Why did images of early pregnancy cause such a social media firestorm?

A petri dish sits on a blue background. Inside the petri dish are four small bright white clumps of tissue. The smallest is in the bottom left of the dish, and the largest is in the top right.

An image of early pregnancies from five weeks (bottom left) to eight weeks (top right). The tissue has been rinsed of blood and the menstrual lining has been removed, leaving only the gestational sac. | MYA Network/Dr. Joan Fleischman, MD, MPA

Most people don’t know what early pregnancy actually looks like. That complicates abortion discussions.