Much like animal activists, pro-life activists are increasingly using undercover video to force us to confront the violent reality of our abortion practices. Perhaps we can find a reason to continue such practices, but our discourse on this topic is anything but open about what’s actually happening in abortion clinics. The investigative journalism done by the Center for Medical Progress is an attempt to force us to be intellectually honest. More needs to be done—particularly by our major media organizations—but it is a start.

Understandably, Planned Parenthood has used their considerable resources to try to get these videos quashed. They complain that the videos taken by pro-life activists are selectively edited. They argue that their primary concern is the poor who could never afford anything other than the health care they provide. Their highly paid lobbyists—and well-placed campaign donations—have, until recently, been quite successful in keeping their abortion practices largely hidden from public view. Now it turns out that the federal judge who has ordered certain undercover videos to be temporarily suppressed was not only appointed by President Obama, but has raised huge money for the Obama administration.

Will pro-lifers receive equal protection under the First Amendment with respect to their speech? For decades, activists who spoke out against Planned Parenthood’s practices were disbelieved or ignored. Like animal activists, they have been dismissed as irrational extremists for decades. But in the last few weeks we have now been confronted with direct video evidence which has been uniquely persuasive in vindicating their longstanding cries for justice.