In July, an activist group called the Center for Medical Progress began to release a series of undercover videos meant to “expose” Planned Parenthood. Most of the attention to the videos has focused on whether they prove the organization engaged in illegal sales of fetal-tissue harvesting. So far, despite multiple state investigations and four congressional hearings, they have not proved that. But the videos’ real aim seems to be prompting a purely visceral reaction among the public.

This is a tactic that some anti-abortion activists have been using for years in a more low-tech form: displaying graphic images of aborted fetuses in public places. This aggressive approach is extraordinarily unpopular outside activist circles for obvious reasons. And even within the anti-abortion community, it is sometimes viewed as an extreme tactic. In September, the president of the large anti-abortion organization Students for Life of America, Kristan Hawkins, wrote a column for the conservative website Townhall in which she compared the use of such images to screaming outside an abortion clinic, and questioned their relevance. (She did not condemn their use altogether.)

Read the article “Tears vs. Blood: The Man Behind Graphic Pro-Life Signs Defends Their Use” on theatlantic.com.