In the middle of a beautiful summer, the last thing I wanted to see was that first video released by the Center for Medical Progress. I didn’t know how to process it. I felt sick.

“Is this real?”
“How can this even be happening?”
“How is no one stopping this?”
“Maybe this is edited…?”

I couldn’t believe it, and I certainly didn’t want to believe it.

As I was awakened to the reality of the atrocities committed against the unborn right here in our nation (which claims freedom and equality for all), I found myself entering the grieving process for the millions of children who have been exterminated for the sake of convenience and “research.”

Psychologists say that when dealing with death and loss, the process for grieving can be broken into five stages: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.

After watching the next several videos in full, my questions of denial were over, because there is no room for denial of this genocide. It’s real. It’s happening. No one’s stopping it (actually, our president “stands with” the perpetrators at Planned Parenthood). And it’s not “edited.” Side note: as a broadcast journalism graduate who’s learned quite a bit about video production and actively works on video projects, I know that you can’t “edit in” what people say or do. You can edit out, but the choppiness between words and movements would be evident. One thing we learned in our broadcast journalism classes at college was to get MORE material than necessary, because you can’t edit what you don’t have. And the Center for Medical Progress had the material, because the Planned Parenthood staff said it and did it. There’s no denying that.

So, as I continued watching video after video and made my way out of the denial stage, I got angry. Angry at what has been happening. Angry that it’s still happening. Angry that people are “standing with Planned Parenthood.” Angry about how nonchalant Planned Parenthood is about the whole thing. I’m righteously angry.

After one of the first few videos was published, Planned Parenthood tweeted a quote by a Washington Post journalist who wrote, “Planned Screen Shot 2015-08-19 at 1.24.34 PMParenthood deserves to be supported, not attacked,” and I was outraged. As a young woman, I can’t help but be hurt by the lies that this abortion giant is telling my gender: that Planned Parenthood facilities are the only ones that can give us “health care,” that their “health care” isn’t focused on convenience, and the unspoken, but clearly implied, lie that if I had a baby, I wouldn’t be able to take care of him/her (and shouldn’t have to), because I’m too weak and vulnerable (so… I just should exterminate him/her). So many lies.

And then I began the bargaining. “I’ll do anything to make this end. Just make them stop. What will make them stop?”

Now… well, now I’m just sad. Sad that our nation allows such evil. Sad that our leaders don’t stand up against it. Sad that the media ignores it. Sad that people are believing Planned Parenthood’s lies. Sad that Planned Parenthood is believing its own lies.

As I continue to recycle these stages every time another video is released, I refuse to “complete the grieving process.” I will not accept this, and I will not move on until it ENDS. On the anniversary of Roe v. Wade this past January, I marched through our nation’s Capitol with 500,000 other people to protest the genocide and trafficking of our developing Americans. Throughout the march, Students for Life chanted, “I am the pro-life generation,” and they’re right. My generation is not accepting this. We will continue to grieve for our nation’s unborn, and we will not stop speaking out until the genocide is stopped.

God bless,
Lena Wakim
Director of Communications