THE WESTERN JOURNAL

When the Southern Baptists assemble in the coming days in Dallas, they will once more consider how they can oppose the murder of preborn babies in our nation. But in order to most effectively accomplish that task, they may have to disband the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, their own public policy arm, which has shockingly subverted efforts to end abortion.

Southern Baptists want to end abortion across the country. They correctly view preborn babies as image-bearers of God who should be protected by the same laws that protect born people. They have made this stance clear, and yet the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, the institution Southern Baptists trust to wield their considerable influence in the public square, has not only been derelict in advancing that stance, but has consciously subverted that stance.

THE SENTINEL

South Carolina Republican State Representative Rob Harris requested a hearing on the South Carolina Prenatal Equal Protection Act once state lawmakers return to Columbia next year.

One analysis from the Foundation to Abolish Abortion warned that over 15,000 abortions were conducted by South Carolina residents in 2023: more than 4,800 babies were murdered in the state, another 1,500 were murdered with abortion pills, and 8,700 were murdered out of state.

GIVE ME LIBERTY PODCAST with RYAN HELFENBEIN

Standing for Freedom Center Executive Director Ryan Helfenbein and Bradley Pierce discuss the need to establish equal protection for preborn babies and abolish abortion across America.

THE WESTERN JOURNAL

These lawmakers and lobbyists should have learned that their political four-dimensional chess is already a proven failure, as shown by the passage of Amendment 3 in their deep-red state.

“While many of these Republican lawmakers and pro-life lobbyists may think they are employing prudential strategy in crafting a ballot measure they believe will pass, in the hope of mitigating the evil of Amendment 3, they are violating commands from God to exercise judgment without partiality,” the Foundation to Abolish Abortion added. “They are practicing another kind of child sacrifice by withholding legal protection from some children in the hopes of saving others.”

THE WESTERN JOURNAL

Oklahoma is ostensibly one of the most conservative states in the union, yet over the past several years, Republican lawmakers in the state have failed to truly end abortion.

But when four elected Republicans in the Oklahoma Senate voted against equal protection of the laws for preborn babies earlier this year, they were censured by the Oklahoma Republican Party, signaling that the conservative grassroots have finally had enough of their failure.

TEXAS SCORECARD

House Bill 2197 by State Rep. Brent Money (R–Greenville) was filed to amend Texas’ penal code to treat all abortion-related deaths as homicide. It was originally scheduled for a hearing on Tuesday, April 22, in the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee.

Shortly before the scheduled hearing, Chairman John Smithee (R–Amarillo) removed it from the hearing agenda. Planned Parenthood praised this move.

CENTER FOR BAPTIST LEADERSHIP

Some messengers may enter the Annual Meeting in Dallas this year sincerely believing that abortion is a settled issue. Many will come from conservative states that claim to have fully banned abortion after the Supreme Court moved to overturn Roe v. Wade three years ago.

But even though certain states have closed their surgical abortion facilities, there is no state in which abortion has been truly banned. As shown by a report last year from the Foundation to Abolish Abortion, baby murder endures in conservative states, especially because of loopholes that allow women to self-induce their abortions with methods such as mail-order abortion pills.

THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Planned Parenthood took in nearly $800 million in taxpayer funding as the number of abortions increased and the number of patients remained flat, according to the organization’s annual report released Monday.

Bradley Pierce, president of the Foundation to Abolish Abortion, connected the increase in abortions to the growing popularity of the abortion pill, which now accounts for about two-thirds of U.S. elective pregnancy terminations. “This aligns with a broader increase in abortions across the United States over the past few years, which appears to be driven by abortion pills and other self-induced abortion methods,” he said.

THE ELIJAH HAAHR SHOW

Former Missouri House Speaker Elijah Haahr and Bradley Pierce discuss several Republicans voting present on HB 1072 and HB 1417, which would have abolished abortion in Missouri.

While some anti-abortion groups were celebratory, others hinted that the closure was at best a symbolic victory. Bradley Pierce, president of the Foundation to Abolish Abortion, told Blaze News, “Whether or not they are forced to close by the laws in any particular state, we can expect more surgical abortion facilities to shut their doors in the coming years. That is largely because of the increasing popularity of abortion pills and other methods of self-induced abortion.”

While the number of such facilities is dwindling, Pierce noted that since Roe v. Wade was overturned, abortions have gone up “generally due to the increasing popularity of abortion pills, which have become the primary method of abortion in the United States. Even in conservative states where clinics have closed, women are still ordering and taking abortion pills.”

