LIVING GROUNDED

Writer and activist Ben Zeisloft discusses the abolitionist view of abortion. This episode is purposed to stretch us, challenge us, and force us to examine what faithfulness looks like in a complex culture.

ABORTION EVERY DAY

Republicans around the country haven’t wasted any time introducing and advancing anti-abortion legislation.

We’ve already told you about the mess in South Carolina: from “equal protection” legislation to a bill seeking to criminalize lending someone money for an abortion. But that shamelessness isn’t limited to one state.

SOUTH CAROLINA DAILY GAZETTE

A second bill taken up by the panel would do the opposite. It would intentionally punish women for having an abortion by extending all legal protections to the womb from fertilization. Abortion would be legally on par with murder. Its sponsor, Rep. Rob Harris of Spartanburg County, said he wants to end abortions by erasing women’s “complete immunity” from prosecution.

Harris’ bill, titled “Prenatal Equal Protection,” is not expected to get any traction. Other than Harris, the subcommittee heard from two speakers on his bill, one for and one against, before adjourning without a vote.

POST AND COURIER

Without taking a vote, lawmakers in a House Judiciary subcommittee voted to adjourn debate Jan. 14 on a bill backed by Spartanburg Republican Rob Harris that if passed would classify abortion as murder without any exceptions for rape and incest.

But even in its limited numbers, the so-called “abortion abolition” groups have grown more aggressive. In a press conference ahead of the start of session earlier this week, figures like Mark Corral, who leads anti-abortion group Equal Protection SC, and U.S. Senate candidate Mark Lynch criticized long-standing anti-abortion organizations who pushed the six-week ban.

MUSKOGEE POLITICO

Oklahoma State Representative Gabe Woolley filed the Abolition of Abortion in Oklahoma Act this week to completely abolish abortion in the state.

The legislation would establish equal protection of the laws for preborn babies, ensuring that the same criminal and civil laws protecting born persons also protect preborn persons.

LIFENEWS

South Carolina Republican lawmakers have introduced legislation that would provide equal protection to unborn children by applying the state’s homicide laws to abortion from the moment of conception, effectively banning abortions and treating it as murder.

The Prenatal Equal Protection Act, filed in the House of Representatives, would extend existing homicide and wrongful death statutes to cover the killing of an unborn child at any stage of development, imposing criminal penalties on all involved parties, including the pregnant woman.

SPECTRUM NEWS

At the South Carolina State House just hours before the start of the 2026 legislative session, State Rep. Rob Harris, R-Spartanburg, and State Sen. Lee Bright, R-Spartanburg, spoke about abortion legislation they each plan to sponsor.

The new legislation aims to go a step further than the current “Fetal Heartbeat” law, which prohibits abortions after a heartbeat in the fetus is detected, which happens at around six-weeks.

YAHOO NEWS

South Carolina Senator Lee Bright and State Representative Rob Harris are filing legislation that would make abortion illegal in South Carolina.

The South Carolina Prenatal Equal Protection Act would charge all parties involved in an abortion, including the pregnant mother and doctor, with murder.

WYFF

Tuesday morning started with press conferences from some groups, including the family caucus and anti-abortion activists promoting House Bill 3537 that extends life protections to the moment of conception.

“Clearly, life begins at conception, and should be protected from that point on. In 2023, the legislature and governor revised the heartbeat law, which simply regulates abortion and makes it legal to kill certain pre-born persons. Incredibly, in one section of that bill, it asserts that life is at conception, but in another section, it writes into law where, when, and how someone may legally murder a baby,” said Rep. Rob Harris, R-Spartanburg.

FOX CAROLINA

A pair of South Carolina lawmakers say they’re working to further outlaw abortion in the state. State Sen. Lee Bright and state Rep. Bob Harris held a press conference Tuesday, the first day the South Carolina General Assembly reconvenes in Columbia.

Rep. Rob Harris, R-Spartanburg, said the measure reflects his belief that life begins at conception. “Clearly life begins at conception and should be protected from that point on,” Harris said. “In 2023, the legislature and governor raised the heartbeat law, which simply regulates abortion.”

