I traveled 700 miles to give sixty seconds of testimony to a Missouri Senate committee that scheduled just six minutes to hear our bill, SB 356, the Abolition of Abortion in Missouri Act.
At the Senate hearing, two Pro-Life groups went on the record AGAINST equal protection of the laws for Missouri babies.😲
Yes, that’s right, PRO-LIFE groups were yet again the primary OPPOSITION to equal protection for babies in Missouri, as they have been elsewhere.
Let me explain ...
In order to understand what these Pro-Life leaders said, you need to know a few things.
First, many people think that the fight is already won in Missouri because they had a “trigger” abortion ban that went into effect after Roe was overturned. But it’s not true. Abortion is still legal in Missouri and the battle is far from over.
Although medical professionals in Missouri are now heavily restricted from killing preborn babies, Missouri law actually protects a woman’s “right” to knowingly and willingly kill her own baby through all nine months of pregnancy right up to the moment of birth.
Wait, what? 🤔
How is that possible?
This confuses many people, and rightly so. It makes no sense at all that the act of murdering children would be criminalized for some people but not for others.
But that is exactly what the last 50 years of Pro-Life laws have done, and not just in Missouri…
God Hates Partiality in Judgment
Nearly every Pro-Life law across the country contains the same MASSIVE exception that gives mothers complete legal immunity for any part they willingly play in aborting their own children.
When the law favors one group of people over another, the Bible calls that partiality in judgment and God says that He hates it. Not only that but He calls using unequal weights and measures an abomination. Such strong language should get our attention.
In 2023, it is still legal for women to get abortions in Missouri as long as they do it themselves. And every day more women are doing it. A study from the Journal of American Medical Association estimates that over 1300 women a year are ordering pills from just one overseas abortion pill provider to be delivered into the state of Missouri for do-it-yourself, self-managed abortions.[1] Here in Texas, an estimated over 19,000 women will do the same thing this year in spite of a supposed “near total abortion ban” in Texas.
Since preborn babies are denied the equal protection of homicide laws in all 50 states, this is a problem across the country. But it is especially noticeable in Pro-Life states that have banned in-clinic abortions yet are simultaneously protecting a woman’s “right” to commit her own abortion.
Banning clinics has not eliminated abortion, but it has increased the demand for DIY abortion. In fact, just one of the organizations that provides abortion pills to women in all 50 states reports that as of August 2022 requests for pills in the U.S. had nearly tripled from what they were before the Dobbs decision was leaked.[1] And more women are learning about this method of self-managed abortion every day.
Equal Protection is Simple but Not Easy
This isn’t complicated.
Supporting equal protection is simply following God’s command to reject partiality in judgment and to love our preborn neighbors as we love ourselves.
Preborn babies deserve the same legal protections for their lives that we have for ours. God commands it and the U.S. Constitution requires it.
Providing equal protection is simply practicing the Golden Rule toward preborn babies.
LIke I said in my testimony before the Senate committee: “I'm an abolitionist, which means that I hold the supposedly extreme position that murdering anyone should be illegal for everyone, because everyone is created in the image of God.”
But that isn’t what MANY Pro-Life leaders and organizations believe.
They don’t believe that it should be illegal for women to knowingly and willingly murder their own babies.
This is only clearer now that Roe v. Wade was overturned and Pro-Life politicians and lobbyists can’t hide behind the Supreme Court as the reason they refuse to abolish abortion.
We saw it last year after the Dobbs decision was leaked.
In 2022, for the first time ever, a righteous bill to abolish abortion in Louisiana (HB 813), passed through committee and moved to the House floor for a vote. 👏👏👏
It wasn’t Planned Parenthood lobbyists or Democrat politicians that thwarted the passage of HB 813 in Louisiana, it was Pro-Life organizations and politicians that killed the bill.
