These days, our preference is to hear no evil and see no evil, so we don’t have to deal with the evil. How often do we steer clear of news headings that might make us uncomfortable, or even still, wrench our very souls? We like to make evil a vaguary that exists as an abstract concept. By doing so, we’re able to separate it from ourselves and saunter on with no need of action or response. When considering what to write about this week, I’m embarrassed to say I was tempted to do just that. My newsfeed has been filled over the past month with news headings, articles, videos, and photographs that seek to horrify our senses and appall our hearts…if we let them.

I do not often post my thoughts on topics outside of my daily experiences, topics that bring with them extreme emotions, defensive opinions, and opposing sides. Most often, this is because I am blessed to know so many wonderful people across both sides of these issues and would not for a second want my words to be received as a judgement. I stand in judgement of no man, not in mind or heart.

Perhaps you’ve already guessed this, but I’m speaking in light of recent videos unveiling the business taking place within the Planned Parenthood facilities. While the visual of tiny babies being torn apart for pieces will certainly never leave me, I am more saddened by our hardness, our ability to hear of such things taking place in our own homeland, not some far away barbarian dictatorship, but here in the United States of America. Have we become a culture who can hear such news and not act? I commend those who have responded, but how are there not more? Medically speaking, time of death is declared when a person’s heart has stopped beating. How then, scientifically, do we not declare a person alive when it starts to beat (only 21 days after conception)?  While I understand that people disagree on this topic from an emotional standpoint, I cannot conceive how individuals disagree on this topic from a scientific one. Do we simply not want to see? Have we become a nation so intelligent and developed that we can see our unborn children’s faces on 3D scans as clear as if they were already in our arms; and yet, so hardened that we choose to ignore logic when it seeks to inconvenience our lives?

Whether you agree or disagree with me, my hope is that these shocking videos will awaken both pro-choice and pro-life advocates alike to dig deeper into why they believe what they believe, to really take a look at facts surrounding the issue (how abortions are performed, the stages of development within the womb, the emotional effects, either positive or negative, of the procedure over the course of women’s lives). My hope is that we can set aside whatever our prejudice, whatever emotions may complicate our judgement, if our position on the issue was handed down to us, may we seek our own understanding, and allow our hearts and minds to be opened to the atrocity of what these videos reveal.

I encourage you, if you have not already, to take a look at the following video. It is one of the many that unveils what’s been taking place at Planned Parenthoods across the US. Decide for yourself. I am not here to decide for you. I hope only that it may be approached with an open mind.