THE STATE

South Carolina Senator Lee Bright and State Representative Rob Harris are filing legislation that would make abortion illegal in South Carolina.

The South Carolina Prenatal Equal Protection Act would charge all parties involved in an abortion, including the pregnant mother and doctor, with murder.

FOX NEWS

The Prenatal Equal Protection Act, introduced in the South Carolina House of Representatives, would be the strongest anti-abortion law in state history if enacted. The legislation has been scheduled for a hearing in the South Carolina House Constitutional Laws Subcommittee on Wednesday.

“These children deserve equal protection. I will be filing a bill of equal protection today. I know we’ve got hearts and minds to change,” Bright said Tuesday at a press conference at the South Carolina State House.

KFF HEALTH NEWS

Until recently, the idea of charging women who obtain abortions with a crime was considered “politically toxic,” said Steven Greene, a political science professor at North Carolina State University.

Yet at least 15 states introduced “abortion as homicide” bills during 2024-2025 legislative sessions, many of which included the death penalty as a potential sentence, according to Dana Sussman, senior vice president of Pregnancy Justice, an organization that tracks the criminalization of pregnancy outcomes.

ABC COLUMBIA

State lawmakers plan to introduce new legislation on abortion this session. State Senator Lee Bright and State Representative Rob Harris will make the announcement tomorrow, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026.

According to current state law, abortion is banned after six weeks of pregnancy. Senator Bright says in spite of the ban more than six thousand abortions are performed in the state each year.

THE BLAZE

Kentucky’s leading pro-life advocacy organization, Kentucky Right to Life, has long supported laws that shield women from criminal liability for abortion. In practice, this ensures that abortion remains legal for women, even if clinics are closed.

Addia Wuchner, Kentucky Right to Life’s executive director, opposed an abolition bill in 2023 on the grounds that it might expose mothers to criminal charges. She took the same position last year, arguing that women are victims of coercion by the abortion industry.

THE FROGCAST

It was an honor to have Bradley Pierce on the show. Bradley is the co-founder of Heritage Defense, one of the board members at the Foundation to Abolish Abortion, and a prominent Christian attorney.

PREGNANCY HELP NEWS

Pierce said that unborn babies should receive the same protection that any other human being receives under the law. 

“We need equal protection of the laws for preborn babies, meaning that the same homicide laws protecting the lives of born people are extended to protect preborn people as well,” he said. “Without this standard, preborn image-bearers of God will remain unprotected, even in the most conservative states in our country.”

THE DAILY WIRE

At the state level, some Republican lawmakers from Georgia to North Dakota to Missouri introduced “equal protection” bills in 2025 that would criminalize abortion not only for the abortionist, but anyone involved in the abortion, including the mother. They believe that these kinds of bills would be more effective at eliminating abortion and provide equal protection to unborn babies. 

“Many red states with so-called abortion bans are seeing higher abortion levels because their bans are no bans at all,” Bradley Pierce, a constitutional lawyer and president of the Foundation to Abolish Abortion, told The Daily Wire.

THE BLAZE

Some pro-life organizations are self-admittedly non-sectarian, seeking to build coalitions of anti-abortion people who may be Christians, other religious conservatives, agnostics and atheists, or feminists.

But even the pro-life groups that are convictionally Christian, or led by convictional Christians, often functionally set aside the Christian worldview.

THE BLAZE

When brick-and-mortar abortion facilities shut their doors in conservative states that passed new abortion regulations, the abortion landscape quickly adapted to the shifting legal environment. More men and women who want to murder their preborn babies are turning to abortion pills and other methods of self-induced abortion.

While many conservative states passed new abortion regulations after Roe was overturned, those laws have massive loopholes that allow for abortion pills. They may ban third-party abortion providers from assisting women with abortions, but they explicitly protect the act of a woman having a self-induced abortion, ensuring that telehealth abortions enabled by shield laws continue with no reliable deterrents.