NPR

Because they believe laws that protect abortion access to be morally illegitimate, activists are even working in states where they have extremely low chances of success. In Missouri, for example, legislators have introduced an abolitionist bill, though a majority of voters enshrined a right to abortion in the constitution. Bradley Pierce, president of a Texas-based nonprofit called the Foundation to Abolish Abortion (FAA), called the Missouri amendment “null and void.”

“We are relying on the principle of higher law in the state of Missouri,” Pierce wrote in an email. “State and local officials,” he wrote, “have the duty to obey the higher law of God.”

THE DAILY CONTROVERSY with CHRIS REID

Chris Reid and Bradley Pierce discuss HB 518, the Alabama Prenatal Equal Protection Act, as well as the broader need to abolish abortion in Alabama.

1819 NEWS

The bill in question, House Bill 518 (HB518), also known as the Prenatal Equal Protection Act, is aimed at providing “equal protection” under the law for unborn children who are killed by abortion. HB518 would permit criminal prosecution for abortions in the state with several exceptions. Under the bill, prosecutions where the victim is an unborn child “must be treated the same as if the unborn child were born alive.”

The Foundation to Abolish Abortion (FAA) has been active this and previous years, advocating for similar equal protection bills in state legislatures nationwide, including Alabama.

MUSKOGEE POLITICO

Oklahoma Republican Party activists gathered this past weekend to elect new leadership and advance new party business at the biennial state convention. Among the items passed by convention delegates was a censure of four Republican state senators for voting in the Senate judiciary committee to against a bill to end abortion in Oklahoma.

Yes, after decades of pro-life pledges and bills, it’s Republicans (allegedly “conservative” and “100% pro-life,” to boot) that are standing in the way of abolishing abortion in our state and ending the continued post-Dobbs slaughter of preborn human beings. You can read a little more background information in this article from the Foundation to Abolish Abortion.

THE TEXAN

From August 2022 — the month Texas’ abortion restrictions trigger law went into effect — to December 2024, no elective abortions have been performed, according to Induced Termination of Pregnancy (ITOP) data released monthly by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHS). 

Bradley Pierce, President of Abolish Abortion Texas, told The Texan he believes the Texas HHS data indicating zero elective abortions is missing important context because it “does not account for the more than 25,000 abortions still happening on Texas soil every single year by means of abortion pills from telehealth visits and protected by shield laws.”

ALABAMA UNFILTERED RADIO

Bradley Pierce discusses Alabama HB 518, which would have established equal protection of the laws for preborn babies in Alabama, with the hosts of Alabama Unfiltered Radio.

CLEAR TRUTH MEDIA

Anyone who has been involved in the battle against abortion will recognize a handful of tired pro-abortion talking points. The abortion activist insists that a baby is a mere clump of cells, that abortion is somehow healthcare, or that the state should not be involved in health decisions.

These assertions fall apart under even the slightest scrutiny. That is when the sabotage starts. Christians opposing abortion have likely heard that they are apologists for rape or incest, that they have hypocritically failed to adopt enough babies, that they overlook acts of purported systemic racism, or that they are violating the rights of others. None of these claims are true, but pursuit of truth is not the point. The point is to emotionally manipulate Christians into silence.

THE SENTINEL

Missouri Republican State Representative Justin Sparks and Missouri Republican State Representative Burt Whaley submitted the Missouri Prenatal Equal Protection Act. The proposal would establish equal protection of the laws for preborn children in Missouri, thereby applying the homicide and assault laws that already protect born people to also protect preborn people, according to a release from the Foundation to Abolish Abortion.

But members of the Missouri House Children and Families Committee, the majority of whom are Republicans, failed to provide a “do pass” vote for the Missouri Prenatal Equal Protection Act. While three members voted in favor, seven voted against the measure and five voted “present.”

THE WESTERN JOURNAL

Texas Alliance for Life announced that they opposed House Bill 2197 because the measure would “criminalize abortion for women.” That is because House Bill 2197 would close loopholes in Texas law granting mothers blanket immunity for willfully murdering their preborn children.

An analysis from the Foundation to Abolish Abortion conservatively estimated that there are 60,000 abortions each year committed by Texans, including more than 25,000 on Texas soil.

TEXAS PUBLIC RADIO

Rep. Brent Money, a Greenville Republican, is the bill's sponsor. On Tuesday, his office told The Texas Newsroom he was surprised by the move and believed the measure, House Bill 2197, was a top priority for Republicans.

But HB 2197 saw recent pushback from even the state’s strongest supporters of abortion restrictions. Texas Alliance for Life — which describes itself as a “pro-life organization whose goals are to protect innocent human life from conception through natural death” — is one of them.