It’s easy to go back and forth about the morality of Planned Parenthood. They are huge. They provide many services. Some controversial, most not.

Like any large entity, people who dislike it can point out the bad; and people who like it will point out the good. One could do the same for, say, the Catholic church. Detractors can point out the scandals. Supporters can point out all the “St.” hospitals and colleges. Judging these organizations is not so much about balancing the facts as it is about the predetermined perspective from which one views the entity.

Flipping the coin, supporters of Planned Parenthood will accuse the detractors of not just attacking women’s rights and services for the needy, but claim that that is the detractor’s main function. And detractors will then accuse supporters of Planned Parenthood that their main goal is murder.

Making/reading these arguments is spinning wheels. If progress is the goal, it’s disheartening to see Planned Parenthood making statements about these recent undercover videos being done by groups whose sole purpose is to attack women. Why can’t Planned Parenthood accept that maybe people are attacking Planned Parenthood because they don’t like to end human life?

And why can’t detractors accept that supporters of Planned Parenthood aren’t fans of abortion? They are supporters of the multitude of services the organization provides.

Sides are created and lines are drawn and positions are held because Planned Parenthood is not just an institution. It’s a symbol, an icon–making it both something more and also something more focused than what it really is. To supporters, it stands for women’s rights and services for the poor. To detractors, it is America’s leading provider of abortions and a symbol of moral decay.

Progress here will require us to view Planned Parenthood holistically and be more honest about where the supporters/detractors are coming from.

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While I’m an optimist and see a bright future for humankind, I do empathize with the idea that overall American morality has become twisted over this issue.

You can see this in light of these latest undercover videos–not just in the footage itself, but the reaction. The people behind the videos have been labeled as “anti-abortion extremists” by angered politicians, the media, and Planned Parenthood.

How confused are we about right and wrong when being against abortion is seen as a negative?

And if being “anti-abortion” is so bad, then is the correct position to be “pro-abortion?” Perhaps it is, as we have have the National Abortion Federation, and I see bumper stickers on cars like this one in Minneapolis:

It’s one thing to support the legal choice of abortion. It’s another to advocate abortion. I believe in ending the War on Drugs, but I’m not about to say I’m “pro-heroin.”

This brings us to another twist: When black market heroin or elephant tusks are confiscated by law enforcement, the protocol is to destroy the product. Search images online of literally tons of elephant tusks going up in smoke. They do this in East Africa, because they don’t want to encourage the market.

Even though there is all this ivory, which is a fantastic medium for finite sculpting; and all this heroin, which would have supplied weeks of great high time for users across the region, governments destroy this wealth because they don’t want to encourage illicit opium farming or elephant hunting.

So what are we doing using aborted fetal tissue for research?

Never mind that the mother doesn’t get paid for the abortion or that Planned Parenthood says they don’t make a profit. When we rely on abortions for anything, we’re encouraging the practice.

While this offends me, I understand it doesn’t offend many others. To some, abortion just isn’t that big of a deal. Part of the reason for this, I think, is simply a lack of visibility and empathy.

It’s easy to ignore the results of abortion. The procedure and its providers function behind closed doors. And who can empathize with its victims? Fetuses haven’t yet had a name or a personality or friends or a job. Literally everyone can feel okay about abortion, because no one had to endure it.

Meanwhile, victims of ALS are obviously seen and rightfully loved, and so this well-meaning writer extols the benefits of fetal tissue for the potential sake of people like his late best friend who succumbed to ALS. But then minus any consideration for the life sacrificed, the writer calls abortion “an act of altruism.”

For this reason alone, I think these undercover videos are good. Information is power. Police footage is showing the public law enforcement abuses, which will hopefully reduce these incidences. Footage of talk of killing and dismembering unborn lives shows the cold-hearted nature that resides within the abortion community, and the publicity of this controversy puts in peoples’ minds the details of the gruesome procedure.

But while I believe that life begins at conception, I also believe in maintaining the rights of the woman to choose whether to keep that life, and that sometimes an abortion is necessary under certain conditions. My optimism offers the solution that abortions will become less necessary with medical advancements, fewer unexpected pregnancies, and most of all, a heightened understanding and morality about what abortion truly does.