By Dr. Thurman R. Hayes Jr.

Sometimes something happens in our culture that is so unspeakable that it demands we speak about it.

Such is the case with the decision of the highest French court to ban a video, which shows happy Down Syndrome people, giving and receiving love.

The video is called “Dear Future Mom,” and it is designed for women who have learned that they are pregnant with a Down Syndrome child. In the video, Down Syndrome children from around the world are seen smiling, laughing and sharing love with their moms.

So why was it banned from French TV? Because, in the words of the court, it could “likely to disturb the conscience of women who had made different personal life choices.”

Let’s be clear about what that “different personal life choice” is: the decision to end the life of their Down Syndrome baby by getting an abortion. In other words, the court banned the video, because it shows the humanity of Down Syndrome people, and that might cause pangs of conscience to women who aborted their Down Syndrome children.

As the Wall Street Journal put it, “File this under the illiberalism of self-proclaimed liberals.”

As a pastor, I have ministered to women who have aborted their children, women who now feel profound grief for doing so. Such women should feel our compassion, not our condemnation.

Christ died for all sins, including abortion. When we trust Him as our Savior, Romans 8:1 assures us that “There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

But we must call abortion what it is, the killing of a baby. As David says to God in Psalm 139:13, “You knitted me together in my mother’s womb.” As God says to Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you” (Jer. 1:5).

Deep down, we know that an unborn baby is still a baby. How incredible that we live in a culture where people put pictures of unborn children on their refrigerators, yet pass laws which allow us to legally kill such children!

Washington Post columnist George Will, who has written so lovingly about his Down Syndrome son, said this about the video: “This is why the video is so subversive among those who say aborting a baby is of no more moral significance than removing a tumor from a stomach. Pictures persuade. Today’s prenatal sonograms make graphic the fact that moving fingers and beating heart are not mere ‘fetal material.’ They are a baby.”

This is why the pro-life movement is winning the battle for hearts and minds. Deep down, we all know that unborn baby is a life. People have always known it, the Scriptures plainly teach it, and now modern technology has made it inescapable.

A baby is a precious thing, whether he or she is perfectly healthy or has a disability.

It is instructive to remember that when the Nazis began their system of murder, they did not begin with Jewish people, but with special needs people, like those with Down Syndrome. The Nazis had a special term for such persons: “Life unworthy of life.” How utterly chilling.

The Bible says that every human being is created in the image of God, and therefore is precious. May God help us to see life the way He sees life.

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