By now you’ve either seen or heard about the Planned Parenthood videos. The Center for Medical Progress has been releasing undercover video footage exposing Planned Parenthood’s grisly practice of killing unborn children and selling their body parts. These videos, though, didn’t make Planned Parenthood evil.
Planned Parenthood was evil last year, long before they were exposed. They were evil the year before that, and the year before that. The reason is because they take advantage of vulnerable women who face crisis pregnancies and help them kill their innocent children. They’ve been doing that with government protection for over 40 years. These videos have not changed what Planned Parenthood does, only the public’s perception of them.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m glad these videos have exposed Planned Parenthood’s barbaric behavior. I want as many people as possible to see them. More than that, though, I want pro-lifers to be passionate about saving the lives of unborn children for as long as abortion remains legal, not just as long as the hype of these videos remains.
Defunding Planned Parenthood would be great. The concern, though, is that once new videos are no longer released and the excitement fades, people will lose interest in abortion. We’ll go right back to where we were a year ago.
That’s why my focus has always been on changing culture. The way you change culture is by changing minds. Changing minds changes public opinion. Changing public opinion changes public policy. When public policy is determined by a culture that treats every human being—born or unborn—as equally valuable, then organizations like Planned Parenthood will no longer be tolerated by ordinary citizens.
That’s why what we’re doing together has the power to save lives for the long term. We’re not merely stopping evil today. We’re also creating a culture that will recoil at human atrocities that are committed tomorrow.