Foundation to Abolish Abortion Presents Equal Protection to Pregnancy Help Leaders
There are hundreds of pregnancy centers across the country engaged in the critical work of helping mothers choose life and saving preborn babies from abortion. But as the movement toward abolishing abortion rapidly grows, many of these organizations have important questions regarding equal protection legislation and how such efforts intersect with their work.
That is why the Foundation to Abolish Abortion had a booth last week at the Heartbeat International conference in Cincinnati, Ohio, presenting us with the opportunity to reach hundreds of pregnancy help leaders and provide a defense for equal protection.
Pro-Life establishment groups often claim that equal protection bills are lacking in mercy and grace since they criminalize abortion for everyone involved, including women who willfully murder their preborn babies. Some pregnancy help organizations have been confused by this opposition, and in some cases have even opposed equal protection bills in their states.
Bradley Pierce, the president of the Foundation to Abolish Abortion, and Ben Zeisloft, the communications director for the Foundation to Abolish Abortion, discussed these matters with attendees of the conference, emphasizing that biblical mercy and biblical justice are by no means mutually exclusive. While pregnancy help organizations are engaged in works of mercy, there is no reason for them to oppose civil authorities fulfilling their duty to establish justice by abolishing abortion.
Heartbeat International conference attendees who stopped by the booth for the Foundation to Abolish Abortion were able to receive a postcard and a comprehensive frequently asked questions document discussing these matters, as well as other resources. These materials will be further refined in the coming weeks and will be used in future engagement with pregnancy help organizations.
Among many other important themes, the resources make clear that God commands believers to reach others with the gospel and care for those who are suffering, but also commands the civil government to wield the sword against evildoers.
If civil authorities pass equal protection legislation to criminalize abortion as murder, most women will be deterred from seriously considering abortion. Because most women never even visit a pregnancy center before having an abortion, the laws will reach them in a way that pregnancy centers cannot, saving countless thousands of preborn babies in the process.
Under equal protection legislation, the number of women seeking out the help of pregnancy centers will increase, because legal abortion will be removed as a permissible option for women to pursue. As a result, pregnancy help organizations can devote much more of their time toward assisting pregnant mothers and reaching them with the gospel, because the laws will have largely completed the difficult and harrowing work of convincing them not to have abortions.
The reception toward this message among Heartbeat International conference attendees was encouragingly positive. The majority of attendees who approached the Foundation to Abolish Abortion booth concurred with the overall approach, even if they had questions about the timing and enforcement of equal protection.
In the coming months, the Foundation to Abolish Abortion expects to continue engaging with pregnancy help organizations. The conversations and networking at the Heartbeat International conference provided an excellent starting point for these efforts.