By Dr. Thurman Hayes Jr.

A few weeks ago, I noticed something about “Planned Parenthood” and “selling body parts” coming across the screen. It was a video in which Planned Parenthood’s senior director of medical services, Deborah Nucatola, sat at a table, casually eating a salad and discussing the body parts of aborted babies, which are for sale.

Planned Parenthood immediately responded by protesting that the video was heavily edited. Here’s the problem with that: The unedited video, which is also now online, is even worse.

On the video, Nucatola says things like, “We’ve been very good at getting heart, lung, liver … so I’m not gonna crush that part. I’m gonna basically crush below, I’m gonna crush above, and I’m gonna see if I can get it all intact.”

Another line, straight from her mouth: “A lot of people want intact hearts these days.”

Talk about intact hearts. Something is obviously not intact within the heart of a culture that applauds the likes of Planned Parenthood. They cynically speak of their dedication to “women’s health,” but Planned Parenthood’s main business is abortion. And these videos let the whole world in on the dirty secret of what abortion is all about.

In contrast to the “crushing” of babies and the selling of their body parts, the Bible says that every human life is precious to God. Psalm 139 says, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:13-14).

Because every human being is created in God’s image, every life is meaningful to God, and should be to us. Furthermore, ultrasound technology has made clear what all of us know deep down: What is growing inside the womb is a baby. A helpless baby.

The mark of a culture’s character is seen in how it treats the most vulnerable and defenseless of its citizens. The Bible is clear from beginning to end that God has a heart for the weak, the outcast and the poor.

By stark contrast, Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, was a racist who was committed to eugenics, a Nazi-like philosophy that seeks to weed out “undesirables.”

In Sanger’s twisted mind, “Planned Parenthood” especially meant planning for fewer black people and others she deemed undesirable, like those born with birth defects.

To this day, a disproportionate percentage of abortions in our country are performed on those who are black and poor. Furthermore, a disproportionate percentage of babies who are thought to have Down syndrome or other “imperfections” are targeted for abortion.

This is the grisly legacy of Margaret Sanger and the reality of the abortion industry in America.

Ironically, at about the same time the news about Planned Parenthood was breaking, the Special Olympics were being nationally televised. I was thrilled to see precious people who are less than “perfect” being celebrated and treated with dignity.

Thank God He treats imperfect people like all of us with dignity and love, not as parts to be aborted and sold. Instead of crushing us, Jesus was crushed for us. “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities…and with his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).

Dr. Thurman R. Hayes is senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Suffolk. Follow him on Twitter at @ThurmanHayesJr.