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'You See Baby Sucking Their Thumb': These Powerful Ultrasound Images May Be Key to Defeating Roe v. Wade

12-07-2021
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Unborn baby smiling in the womb (Image: 3D Ultrasound from PregnantSee)
3D ultrasound reveals unborn baby smiling in the womb (Image: courtesy PregnantSee)

As a trained sonographer Maria Christopoulos is passionate about the unborn.

"I talk to them. That is my life calling," Christopoulos told CBN News. "That is my passion. That is my job."  
 
"Their hearing is amazing; vision maybe not so good but not only do we talk to them, they respond," Christopoulos said. 

After years as a vice president in the banking industry, Christopoulos developed a desire to help pregnant women and their unborn children. It grew so strong that she quit her job to become an ultrasound technician.

"About 17 years ago - and 3D, 4D was introduced and I can remember an 'aha moment' for me at that time where I felt oh wow the preborn now have a voice to speak for themselves," she said. "And that was powerful enough for me to change my career path and go on that way with confidence."

As head of "PregnantSee", a company in Fairfax, Virginia that offers 3, 4 and 5-D ultrasounds, Christopoulos provides a unique experience for moms to see their growing baby in astonishing detail.

"They blink. You can tell if they're lefties or righties. They have reflexes. They hiccup.  They open their eyes. You see their lashes. You see hair. You see dimples when they smile. You see them frowning. There is nothing they cannot do," explained Christopoulos.

She said many are amazed by what they see on the screen.

"The initial thing is shock," she said. "They cannot believe that what they're seeing is real. That it's within them."

Ultrasounds have also made a powerful difference in the fight for life. Ninety-three percent of women who have ultrasounds choose to keep their babies.


Unborn baby smiling in the womb (Image: 3D Ultrasound from PregnantSee) 

"At 40 Days for Life we see so many women that choose life after seeing their baby on an ultrasound, particularly when there's more than one baby – twins," said 40 Days for Life president Shawn Carney. "We just had a set of triplets saved during this last fall campaign.

The Crisis Pregnancy Center of Tidewater performs hundreds of ultrasounds each year.  While they are not HD, the 2D sonograms they offer still make a difference.

"A lot of times our patients come in and they're not really sure how they're feeling about being pregnant so, the ultrasound really just makes it more real to them," Paige Coulter, Director of Medical Services at CPC, said in an interview with CBN News.  "A lot of times they're just uninformed. They're just told the pregnancy is a blob of tissue, a clump of cells."

Such scientific advancements come at a time when the legality of abortion is being challenged. 

The country now waits for a U.S. Supreme Court decision in the case involving a Mississippi law that bans abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy. Many argue the outcome could directly threaten Roe v. Wade. 

Dr. Grazie Christie, a diagnostic radiologist and policy adviser for the Catholic Association, submitted a brief in the case, describing the science used in the 1973 ruling as outdated. 
  
"At that point in the development of man's knowledge, as Justice Harry Blackmun put it in Roe, there was simply no consensus about when life begins," Christie writes in an article called, "The Obsolete Science behind Roe v. Wade."  

"In other words, the fetus could not be said with any certainty to be alive and therefore wasn't worthy of legal protection," she said.
 
"I think that the science in 1973 was really different and people had different conceptions about what was going on in the womb," Christie told CBN News. "But we can't say that anymore. Now with 3D ultrasound you can see actual fat plump cheeks, you see baby sucking their little thumb, making facial gestures that are so human."

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Christie hopes the court will embrace the hi-tech progress that reveals the humanity of pre-born babies and end abortion in America.
 
She said, "What we're hoping for is that the Supreme Court justices will make that heart-to-heart connection."

It is a connection Christopoulos sees making a difference through her work each day.

"Some of the clients come in and blatantly tell us they're considering abortion," she said.   
 
"There's also stories that the women have said and come back to me, 'You had no idea that I was contemplating this' and by you performing these ultrasounds you've just uplifted excitement, renown purpose of life in me. You've given me the confidence to believe that I'm not alone. That I am powerful. I can do anything in God's holy name," said Christopoulos.

Have you have had an abortion, are contemplating ending your pregnancy, or would like pregnancy-related resources, please click here.

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