By Jonathan Rogers
My junior year of college I remember sitting in a history class discussing what is known as the “Scottish Enlightenment”–specifically the writings of David Hume and Adam Smith on social virtues and morality. These two Scotsmen put emphasis on the social nature of morality, a sort of positive peer pressure.
“Think about it,” said my professor, “don’t you find that in most cases where you did something you knew you shouldn’t have, you were alone and didn’t have that immediate circle of friends which might have encouraged better behavior, just by their mere presence?”
Everyone around the table glanced around uncomfortably, you could tell it was true.
Now take a look at some of the recent news stories relating to the issues of concern to the pro-life movement.
We have the gut-wrenching saga which continues to unfold in Philadelphia where according to a lengthy and detail grand jury report abortionist Kermit Gosnell wracked up a record of behavior for years that outdid even the worst nightmares the average pro-lifer comes to expect from an abortion clinic (http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2011/03/closegosnelldown/). A year ago, if you were told that even a single abortionist was routinely killing newborn infants that they had aborted alive, you’d probably find the story stretching the limits of your credulity. But it’s true, according to the Grand Jury report, made possible by over a decade of negligence on the part of Pennsylvania officials who chose not to inspect Gosnell’s soul-crushingly inhumane institution.
Next, there was a series of covert videos taken by the pro-life group Live Action at Planned Parenthood clinics. When Planned Parenthood dismissed the first video as an isolated incidence at a clinic in New Jersey, Live Action released more videos from multiple states, showing a disturbing trend of similar behavior.
“Our new video shows their Richmond [Virginia] clinic willing to aid and abet the sexual exploitation of minors and coaching a pimp about how girls as young as 14 – 15 could circumvent parental consent laws for secret abortions,” Live Action President Lila Rose said in a statement. “Watch the video – the clinic worker admits they do this ‘once or twice a month.'”
Belatedly, Planned Parenthood announced the “re-training” some 11,000 employees to ensure compliance with state laws and local guidelines. One wonders when these employees would have been “re-trained” without Live Action’s expose
( www.nrlc.org/News_and_Views/Feb11/nv020811.html).
Kermit Gosnell is charged with eight counts of murder–“seven specific incidents in which Gosnell or one of his employees severed the spine of a viable baby born alive” (as the grand jury report described it) and a woman who died after receiving an overdose of anesthesia. Gosnell was able to do all this could only be done because such behavior was hidden.
Planned Parenthood was only spurred to “re-train” employees after the videos were released.
It is, of course, no new assertion that bad things hide in the dark. Deception and concealment have ever been the friend of wrongdoers and the most powerful tyrants rule through “secret” police forces. Most importantly, however, the contrast between immorality’s aversion to truth and morality’s acceptance of it, highlights not only where the pro-abortion movement is failing, but where and why the pro-life movement is triumphing.
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