Pro-life groups have tried various ways to discourage pregnant women from killing their innocent babies including education campaigns and counselling.

A recent study, however, revealed that a simple and straightforward approach actually works in dissuading mothers from undergoing abortion: showing them pictures of aborted babies.

Dr. Jacqueline C. Harvey, a political science professor at Tarleton State University in Texas, conducted the research, analysing the effectiveness of what is called as "abortion victim photography," and ultimately concluded that seeing pictures of aborted babies convinced mothers not to proceed with killing their babies.

According to the research reported by Life Site News, participants of the study who saw the pictures of abortion victims showed "statistically significant shift in pro-life worldview, a greater negative perception of abortion, a decreased degree of permissiveness and liberalism towards abortion law, and a significant gain in pro-life political views."

In particular, the study showed that 90 percent of the women who were presented with photos of aborted babies increased their negative feelings towards abortion.

The number of participants who described themselves as completely pro-life also increased by 30 percent after viewing abortion victim photography, based on Harvey's research.

Harvey said in her research that these figures indicate how exposure to abortion victim photography is "intrinsically effective" in making pregnant mothers think twice about killing the babies inside their wombs.

This change in the attitude towards abortion, the researcher said, can be key to saving more lives of the unborn.

"Additional analysis found that the strength of one's feelings toward abortion were conclusively parallel to political views about abortion, with those who felt strongly positive towards abortion favoring no legal restrictions, and those who felt strongly negative towards abortion favoring complete prohibition of abortion," Harvey said in her study.

"This suggests that changing how the public feels about abortion impacts how people vote for candidates who would be willing and able to enact legal restrictions that actually save lives," she added.