About abortion 5

Window into the Womb, or Propaganda?

The Silent Scream Controversy

"The Silent Scream" is the title of a video, which for the first time showed the abortion of a 12-week old foetus - as it happened in the womb.

Utilising ultrasound technology in January 1985, the video had a galvanizing effect on the anti-abortion movement. The irony was that it was made at the request of Dr Bernard Nathanson, one of the pioneering figures in promoting legal abortion in the United States.

Reaction from the Abortion Rights movement was not long in coming. The Planned Parenthood Federation assembled seven leading medical specialists, who in the same year published a detailed critique, alleging that the video was: "riddled with scientific, medical and legal inaccuracies, misleading statements and exaggerations."

The US National Right to Life Committee then issued their own detailed rebuttal of the critique. We have set out the arguments and counter-arguments.

Dr Bernard Nathanson

One of the foremost authorities on abortion, he co-founded the National Abortion Rights Action League. In New York, he directed the largest abortion clinic in the world, The Center for Reproductive and Sexual Health, and personally performed over 15,000 abortions.

During a sabbatical studying new developments in foetology, he gradually came to see the foetus as a human person. Nathanson stopped performing abortions and eventually became a committed anti-abortionist. His first book "Aborting America" gave an insiders account of how a few key activist achieved a social revolution in the United States.

Ultrasound as a window

In his autobiography "The Hand of God", Nathanson reveals that by 1984 he had come to ask himself what actually goes on in an abortion. He had performed thousands, but it is a blind procedure, the doctor does not see what he is doing.

Nathanson asked a friend Dr Jay Kellinson, who was doing 15-20 abortions a day, if he would put an ultrasound device on the mother and tape what happened. After Kellinson saw the tape in the editing room, he never performed another abortion.

Nathanson recalls being "shaken to the very roots of my soul by what I saw."

The tape showed the 12-week old foetus moving to the back of the womb as the suction tube enters. Probing carefully the doctor makes contact and the suction machine is turned on. The foetus is torn to pieces on screen, until finally the womb is emptied.

During one lecture tour, Nathanson was approached by a Don Smith who wanted to make the tape into a short film. Entitled "The Silent Scream", it had a dramatic effect on audiences, but as Nathanson admits, failed to win over lawmakers and proponents of abortion.

The New York Times ran several editorials denouncing the film as a fake, which compelled Nathanson to send the tape to the inventor of ultrasound, Dr Ian Donald in Scotland. Donald swore an affidavit that the tape was genuine. Dr Jay Kellinson said of the tape: "It was all as you see it."

3D/4D Ultrasound
With the advent of 3D/4D technology in 2004, scans are much more detailed than conventional ultrasound images. The images have shown that from 12 weeks, "unborn babies can stretch, kick and leap around the womb - well before the mother can feel movement."

There has been speculation, by those opposed to abortion, that if a video similar to "The Silent Scream" was made with the 3D/4D technology, most women would choose to not have an abortion.

Planned Parenthood debunks "The Silent Scream"
Entitled "The Facts Speak Louder", the critique began: "The video, epitomizing the anti-abortion agenda and strategy, tried to shift the focus of the abortion debate away from compassion for the health and needs of the woman to an exaggerated concern for the fetus.

"Although riddled with scientific, medical, and legal inaccuracies, as well as misleading statements and exaggerations, "The Silent Scream" is still wildly popular with anti-abortion zealots. And it continues to be a key tool in their propaganda efforts.

"Originally designed to frighten American women away from choosing abortion, the video is now shown worldwide to troubled women who turn to so-called crisis-pregnancy centers for assistance with their problem pregnancies. Clips from the film even run continuously on the World Wide Web.

"As soon as it was released, Planned Parenthood recognized that "The Silent Scream" would be used to propagate harmful myths that could endanger women's health and the constitutional right to choose abortion and jeopardize the lives and careers of abortion providers. To expose these distortions and deceits, Planned Parenthood convened a panel of medical experts to review and critique the video:

Sally Faith Dorfman, MD (Assistant Professor) William Rashbaum, MD (Assistant Clinical Professor) Allan Rosenfield (Professor) Ming-Neng Yeh, MD (Assoc Clinical Professor) Hart Peterson, MD (Chief of Pediatric Neurology) Seymour Romney (Professor Ob/Gyn) Herbert Vaughan, MD (Professor)"

Claim, Counter-Claim and Counter-counter Claim
(1) Video claim: the 12-week fetus experiences pain.

PP: At this stage of the pregnancy, the brain and the nervous system are still in a very early stage of development. Most brain cells are not developed. Without a cerebral cortex (grey matter covering the brain), pain impulses cannot be received or perceived.

NRL Response: A 12-week old unborn baby has developed the body parts required to experience pain. Moreover, the cortex is not needed to sense pain. All of the nerves, spinal cord and thalamus sufficient to experience pain are there at 12 weeks. The nerves coming from the skin, bring the pain impulse to the spinal cord, which then carries the impulse to the thalamus.

