Do you remember the great movie “Amazing Grace,” about William Wilberforce, the Christian Parliamentarian who led the charge to abolish the British slave trade?
One scene sticks in my mind right now, especially given all the horrors being revealed in the murder trial of abortionist Kermit Gosnell in Philadelphia.
Wilberforce was a tireless advocate for those who were regarded as mere chattel, but he knew that words alone often fall on deaf ears. So in the film he arranges for what some upper-class society types thought would be a nice boat outing.
But Wilberforce sails them right by a slave ship, close enough to smell and see the inhuman conditions the slaves were forced to endure. The party-goers are overwhelmed, upset, nauseated. What Wilberforce did may not have been polite, but it was very effective!
Not surprisingly, some pro-abortion folks today are a little upset at a series of undercover videos released by Lila Rose, a modern-day crusader for the sanctity of human life, and her group, Live Action. Live Action describes itself as “a new media movement dedicated to ending abortion and building a culture of life.” I only wish the old media had the same agenda!
Anyway, the videos are entitled “Inhuman: Undercover in America’s Late-Term Abortion Industry.” While not as grisly as the stories coming out of Gosnell’s house of butchery, these videos nonetheless show the chilling and callous attitude of late-term abortion providers. The first video shows an abortion doctor in our nation’s capital saying that if an abortion resulted in a live birth, he “would not help” the baby.
The second focuses on another hotbed of late-term abortions — the Bronx, New York. We’re told that 41 percent of all pregnancies in New York City end in abortion, and that half of all unborn children in the Bronx are being aborted.
But those are just statistics. The video puts them in context. A young woman from Live Action pretends to be seeking an abortion for a late-term pregnancy. And she uses a hidden camera to expose the callous attitude toward human life of a counselor at the Dr. Emily Women’s Health Center.
When asked what happens during the procedure, the counselor — who has worked at her job for 11 years, since the age of 16 — avoids words like “baby” or “kill,” and says that the “pregnancy” is suctioned out. Then the counselor goes into how the clinic disposes of the remains, and what the clinic workers would do if the baby showed signs of movement.
And when asked what to do if the baby comes out at home before the scheduled abortion, the counselor says “Flush it!” as if a human being were human waste!
Listening to the counselor’s cold-blooded answers is not for the faint of heart. But folks, the truth has to come to light — even if it makes us and others sad and upset in the process.
These Live Action undercover videos, which are perfectly legal, are just the kind of thing I believe Wilberforce would have done in getting the truth out. I commend Live Action for having the courage to make them.
When the truth is out, a citizenry cannot say we didn’t know ... and because these videos are not only telling the truth, but showing it, Americans — God willing — will want to do something about it.
Please come to BreakPoint.org. We’ll link you to the Live Action videos for you to see and share with others.
Also, you’ll want to tune in to “BreakPoint This Week” with my friend John Stonestreet who will be talking with Lila Rose of Live Action about the videos and about Lila’s efforts to expose the inhumanity of abortion. John will also be talking with my friend Kirsten Powers of USA Today about her work to cover the Gosnell trial. You can listen in starting today, again, at BreakPoint.org.
Eric Metaxas is a co-host of BreakPoint Radio and a best-selling author whose biographies, children's books, and popular apologetics have been translated into more than a dozen languages.
BreakPoint commentary airs each weekday on more than one thousand outlets with an estimated listening audience of one million people. BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on today's news and trends via radio, interactive media, and print.
Publication date: May 10, 2013
