The Problem with the Pro-Life Movement (Abortion blog part 2)

This is the 2^nd blog in a series covering the topic of abortion. If you have not done so, please go back to the previous blog titled, “The Biblical Case Against Abortion.”  We address abortion for what it truly is, murder. Love tells the truth, even when it’s hard (Ephesians 4:15). To call abortion anything less than murder is to lie and allow sin to continue. We also recognize that forgiveness for murder can, has, and will be found in Jesus Christ. We then laid out the Biblical groundwork that should help us make conclusions on the topic. While this post in particular will be drastically different, as always, be prepared to read through these blogs with an open Bible!

Doubtless, the title of this blog might be surprising to some, and the contents within this blog even more so. What I want to make clear when addressing the topic of abortion is, I am not concerned with certain political ideologies or strategies. I am concerned with what the Word of God says, and how it tells us we should address the issue of abortion and fighting for justice, as every Christian should be. This may be a tough read for some but please take the time to read and study this topic. Along with this blog post another shall come alongside it bringing the receipts of the topics I’m addressing here in this blog and give other resources and information.

I’ll begin with a story. In the year 2022, in the state of Louisiana, HB813 was “The Abolition of Abortion in Louisiana Act” brought forth by State Representative Danny McCormick. It was a bill that gave pre-born children in the state of Louisiana equal protection under the law. Effectively it defines how the state would interpret “person” and gives the rights of born people to unborn people from the moment of fertilization. They have an equal right to life as a born person does. To be clear, this would mean that anyone who participates in a murder of an unborn child following the passing of this act would be subject to the state’s due process for the act of murder. This bill communicated and sought to establish that life begins at conception, and it should be protected under the law.

While this isn’t the first equal protection bill to be shut down, this is one of the monumental moments where the masks came off and we saw clearly where allegiances and hearts were. HB813 along with many other equal protection bills have been shut down continuously, not by the pro-choice lobby, but time and time again by the pro-life industry. While reasoning and information on this will be discussed below. In the situation with HB813, it was specifically Mike Johnson, who is now the current U.S. speaker of the House, who is largely responsible for that bill being shut down. Now it was not him alone, representative Alan Seabaugh on 05/04/22 voiced his approval of HB813 to move it forward to be voted on and then a week later when its being discussed, he leads the charge in shutting down the bill. Louisiana pastor Brian Gunter worked with representative Alan Seabaugh to bring this bill forward and when Pastor Brian inquired why Representative Alan changed his position, he stated, “Mike Johnson called and told him to shut it down.” Alan is only one of many others who received a message from Mike Johnson, all of them being urged to shut down HB813.

There is much more to that story and there are many other stories like it. The resources and the links to showcase this will be attached to the other post alongside this one.

What we want to identify is why are professing pro-life politicians and religious leaders shutting down bills of Equal protection. In the instance above Mike Johnson holds much of the blame, but by no means is he alone. National Right to Life, Students for Life, March for Life Action, Southern Baptist Convention, and many others publicly oppose any bill that would actually accomplish the ending of abortion. Why!?

Along with many other links and sources on the accompanying post will be a link to “An Open Letter to State Lawmakers from America’s Leading Pro-Life Organizations.” On May 12^th, 2022 (You’ll notice this letter takes place in between the hearings of HB813 above where suddenly many pro-life representatives changed their stance on HB813), this letter was signed and endorsed by 72 Pro-Life organizations.

It’s within this letter that the reasoning is given. If there is one link I want everyone to look at it’s this one. It is a 7-page document. The first 3 pages state their reasoning to oppose bills of equal protection, and the final 4 pages are the signatures of 72 Pro-Life organizations putting their stamp of approval on it. Within these 72 would be organizations such as; National Right to Life, Ohio Right to Life, Louisiana Right to Life, Susan B. Anthony List, and many more.

It’s within this letter that the reasoning is revealed, that the ‘why’ is told. “As national and state pro-life organizations, representing tens of millions of pro-life men, women, and children across the country, let us be clear: We state unequivocally that we do not support any measure seeking to criminalize or punish women and we stand firmly opposed to include such penalties in legislation.” (Page 2)

They will refuse to support any legislation that would seek to criminalize women. Now, don’t get fooled by their language. To say that advocates of the abolition of abortion are for criminalizing women is a sensationalist tactic to make them look mean or evil. I could rephrase the statement above another way: “We state unequivocally that we do not support any measure that would establish any sort of penalty for women who murder their children, and we stand firmly opposed to include such penalties in legislation.” If 70+ of the leading pro-life organizations nationally have co-signed the letter above and stand with it (and they do), how in the world will they ever accomplish putting an end to abortion? If there are no penalties to be enforced, then that gives women immunity and impunity to murder their children.

When it comes to those who wish to, as the letter put it, “Criminalize women”, what would be more accurate to say, is that we wish to criminalize murder. We wish to criminalize sanctioned murder, and if the leading pro-life organizations in the world state that they unequivocally will not seek to bring about any penalties for women who abort their children, then what you have is sanctioned murder. “Equal protection means equal treatment under the law. If a preborn child is a human being, then the intentional killing of that child fits the legal definition of homicide. Under the law, no one should be given automatic immunity for homicide, not even a mother.” (End Abortion Ohio)

               This brings us to a crucial point. Do we really believe the baby in the womb is a human deserving of protection? (Psalm 139) If so, the laws protecting you and me, should also be in place to protect them. The law is a deterrent from evil. We have speed limits, because if we didn’t people would go 60+ mph down every road, and there would be a lot more death. We have laws against murdering others, because if someone desires to do so, the penalties for such an act would be enough to deter someone from committing that act in most cases. We must have laws protecting the unborn human, because if someone wants to murder them, the law would deter them from such a thing in most cases. I’m going to trust we as Christians agree, or that my last article on this subject was enough to convince you.

