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(LifeSiteNews) — My college history professor used to say, “Everyone wants to sleep well at night.” The messaging from the abortion industry over the last 50 years is a good example of exploiting that desire.

Led by Planned Parenthood, abortion providers have reinvested their profits (and taxpayer funding) into brainwashing millions of Americans into believing that the torture and murder of an unborn child is “a woman’s right” and “her body, her choice.” They have also demonized their opponents as misogynists and The Handmaid’s Tale characters.

The Dobbs decision undid the constitutional flaws of Roe and returned abortion to a state issue. But despite several states enacting stricter bans, the number of abortions nationwide has actually increased annually since Dobbs. This could speak to the abortion industry’s success in controlling how abortion is discussed in the public square.

The MSM and the Left

With the number of major media companies shrinking from over 40 in the mid-’90s to only six today (due to the Telecommunications Act of 1996), it is easier for Planned Parenthood and its allies to control and perpetuate their abortion messaging.

Corrupt corporate media executives happily take Planned Parenthood’s money and pass on their message, while woke employees and staffers, practicing “activist journalism,” carry their water without a second thought. And because the abortion industry has the cash, they’re likely to keep dominating how abortion is covered in the MSM for the foreseeable future.

At the same time, the Left has taken control of the executive branch and administrative state, weaponizing the Justice department and multiple agencies (see the arrest and persecution of Mark Houck, and the arrests of many pro-life protesters just since 2020).

READ: Pro-life father Mark Houck seeking justice against Biden DOJ after FBI raid

Cognitive dissonance and inaction

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,” wrote Edmund Burke.

So what can pro-lifers do in the current climate, to rouse our family, friends and neighbors from inaction to actively standing up for the unborn? Well, first, we can look at ourselves. I speak from first-hand experience.

To me, abortion has always been an unnatural interference by humans with one of our most fundamental processes – the development and birth of those who will carry on the species.

My parents were devout Catholics who practiced their faith. They were arrested for peaceful pro-life protesting (“trespassing” for praying the Rosary in front of an abortion mill) and housed three pregnant teenagers to give them a safe environment in which to have their babies.

The Catholic Church is not alone in its teaching against abortion. The practice is inconsistent with other faiths and philosophies, from Buddhism to Stoicism, which hold that abortion is an unnatural ending of life.

Yet despite seeing my parents’ witness to their faith and putting it into practice in defense of life, I have never had a visceral reaction to abortion. I’ve made donations to pro-life causes, I’ve gone to the occasional meeting and rally, and sometimes I’ve called my representatives about pro-life legislation.

But whether it’s cognitive dissonance, of not really wanting to believe what actually happens during an abortion, letting myself get distracted with daily living, or wasting time with dumb apps on my smartphone – regardless – I have had a hard time being driven from my inertia to act vigorously and persistently against abortion.

READ: UK citizens fight back against pro-life censorship, government-backed LGBT propaganda

‘Aborting America’ and reality

And then something happened. I was sitting on the beach on a sunny June day doing what I usually do on vacation – taking stock of what I’ve been doing with my life and thinking about what to do next. At some point during my self-assessment, I suddenly thought about the book Aborting America by Dr. Bernard Nathanson.

My dad gave me a copy years ago and told me how he had seen Dr. Nathanson’s film The Silent Scream and heard his story of conversion from abortionist to pro-life crusader. I knew that Nathanson showed in the film an ultrasound of an unborn baby who appeared to be screaming during an abortion.

Over 40 years later, the impact of what Nathanson saw finally struck me. During an abortion of a 12-week-old unborn baby, the defenseless human being is both tortured and killed by forceps crushing its skulland a vacuum suctioning out its brains and the rest of its body parts.

The above wasn’t easy to write. I’m choking back tears. But it’s exactly what is happening in thousands of abortion clinics every day. Today.

The fact that abortionists make money from abortion (and are incentivized to make more by selling fetal parts) is diabolical. Adding to that carnage is the psychological and emotional damage they’ve caused to millions of women by deceiving them that aborting their own flesh and blood was a good thing to do.

The times ahead

The landscape for the pro-life movement after Dobbs has become even more challenging and hostile. A Harris victory will ensure the Left’s continued control of the administrative state, provide more tax money for Planned Parenthood, and put more pro-lifers in prison. Pro-lifers will need to keep supporting each other in the times ahead.

I am grateful I remembered Nathanson’s book and for the emotional reaction the recollection raised in me. It’s up to me to turn my reaction into action. I know that abortion is the ending of a life. These are not words that will help us sleep at night, but words everyone needs to hear.

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