The picture below has been making the rounds on social media with this caption:
An Iraqi girl in an orphanage – missing her mother, so she drew her and fell asleep inside her.”
As it turns out the photo is staged.
Why is this such an effective photograph?
I think it conveys something powerful about the family, particularly about the relationship between mothers and children.
I think it also conveys that mothers are safe spaces–they provide love through physical and spiritual strength and protection.
And in this one photo, we can better understand why the abortion issue is so controversial.
With abortion, this quasi-sacred mother-child relationship is in play. Women who abort likely are at least subconsciously aware that they are mothers at the time of the abortion and afterwards. Because pro-life or pro-choice, this relationship with our mothers is an important and valuable one, on which we rely over the course of our lives. Because little children should be, in a perfect world, protected by their mothers. When we as pro-lifers chastise abortion, we may in fact be reminding women who have had abortions, in the deepest and most profound recesses of their heart, that they failed.
So this photo–as art–captures a lot of emotion.
It reminds me to tread carefully in just how I choose to oppose abortion.
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