Is abortion still happening?

Yes! Many pro-life organizations and leaders continue to pedal the lie that there are abortion free states, and that “we” are winning. This does not line up with reality. While 13 states do have a total ban (Only for the abortionist and not the mother), abortion pills are being distributed and sent across state lines at an all-time high! States continue to sign ‘shield laws’ which allow doctors to prescribe and mail these pills without consequence.  

Why are Pro-life Republicans doing this?

The easy answer is money. The pro-life industry generates over a billion dollars a year. If the fight for abortion continues, then the money continues to pour in. If they brought an end to abortion, then they would be out of a job! Right alongside this is power. Well-meaning pro-life men and women get into politics with the desire to end abortion, but upon getting an opportunity to sign a bill, end up folding under pressure from the higher ups to reject such bills or else their position would be in jeopardy. It becomes a question of optics and maintaining one’s position of power rather than fighting for what’s right. Claiming abortion is ending rallies support for the republican party and deceptively motivates their base to continue to vote for them. Any small incremental bill that’s passed is celebrated as a moral victory when the reality is, we’ve been at these small incremental steps for 50+ years, and nothing has changed.

With Roe v. Wade gone, why hasn’t Ohio, which is a Republican super majority, holding 65 out of 99 seats in the House, 23 out of 33 seats in the senate, 6 out of 7 in its supreme court, a Republican governor, attorney general, treasurer, and more, not move to end abortion? Right now, abortion is legal for up to 22 weeks. The Republican party has not moved to end it because they don’t really want to. With a majority like Ohio has, it’s no longer a question about optics, they would be able to easily accomplish it, but they don’t want to! ($$$)

What has been the biggest issue leading up to this?

I believe the biggest issue has been that the Church has been outsourcing its responsibility to a political party. I’m not saying Christians shouldn’t be involved in politics. You can’t avoid that if you believe 1 Timothy 2:1-7. For if a king becomes a Christian should he stop being a king of the nation? No, but he should become a faithful king unto the true king in Jesus. What I am saying is the church has sat by apathetically giving money and resources to political groups that fundamentally believe something different. Jesus says in Matthew 12:30, “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.” Jesus puts it very clearly, you are either with him, or you’re against him. There is no middle ground! When it comes to secular pro-life organizations and movements, there are professing Christians within these organizations but the doctrine of these organizations is fundamentally different from Scripture! We as the Church, as Pastors, as Christians have been giving our job and responsibility of neighbor-love to other entities! (Mark 12:31)

If Equal Protection is achieved, what about cases where women are coerced?

This is a very important question that addresses a large chunk of abortions today. The most liberal surveys would say about 60-70%, but these surveys use the word pressured along with coerced so you will have a discrepancy between true coercion and just familial pressure. Other more conservative surveys would give a number between 2-20%. Near 10-20% is likely a safe guess. This happens as fathers who are not responsible, pressure the mom, both mentally and physically to abort their child. There is also another kind of case which would be smaller but nevertheless extremely tragic and that is the case of women being trafficked and forced to abort. In other cases it could be parents or other close familial relatives and friends but I would like to point out, that there is absolutely no way to prosecute and charge any of these people who are responsible for coercion if Equal protection isn’t established in the first place!

If the murder of the unborn isn’t criminalized, then these people can continue their evil and coercion, getting away scot-free. It’s only if equal protection is passed that the courts can do their due process and dissect the situation. Women under true coercion can have severely lessened consequences and in our judicial system, someone who coerces another to murder is treated as the mastermind of the crime and will face the full penalty.

               I know there are many more factors and questions to be addressed and I hope to address many of them in the following blog. I also hope that we will seriously consider what’s been said and start to investigate the resources and links provided in the accompanying blog post. Maybe they will answer your questions before I have a chance to.

Once again, I must reiterate a few things that I have mentioned throughout the last 2 blog posts. Abortion is Murder. Forgiveness for murder has, can, and will be found in Jesus Christ. Love tells the truth, even when it’s hard (Ephesians 4:15). To call abortion anything less than murder is to lie and allow sin to continue and deprive the mom who has had an abortion of the chance to repent and be forgiven in Christ!

“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace” – Ephesians 1:7

               In the following post, I will be speaking on a few topics. Faithfulness > Pragmatism. What should the Church be doing now. Then provide responses to more questions that I think are important to address. I hope this article was informative and that we will look into it further and have a renewed heart and passion for justice for the unborn! James 1:27 says, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” Orphan in the Old Testament is usually translated as fatherless. In that time to be fatherless meant you would lack in provision, protection, and status. Israel, and now the Church are called to care and protect these children who can’t defend or provide for themselves! We must be doers who act and not hearers of the word alone.

               Glory and honor be to Christ alone, and we pray that He would bring about an end to this evil in our country and the world, and this starts with us Lord! Change our hearts and minds, have them break as they should! Convict us Lord to repent of our apathy and lead us to good works that you have prepared beforehand that we should walk in! It’s in Jesus name we pray! Amen

By: Pastor Michael Matejka