “As parents have said to us, their young children often go to get the mail and would be traumatized by the images. Pregnant women have complained that they have been profoundly disturbed by the images.”

The images referred to are displayed by the Canadian Centre for Bioethical Reform, a pro-life organization which utilizes interns and other members to hold signs in the public arena to expose the atrocity of abortion.

“In 2001, the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform was founded to expose the hidden injustice of abortion and create a public discussion concerning the rights and personhood of the preborn,” the group’s website states. “Through presentations and graphic image-based projects such as ‘Choice’ Chain, the Genocide Awareness Project, and the Reproductive ‘Choice’ Campaign, CCBR began to force the topic of abortion into the national consciousness.”

“In addition to using the scientific and philosophical evidence for the humanity and personhood of the preborn, we must use images of the atrocity of abortion to tear away the flimsy facade of ‘choice’ and reveal what is being chosen: the decapitation, dismemberment, and disembowelment of an innocent pre-born child,” it outlines.

Many of the signs simply read “Choice?” and feature an image of a baby aborted in the first trimester—physical features being clearly visible. The group includes similar photographs in its pamphlets and brochures, which are distributed in neighborhoods throughout the region.

Because the signs are not illegal, and those holding them are not breaking any laws, legislators in Toronto are seeking other means to remove the images from public view.

“Abortion is a legal operation in our country and [the use of the signs and brochures] is an affront to women and to everyone that has worked so hard to have choice in Canada,” Fletcher told Global News. “This is a very pro-choice community and this is why people are so upset. They’re really not welcome in this community.”

However, Devorah Gilman, a spokesperson for the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform, said that if the murder of children is so horrifying to look at, maybe it shouldn’t be permitted in the first place.

“If we want to stand up for justice for every member of the human family … the most effective way to do so is by providing people the photographic evidence of what abortion truly is,” she said. “If we’re asking if it is inappropriate for children to see these images, I think we also need to ask, ‘Is it inappropriate for children to be these images?’”

As previously reported, the organization released a report last year outlining its findings that public support for abortion decreases measurably when the public is shown images of abortion victims.

“By canvassing thousands across several neighbourhoods and surveying 1,741 diverse respondents, results found a statistically significant shift in pro-life worldview, a greater negative perception of abortion, a decreased degree of permissiveness and liberalism towards abortion law, and a significant gain in pro-life political views after seeing abortion victim imagery,” the report stated.