When Harriet Beecher Stowe met Abraham Lincoln in the White House on Nov. 12, 1862, he is supposed to have greeted her with the approximate statement that she was “the little woman who began the big war.” She was. Ten years earlier, she had published Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which quickly became a sensation. The goal of the book, according to Wikipedia, was “to educate northerners on the realistic horrors of the things that were happening.” It did. The key word of these is “realistic.” People avoid pain, and contrive to side-step ugly things that are not directly in front of them, as we do every day with many atrocities, as we did with slavery until 1865, and with segregation for one hundred years after.

In each case it was the “realistic presentation of horrors” that made the big difference, whether Mrs. Stowe’s book, the church bombing in Birmingham or the numerous cases of televised violence. In the taped expose of Planned Parenthood’s methods, the pro-life movement has uncovered its Uncle Tom’s Cabin. It won’t start a war, but it will start a battle. And this may be one it can win.