A Deafening Silence

“[The wicked man’s] victims are crushed, they collapse;
    they fall under his strength.
He says to himself, “God will never notice;
    he covers his face and never sees.” Psalm 10:10-11

If you want evidence of how far America has fallen, look no further than the stories on the local and national news about the Planned Parenthood video scandal. You’ll have to look very, very hard, because there are hardly any. I live in the Bible Belt and even our local news isn’t carrying the story. The media would rather give us stories about an unfortunate wildlife preserve lion. Or Donald Trump's hair. When asked about the scandal, our President—who recently admitted that he hasn't seen the videos—complained about “extremists from the right,” “fraudulently edited video,” and promised to investigate the whistleblowers. The recent Senate vote seems to indicate that even its conservative members can’t all agree that Planned Parenthood should be defunded.

Have we grown so dull that we think God does not see and count each and every one of these precious lives, brutally torn apart before they see the light of day? Do we really think that the God who said “vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” will not bring a day of recompense, not just on the abortion industry, but on a society that callously looked away rather than stop it? And what about the Church at large, which complains but mostly doesn’t do a whole lot more than that?

The videos are disturbing, and the last two are stomach turning. Tiny arms and legs—identifiable as arms and legs—lying randomly in dishes as technicians tweeze about for the ‘valuable’ parts. No amount of editing created those images. Are we outraged enough? Grieved enough? I confess that the evidence of my own life suggests that I am not. I am ashamed to say that, while I oppose abortion, it has been easier to look away from the unpleasantness, to focus on my own busy life, rather than stand and object. But now that I've seen, I know I'm accountable.

We know from history that when we redefine humanity to exclude another group, we become capable of doing unspeakable things to them. Look at the Jews in WWII and the African and Native Americans in our own country. This is what the pro-abortion lobby has done with the unborn—refusing the smallest concession that they are even human. These little ones have no vote, no voice, no power to stop what happens to them. They have no focus group, poll or PAC representing them. They can’t even rely on their own mothers, the one person they should be able to count on to protect them.*

I hate these videos; I hate that they had to be made. They are graphic and ugly; they show me things I'd rather not see. But I needed to see those videos. America needs to see those videos, so she can stop pretending that abortion is the sanitized, simple medical procedure Planned Parenthood claims it is. If our government is going to permit them to continue, then we need to know what it is we are permitting. If PPFA wants to continue collecting their blood money, let them continue with everyone knowing in graphic detail exactly how they are making it. We dare not look away. 

These videos expose as lies the vague terms the abortion industry uses to describe what they do. "Products of conception" and "just a clump of cells,” and “fetal tissue” are invalid terms when you can see with your own eyes a tiny arm, the hand cupped upward, as if reaching for help, lying on a tray. I remember being four months pregnant, feeling how big the baby was as he moved and kicked. It's horrifying to imagine that child being probed and prodded, then finally sliced apart—without even the small kindness of a painkiller. We are kinder when we execute murderers than we are to the unborn. (Painkillers, if given, would be an admission that the “product of conception” is pain-capable. They can’t risk the general public beginning to think sympathetically of the “clump of cells;" they might then think of the “tissue” as a pre-born human, and then where would we be?)

This controversy has shaken and convicted me. I am perhaps too busy with my own life. There are many worthy causes to which I can and should give my money and time. But after seeing these videos, my busyness is beginning to feel like an excuse to avoid being uncomfortable--or accountable. As Christians can we be a people willing to be uncomfortable; to hear and see unpleasant things in order to speak out against this Holocaust of tiny infants? 

While protecting and helping women with the life and death decisions regarding crisis pregnancy, we must also speak out against the taking of innocent life. And we must be willing to provide solutions...simply being anti-abortion isn't enough. How can we criticize those who kill their children, if we don't speak up, vote, give, serve or even inconvenience ourselves by adopting and raising unwanted babies? There may be a deafening silence from the news outlets and the more liberal-minded, but there should not, there cannot be silence from Christians. And I confess, up to now I have been far too silent.

But you, God, see the trouble of the afflicted;

    you consider their grief and take it in hand.
The victims commit themselves to you;
    you are the helper of the fatherless.
Break the arm of the wicked man;
    call the evildoer to account for his wickedness
    that would not otherwise be found out.” Psalm 10:14-15

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*This is in no way a condemnation of women who have had abortions, just a focus on the needs of the more helpless person in the crisis. We are sinners, all of us, and there is forgiveness and healing in Jesus.