Several days a week, I drive past the Holocaust Museum on my way to The American Spectator’s offices. On the side of the building, in huge letters, two messages are spelled out and have stayed with me. The first is “Never Again,” which essentially exhorts all of us to be on guard against atrocities like what happened to the Jewish people under Nazi Germany. The second is “Think about what you saw,” suggesting that no one could look on these horrors and be unchanged.
But now it appears that we have not remembered much of anything. Under our very noses, we have let it happen again on a much smaller scale. The Gosnell murder trial has brought details to light that are revolting. The man is evil; there is no equivocation. He rationally, coldly, and efficiently dispatched of several newborn babies who were fully alive. Unlike Newtown and Aurora, mental illness does not seem so readily apparent. We cannot explain this one away. It is evil.
These horrors are difficult to look upon, but look upon it we must. The implications for abortion policy are weighty beyond bearing. Indeed, what is the different between what Gosnell did, “snipping” minute-old infant’s spines, and a late-term abortion? Are we really making a moral distinction based on physical location of a child? And if we aren’t sure, shouldn’t we err on the side of protecting infants? America needs to stare into the abyss no matter what stares back. What have we allowed on our watch?
Our culture has allowed and encouraged a man who is capable of this:
On January 31, 1998, a then 15 year old Robyn Reid sought an abortion from Gosnell’s clinic. Once she was in the clinic, though, Reid, an 87-pound teenager at the time, told Gosnell she changed her mind about the abortion. She claims Gosnell got upset, ripped off her clothes, restrained her, and repeatedly told her, “This is the same care that I would give to my own daughter.” Reid regained consciousness 12 hours later at her aunt’s home, with the abortion having been completed against her will.
The press’s complete disregard for the story is also deeply concerning. It’s as if abortion advocates know that if Americans looked at this horror, they would immediately know that all abortion is equally callous about human life. When questioned about their lack of coverage, reporters give cowardly answers. This has to stop. Media bias about candidates is one thing; media bias about the mass slaughter of new born infants is another thing altogether. An evil thing.
We must begin the national conversation about this now. We must remember the horror of Gosnell. And we must never let it happen again before we have to write these words on the side of a building lamenting one of humanity’s greatest failures.