(2) Video claim: the 12-week fetus makes purposeful movements (e.g., agitated movement) in an attempt to avoid the suction cannula.

PP:At this stage, all fetal movement is reflexive, rather than purposeful. For the ability to perceive and know (cognition), the cortex must be present as well as myelinization (covering sheath of the spinal cord and attached nerves), which is not the case.

What is termed "frantic activity" by the fetus, is a reflex response resulting from movement of the uterus and its contents induced by operator manipulation of the suction curette, or the ultrasound transducer on the abdomen.

In addition, experts in ultrasonography and film technology have concluded that the videotape of the abortion was deliberately slowed down and subsequently speeded up, to create an impression of hyperactivity.

NRL Response: The unborn baby's behaviour demonstrated that she was reacting to avoid the painful stimulus. This type of pain is at least initially reflexive in all human beings regardless of age. The baby exhibited distress by moving away from the abortion instrument and having an accelerated heatbeat. Just as in an adult, these motions to get away, originate at the spinal-cord level and not in the cortex of the brain.

At no time were the ultrasound images speeded up. Dr Michael Linzey, associate professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at University of California, wrote that "The Silent Scream is an accurate representation of what takes place during a twelve-week abortion."

(3) Video claim: The fetus emits "The Silent Scream".

PP: A scream cannot occur without air in the lungs. Although primitive respiratory movements do occur in the later stages of gestation, crying or screaming cannot occur even then. A child born prematurely at 26-27 weeks gestation, cannot scream, but occasionally emits weak cries.

NRL Response: According to the authoritative textbook Williams Obstetrics, a 12-week foetus is capable of respiratory movements "sufficiently intense to move amniotic fluid in and out of the respiratory tract." An analogy would be a child drowning in a lake, and the foetus in the womb. In neither case would their cries be heard because there is no air to carry the sound.

(4) Video claim: The fetus is indistinguishable from any of the rest of us.

PP: A fetus of 12 weeks cannot in any way be compared to a fully-formed functioning person. At this stage only rudiments of the organ system are present. The fetus is unable to sustain life outside the mother's womb. It is incapable of conscious thought and essential breathing. It is instead an in utero fetus with the potential of becoming a child.

NRL Response: The unborn child is clearly a human being who should be accorded civil rights, especially the right to life. As Dr Nathanson points out in the film, the unborn 12-week old baby "has had brain waves for at least six weeks, his heart has been functioning for perhaps eight weeks, and all the rest of his functions are indistinguishable from any of ours."

In addition, fingerprints are formed by eight weeks and will never change except for size. By the ninth and tenth weeks, the baby sucks his thumb, turns somersaults, can squint, swallow and move his tongue. The sex hormones are already present, and 95% of the known structures, features and organs, from tiny nerves to fingers and muscles are in place. The thyroid and adrenal glands are functioning.

(5) Video claim: The fetal head at 12 weeks requires the use of "crushing instruments" for extraction.

PP: At 12 weeks gestation and even 1-2 weeks beyond, instrumentation other than a suction cannula is not required when abortion is properly performed. Cannulas for aspiration abortion come in varying sizes, and the larger sizes are adequate for withdrawing the contents of the uterus.

NRL Response: Authoritative pro-abortion doctors agree with Dr Nathanson that "crushing instruments" are widely used in abortions for 12-week old babies.

Dr Warren Hern, a practicing abortionist and author of an authorative 1984 book on performing abortions, wrote that forceps are used during 11 and 12-week abortions "to determine whether any significant amount of tissue remains."

Forceps are required to crush and extract the head in 11 and 12-week abortions, since the head is too large to be pulled out though the dilated cervix by the suction cannula (tube).

According to Dr Hern, (who conducted an extensive series of measurements of head and leg sizes of aborted babies), the head of a 12-week old unborn baby measures between 17 and 21 millimeters in diameter, with an average diameter of 18 millimeters (almost three-quarters of an inch).

This crushing is necessary because the cervix is not dilated more than 10 millimeters for a 12-week abortion. Further dilation increases the "likelihood of perforation, or permanent damage to the cervix," according to a chapter on first-trimester abortion practice by Kaunitz and Grimes in a book co-edited by Louise Tyrer, medical director of PPFA.

To see the script of the 'Silent Scream' and see the photos
A Frontline Documentary which was first broadcast on PBS on April 18, 1983 can be seen here.

NOTE

Planned Parenthood's panel of medical experts include Allan Rosenfield, William Rashbaum & Seymour Romney who are members of the Board of Directors of Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health. Another expert, Dr. Sally Faith Dorfman, stated in "Obstetrics and Gynecology News" editorial February 15-28, 1986, "Sonography in connection with induced abortion may have psychological hazards. Seeing a blown-up, moving image of the embryo she is carrying can be distressing to a woman who is about to undergo an abortion." She stressed that the screen should be turned away from the patient.

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