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1819 NEWS

The conversation, entitled “All Human Life Is Valuable,” will feature attorney Bradley Pierce, the president of the Foundation to Abolish Abortion, and Jeff Durbin, the president of End Abortion Now and pastor at Apologia Church in Mesa, Ariz. It will be held on October 7.

“The light of Jesus Christ dispels the works of darkness, including the child sacrifice which remains legal in all fifty states,” said Pierce in the announcement.

POST AND COURIER

Many backers invoked Scripture. One proponent, pastor and Springfield mayoral candidate Trent Still, suggested “sinful empathy or ungodly and misguided sympathy towards women” led American society to be too lenient toward abortion.

Representatives with groups like the Texas-based Foundation to Abolish Abortion and Equal Protection South Carolina insinuated lawmakers might not get into heaven for voting against the bill or, at the very least, lose their seats for failing to support it.

ABORTION EVERY DAY

Matt Brock, executive director of Equal Protection South Carolina, said “a lot of people here today tell you that this bill goes too far, I’m here to tell you according to the word of God, S.323 doesn’t go far enough.” John Rice-Cameron from the Foundation to Abolish Abortion was also there: this is the organization that drafts and lobbies for “equal protection” legislation.

What happens next is unclear. It’s fair to assume the criminalization piece will get cut: no amount of fire-and-brimstone bullshit from “abolitionists” changes how wildly unpopular it is to throw women in jail. Beyond that, I just don’t know.

JEZEBEL

Terrifyingly, many who spoke at the hearing also testified that they believed SB 323 still wasn’t strict enough. John Rice-Cameron, a known anti-abortion activist, said that while the “bill would be the strongest anti abortion law in America if passed,” he still believes there are two amendments to be added.

One, he says, is that the bill should legally classify abortion as murder and provide equal protection to fetuses: the ultimate goal of the fetal personhood movement. The other, to redefine how the state talks about IVF because, as he says, “the current language leaves children conceived in IVF unprotected.”

THE TEXAN

Bradley Pierce, President of Abolish Abortion Texas and the Foundation to Abolish Abortion, told The Texan in an interview, “The current laws of Texas deny equal protection to preborn children. While they ban abortion for third-party abortion providers, they also grant immunity for all women who willfully choose to murder their preborn babies, a massive loophole that the major Pro-Life groups in Texas actively defend.”

He referenced legislation that was filed to do so in both the regular and special sessions by state Rep. Brent Money, noting that it was opposed by other pro-life groups in the Capitol who instead supported HB 7. He described it as “a shocking betrayal of Christians and conservatives in Texas who want to see abortion abolished.”

REWIRE NEWS GROUP

Additional efforts to criminalize abortion funds’ work in the state are on the horizon. The South Carolina legislation that would ban abortion completely—“The Unborn Child Protection Act”—would also make it a crime to assist pregnant people in traveling for abortion care. Those found guilty would face up to 30 years in prison.

Another Republican bill, the “Prenatal Equal Protection Act,” proposes to classify getting an abortion as homicide—a crime that is punishable with the death penalty in South Carolina—and helping someone obtain an abortion as a felony.

KATIE COURIC MEDIA

Still, for the most extreme anti-abortion groups, HB 7 doesn’t go far enough. As the Houston Chronicle notes, Abolish Abortion Texas says it falls short because it protects pregnant women from litigation, “thereby denying equal protection of the laws.”

 “Our laws should deter everyone in Texas from murdering preborn children, whether they are third-party abolitionists, the fathers of the children, or the mothers of the children,” JR Haas, the group’s vice president, said in a statement.

HOUSTON CHRONICLE

State Rep. David Lowe, a Republican from North Texas who was wearing a big “ABORTION IS MURDER” pin on his lapel, made a speech before the vote explaining that he was abstaining from the vote because he doesn't think HB 7 goes far enough. Exempting women from liability means it denies “equal protection” to all fetuses. Lowe instead supports a bill that would equate abortion to murder and open up women to life imprisonment or the death penalty.

“Bills like this do everything but abolish abortion,” Lowe said. “They provide a way to say we’re winning on the issue while preventing it from being solved.”

