Equal Protection for Preborn Babies Sees Record Progress in 2025 Legislative Sessions

AUSTIN, TX — As many state legislative sessions draw to a close in the first half of 2025, the Foundation to Abolish Abortion is rejoicing over record progress for equal protection of the laws for preborn babies.

Across the country, the Foundation to Abolish Abortion has assisted lawmakers and grassroots advocates with drafting 16 equal protection bills across 14 states, with more on the way.

There were at least 122 state lawmakers this year who sponsored or co-sponsored equal protection bills that would recognize preborn babies as image-bearers of God and apply existing state homicide laws that already protect born people to protect preborn people as well.

Several states witnessed record levels of support for equal protection among lawmakers:

• House Bill 441 in Georgia, the first equal protection bill ever introduced in that state, had 21 co-sponsors, which is nearly one-quarter of the entire Georgia House Republican Caucus.

• Senate Bill 1059 in Idaho had a record 17 co-sponsors.

• House Bill 2197 in Texas had 21 co-sponsors, and when a leading Pro-Life group pressured them to stop sponsoring the bill, the vast majority chose to remain as co-sponsors.

“This is more bills filed in more states than we have ever seen in a single legislative season,” noted Bradley Pierce, President of the Foundation to Abolish Abortion. “Not only have more states filed abolition bills this year, but more state lawmakers are supporting those bills.”

Many equal protection bills have also advanced further in the legislative processes than ever:

• House Bill 1373 in North Dakota received a floor vote, with 16 lawmakers voting in favor. 

• House Bill 1072 in Missouri was heard in committee and received the first committee vote for an equal protection bill in that state after five years of proposing such bills.

There have been four committee hearings so far this year for equal protection bills—in North Dakota, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Georgia—setting another record for a single legislative season.

All of these legislative efforts have forced the Pro-Life establishment, both at the state and national level, to defend their laws that keep abortion explicitly legal for women or that regulate abortion rather than completely outlawing prenatal homicide. Christians and anti-abortion conservatives are more and more seeing that equal protection is the way forward for abolishing abortion.

“It is clear that equal protection and abolitionist ideas are driving the national conversation on abortion,” continued Pierce. “Both the pro-abortion activists and the Pro-Life establishment are being forced to recognize that the abolitionist position is rapidly gaining ground.”