The AMA newspaper American Medical News (July 5, 1993) interviewed Dr. Martin Haskell and reported:
Dr. Haskell said the drawings were accurate "from a technical point of view." But he took issue with the implication that the fetuses were "aware and resisting."
Professor Watson Bowes of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, co-editor of the Obstetrical and Gynecological Survey, wrote in a letter to Congressman Canady:
Having read Dr. Haskell's paper, I can assure you that these drawings accurately represent the procedure described therein.... Firsthand renditions by a professional medical illustrator, or photographs or a video recording of the procedure would no doubt be more vivid, but not necessarily more instructive for a non-medical person who is trying to understand how the procedure is performed.
On Nov. 1, 1995, Congresswoman Patricia Schroeder and her allies actually tried to prevent Congressman Canady from displaying the line drawings during the debate on HR 1833 on the floor of the House of Representatives. But the House voted by nearly a 4-to-1 margin (332 to 86) to permit the drawings to be used.