THE TEXAN

Among the key aspects of HB 7’s committee substitute, laid out by Leach on Thursday night, was the alteration to the award of damages, so that if related to the affected preborn child, whether the woman or her family, an individual may collect the full $100,000 in such a lawsuit. If unrelated, the individual may be rewarded $10,000 in damages, while the remaining $90,000 would be donated to a charity.

Amid the Democratic speeches against the legislation was state Rep. David Lowe (R-North Richland Hills), who spoke neutral on HB 7. He was joined at the front mic by state Rep. Brent Money (R-Greenville) as he stated that he could not support bill because “HB 2197, the bill that would completely abolish abortion and provide for the equal protection of the unborn, was killed in a committee during the regular session by many of the same pro-life groups and individuals that are now backing this bill… They’re not fighting for equal protection. They’d rather let children continue to die than be considered too extreme.”

HOUSTON CHRONICLE

Not all anti-abortion groups are on board with the bill. The most far-right group, Abolish Abortion Texas, says it doesn’t go far enough because it protects pregnant women from litigation, “thereby denying equal protection of the laws.” Texas’ abortion bans also protect the pregnant woman from liability.

“While there are some women who are coerced into abortion, the vast majority of women who obtain abortions are willfully choosing to murder their preborn children,” JR Haas, vice president of the group, said in a statement. “Our laws should deter everyone in Texas from murdering preborn children, whether they are third-party abolitionists, the fathers of the children, or the mothers of the children.”

THE CHARITON BEACON

Missouri’s abortion debate has entered a dangerous new chapter. With Amendment 3 looming on the November ballot, the legislature had an opportunity this year to secure equal protection for unborn children once and for all. Instead, they chose political compromise, and in doing so, abandoned both their moral duty before God and the very principles they claim to defend.

The Foundation to Abolish Abortion exists for one simple, unwavering purpose: to see abortion abolished in every state, with no exceptions and no delays. Their mission is rooted in the conviction that God commands civil authorities to uphold justice without partiality, not to regulate the killing of the innocent, but to end it completely.

WWNR RADIO

The Ohio Prenatal Equal Protection Act, if passed, would assign personhood at conception, giving fertilized eggs the same civil and criminal protections as “born” people, therefore making abortion homicide, as well as targeting certain forms of contraception and IVF.

Issue 1 gave Ohio citizens the right to make reproductive decisions, including abortion, which would make HB 370 unconstitutional, Firsich said. However, anti-abortion groups, such as the Foundation to Abolish Abortion, said Issue 1 should be treated as “null and void” as it contradicts the U.S. Constitution.

THE FEDERALIST

In May 2022, Louisiana Southern Baptist Pastor Brian Gunter successfully recruited state representatives to sponsor the Abolition of Abortion in Louisiana Act. The bill passed committee 7-2 along party lines and was scheduled for a floor hearing, the first abortion abolition legislation anywhere in the country to make it that far. Sadly, Gunter was about to face opposition from his own denomination’s leadership.

Following the publication of the letter, Republicans helped defeat the bill. Self-managed abortion remains legal in Louisiana today, partly due to Leatherwood’s treachery. As I stood among those abolitionists, the betrayal hit like a gut punch: Our own denomination’s leaders sided against life and the SBC’s 2021 Resolution on Abolishing Abortion.

THE HILL

On July 9, Texas Governor Greg Abbott added “Protect Unborn Children” to an expansive special session call sheet, allowing new anti-abortion legislation to be taken up in the 30-day special session.

As of Monday, eight anti-abortion bills had been filed in the Texas House: House Bill 163 by State Rep. Brent Money, R-Canton, would treat unborn children as full citizens for certain felony offenses.

KETK

HB 163 outlines aspects of abortion, including how far along the pregnancy is, the circumstances that would call for an abortion and how unborn children will be viewed under this bill. The bill states that a fetus is seen as a child from the moment of fertilization through birth and after birth. The intentional death of an unborn child caused by either the mother or a doctor will be viewed as against the law.

“We need our laws to reflect what I think that most Texans already believe, which is that abortion is murder and we shouldn’t have abortion,” Money said. “This is the only way that we can truly address the problem in a direct way.”