[dropcap type=”4″]I[/dropcap] stood there in front of the screen and choked back a sob. The images that played before my eyes were gruesome: a bulldozer, plowing through emaciated bodies; a young girl frantically trying to wake her brother, obviously dead.

Joyce Coronel is a regular contributor to The Catholic Sun and author of “A Martyr’s Crown.” Opinions expressed are the writers’ and not necessarily the views of The Catholic Sun or the Diocese of Phoenix.
Joyce Coronel is a regular contributor to The Catholic Sun and author of “A Martyr’s Crown.” Opinions expressed are the writers’ and not necessarily the views of The Catholic Sun or the Diocese of Phoenix.

What I saw that day was burned into my mind and will stay with me forever. I beheld them on a visit to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem when I went there in 2014.

Last week, I saw a video that made me think of that moment when I questioned how humanity had allowed mass murder to continue unchecked for years.

Sitting there in front of my computer, my hands were shaking as I watched a technician cavalierly examine a container of body parts taken from aborted babies. The undercover camera pauses for a moment as a tiny human leg is held up to the light. And in that moment, all you can think is, pictures don’t lie. This is no “blob of tissue.” These are babies being chopped up, legally, right in our own neighborhoods, at times just blocks from Catholic churches.

Every once in a while, you read about a Holocaust denier. You shake your head, wondering how anyone could deny the horrific mass murder of six million Jews at the hands of the Nazis. After all, the Nazis themselves took photographs and kept meticulous records of their murderous deeds.

“Look at this,” you say, pointing to a picture of the piled up corpses, “Here’s your proof.”

The denier is unfazed, shrugs and tells you, “Oh, those photos were doctored. They’re nothing but propaganda.” Better yet, you’re told it’s all a conspiracy. If that’s not proof of insanity, what is?

Nowadays, there’s a different sort of mass murder going on right under our noses. And for the most part, our country has been in denial for decades.

All that was shattered last month when the Center for Medical Progress began releasing undercover videos of Planned Parenthood personnel haggling over prices for body parts of aborted babies.

We watch as one Planned Parenthood doc stabs at her salad and gulps wine while discussing the particulars of the proposed deal while another admits, after a price for baby parts has been arrived upon, that she’s always wanted a Lamborghini.

A fifth video, released Aug. 4, was perhaps the most horrific yet. Near the end of the footage, a Planned Parenthood employee takes a plastic container of aborted babies from the freezer. Ripped from their mothers’ wombs at around 20 weeks, it’s a horrifying look at very clearly formed arms, legs, heads and other body parts.

Gallons of ink have been spilled over the abortion debate and in a couple of video frames, all that gets swept away. Pictures don’t lie.

“This,” we all say, “this is the proof of what they are doing. Surely no one can deny it now.”

But then they do. It’s a right-wing conspiracy. It’s a Republican political tactic. It’s the “war on women,” or, my personal favorite, the video has been “selectively edited.”

Somehow I can’t get that image of the baby’s arms and legs, the tiny fists and feet, out of my mind. And something tells me that millions of other Americans have come to the same conclusion. Planned Parenthood can continue to attempt damage control, but the bloody evidence of their trade is there for all to see.

Remember that the next time you’re deciding who will receive your vote. Remember that next time you’re “too busy” to spend five minutes asking your representative in Washington to defund Planned Parenthood. Remember that the next time you’re asked to support one of the pro-life pregnancy centers or attend a peaceful protest.

Alisyn Camerota of CNN tried to shame David Daleiden, the man behind the videos, asking him why he wanted to stop research involving fetal tissue since it was used for such laudable goals as treating patients with Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.

Um, has anyone told her about Josef Mengele’s medical experiments? The Nazi physician personally selected his victims at Auschwitz and is said to have often smiled or whistled a tune as he worked. Kind of reminds me of the videos showing Planned Parenthood reps cracking jokes as they discuss selling babies’ body parts.

If this series of graphic videos doesn’t spur us to take action, I’m not sure what will. Here’s your chance to do something: show up at one of the prayerful demonstrations being held at Planned Parenthood clinics across the nation Aug. 22.