People talk about the gay rights movement, and they remark how the TV show “Will & Grace” was the cultural turning point in that battle.  With this week’s revelation of the undercover Planned Parenthood videos, I’m hoping the pro-life movement is going to have its own, viral “Will & Grace” moment.

Even amongst pro-lifers, we’ve generally thought it uncouth to use photos of aborted babies to make a point.  But we watched videos of senior Planned Parenthood officials sitting in restaurants and talking about aborted babies so casually – all while joking, sipping on wine, munching on salad, and bartering for body parts.  They used words like “crush” and “crunchy” to describe what the small, human bodies went through on their way to becoming “donated tissue.”  And we had to know: how culpable is their callousness?  Is it possible that the babies don’t quite look human enough to feel sympathy for them?

Somehow we knew a video was coming in which we would see a mangled body, and we knew we couldn’t look away from the sight when the video came out.  Today was the day – it was the first time for millions of us to see the reality of an abortion.

If you were like me, you probably gasped a little when you saw the little baby’s arm on the dissection tray.  Maybe your breathing got shallow and your stomach turned.

That didn’t happen because we’re weak and uneasy around medical procedures.  It happened because we were looking at the fully formed arm and hand of a baby – a hand that could’ve caressed his mother’s lips, fingers that could’ve picked up a stuffed animal, arms that could’ve swung from the monkey bars.

We looked at those very real fingers, that slender arm, and we listened as a lab tech bragged about the value of the dead baby’s body parts.  And to paraphrase author Trevin Wax, we wondered what they did with the baby’s face.

I don’t know what God named the little baby whose arm was lying in that dish, but to that child, let me say this: your death was not in vain.  We cannot – we will not – forget your mangled body.  We will etch it into our memories and tell the world about you.  We will pray for your mother – for all the mothers who bear the guilt of abortion – and we will look forward to the day when we meet you and the countless millions of other babies who were crushed from existence in this world long before their time.

May God have mercy on us.

To watch the third video by the Center for Medical Progress, click here, though you should be advised that it is extremely graphic.  If you’d like an email with a weekly recap of what I’ve written, click here.  You can also keep up with my latest articles (and more) on Facebook or Twitter.