by Steven Ertelt | Lansing, MI | LifeNews.com | 6/4/14 4:32 PM

A pro-life group in Lansing, Michigan says fetal models have helped save a baby from a late-term abortion. Officials with 40 Days for Life in Lansing posted a picture of a set of fetal models that it says helped changed a woman’s mind about having an abortion.

“I showed the 30-week model to a late-term mom who left the clinic and DID NOT have an abortion. Praise God!” the group wrote.

As LifeNews writer Andrew Bair has written before, abortion activists really dislike fetal models.

Abortion advocates fight tooth and nail to hide the humanity of the child in the womb. Nothing is more detrimental to their cause than the public realizing the truth about what abortion does to a human being.

That is why they so vehemently oppose measures to ensure mothers get the chance to see the sonogram image of their unborn child. They threw a fit when Facebook created the option for users to make pages for their unborn babies.

The latest source of their outrage: fetal models.

At the North Dakota State Fair, Minot County Right to Life had an education booth where they displayed scientifically-accurate, plastic models of unborn babies at various stages of development. They group also handed out models of unborn babies at 12 weeks.

“It was [given] out to show a visual that at 12 weeks, the baby is a baby. No abortion talk had to come of it with any children that picked one up. Young children just saw them as babies and that was it,” North Dakota Right to Life posted on Facebook.

What is odd is that pro-lifers have been showing fetal models at county and state fairs for decades. But to take the next step—to distribute them—has pro-abortionists incensed.

Any seasoned right-to-life activist who has volunteered at a county or state fair booth knows that the overwhelming majority of the public are receptive to their outreach. Many attendees are fascinated by the basic biological facts of unborn development, which too often are hidden by advocates of abortion and their allies in the media.

From my own experience manning pro-life fair booths, I can attest to their effectiveness. Probably the most touching experience is to witness a pregnant mother come up to the table and find the model which is closest to the stage of development of her unborn baby. Children especially love the models. For them, a representation of a baby is not a political affront, it is just a baby.

The facts about human development may be inconvenient for the pro-abortion cause but they remain. By 12 weeks, babies the size of the models have beating hearts and detectable brain waves. They can kick, swim and even suck their little thumbs. Their nervous systems are developed.