National Right to Life (NRTL) along with 70+ other Pro-Life organizations, wrote An Open Letter to State Lawmakers from America’s Leading Pro-Life Organizations urging them to NEVER support legislation that would allow women to be subject to the law just like everyone else. They said it isn’t Pro-Life.[2] They delivered this letter to Louisiana legislators on the morning HB 813 was scheduled to be heard on the House floor. Republican legislators in Louisiana followed the advice of these Pro-Life groups and killed HB 813.
And the damage didn’t stop there…
Pro-Life groups across the country are pointing to the NRTL letter to represent their position in opposition to equal protection bills.
We saw it again at the Senate hearing in Missouri last week. You can watch all the testimony here, it’s only six minutes long.👇
Two Pro-Life groups, Campaign Life Missouri and Missouri Right to Life (an affiliate of NRTL) testified in OPPOSITION to our bill of equal protection for babies. And they both cited the NRTL letter to represent their position that “any measure seeking to criminalize or punish women is not pro-life and we stand firmly opposed to such efforts.”
The position of the 70+ Pro-Life organizations that signed this letter is that the lives of babies should NEVER be protected with the same laws that protect their own lives.
It’s not even one of their goals for the future. In fact, they have proven that they will actively oppose legislation that practices the Golden Rule toward preborn babies.
Susan Klein was a signatory of the NRTL letter as the Director of Missouri Right to Life (an affiliate of NRTL). In Missouri, Klein testified to the Senate committee that she was, “going on record in opposition to the prosecution of women.”
And even Pro-Life organizations that didn’t sign the NRTL letter often nod their heads in agreement. Samuel Lee, the Director of Campaign Life Missouri, wasn’t a signatory but he did submit the NRTL letter to the Missouri Senate committee along with his testimony AGAINST equal protection for babies in Missouri.
Written testimony submitted to the Missouri Senate, Health and Welfare Committee, by Samuel Lee, Director of Campaign Life Missouri
Though Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion groups were present at the hearing, none of them testified. They didn’t need to. Campaign Life Missouri and Missouri Right to Life did the job for them.😡
Babies will never be equally protected as long as it remains LEGAL for some people to murder them.
Friends, if mothers are not subject to criminal prosecution for murdering their babies by abortion that means they're allowed to commit abortions as long as they do it themselves.
Campaign Life Missouri and Missouri Right to Life, along with NRTL and over 70 other national and state Pro-Life organizations, are advocating that abortion be and remain legal for women who do it themselves.
And as you can see above, women are self-managing their abortions in all 50 states.
Why am I not discouraged?
I am not discouraged because there is no time like the present to reject compromised, Pro-Life strategies that defy God’s commands. There is no day like today to repent of following worldly-wisdom and commit to doing God’s will God’s way and put our faith in Him for the results.
And more and more Christians are seeing and understanding this every day.
The ranks of abolitionists who are committed to following God, and God alone, in this fight are multiplying faster than most people realize.
While I grieve to see Pro-Life advocates actively OPPOSING equal protection for precious preborn children, there are encouraging signs on the horizon.
Through our work with the Foundation to Abolish Abortion (FAA), I get a unique, frontline view of the abolition movement across the country. We have the privilege of assisting more states every year with drafting their equal protection legislation. We get to work alongside abolitionists in these states to support this righteous legislation by testifying, speaking at rallies, educating and encouraging church leaders, and so much more.
It may be disheartening to see opposition coming from those who should be standing with us, but…
Take heart friends!
The God we serve has the power to turn this battle in a moment. He has done it many times before. He did it at the Red Sea. He did it at Jericho. He did it at the cross. And He can still do it today.
There is no better strategy than obedience to Him in ALL things.
He often delights in demonstrating His glory and power precisely at the moment when we follow Him in faith even though our earthly eyes cannot see the victory.
I am not discouraged because I know the God we serve and that He is able.
I hope you are with me in this fight.
For life, for justice, and for the glory of God,
Bradley Pierce
President
Abolish Abortion Texas
Foundation to Abolish Abortion
- -
1. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2797883
2. https://nrlc.org/uploads/communications/051222coalitionlettertostates.pdf