Will 'Prolife' Organizations Make Abortion Illegal?

Abortionists 50 years ago said that they wanted abortion "legal, safe, and rare" and only "wanted" children to be born. They wanted women to be able to take away the lives of their children without consequence and the process of killing children "safe" for women. Supposedly making abortion death facilities legal would raise the conditions under which children were killed, even though the same people then fought against any regulations, and abortion facilities have never conformed to the same medical standards required of legitimate medical clinics. Abortionists who called themselves "prochoice" also didn't like women doing abortions at home, which is ironic since now most abortions are done by women at home with pharmaceuticals that put the pregnant mother into preterm labor to painfully bleed out her child.

Fifty years later, I have been surprised to find many 'prolife leaders' now want exactly what abortionists said they wanted fifty years ago. They use arguments like, "we don't want the mother to be prosecuted (for knowingly breaking the law to kill her child)", which means they don't want it illegal for a mother to kill her child, another way of saying they want abortion "legal". They don't like that every woman who has an abortion is harmed, implying they want abortion "safe" for women when they kill their children. And they don't like that there are so many abortions, meaning that they prefer that abortion is "rare". Different terms, same concepts. Now they don't like that women are being coerced to have abortions, meaning they only want abortions that are "wanted". In Colorado, some leading prolife groups even openly try to find "common ground" with abortionists. Common ground?

Leaders themselves say their politics are "downstream from public opinion". They are following public opinion, rather than leading it. It appears in the process they are being swept away by the current of the culture that naturally goes away from what is moral and right. And they are trying to manipulate the vote based on what others already believe rather than influence what others believe. These organizations pride themselves in being "secular" which means there is no solid foundation for what they do.

If 'prolife' advocates don't protect children who move away from abortion instruments by seven weeks or are delivered by a mother put into preterm labor by pharmaceuticals created to kill children, who else will? Not everyone who calls themself 'prolife' wants to make abortion illegal. We do. And we're doing something about it. We are praying, educating, and mobilizing God's people to protect these children and their mothers.

Law affects how we think. Prior to Roe, abortion was unthinkable for the vast majority of Americans. Law is a tool to prevent women from destroying their lives and the lives of their children. The only way to make abortion rare or "unthinkable" is to make it illegal. Coercion will continue as long as abortion is legal. Making abortion illegal protects children and pregnant mothers, too.

If we believe that these preborn children are as valuable and deserving of protection as they will be following birth - as biologists and theologians agree that children prior to birth are the same living human beings - it should follow that we would put forward efforts and laws consistent with our words. Prolife advocates would be the natural proponents for not just protecting women, but children, too. We've noticed it takes the same effort and resources to put forward a mediocre law that will need to be repealed later as it takes to put forward a really great law. We want to put forward a really great law.

Here are some talking points (you may find facts on our website to back them):  

1. The preborn infant is not a blob of tissue.

2. Abortion is not healthcare.

3. Abortion harms women.

4. Abortion kills children.

5. Abortion is not necessary.

6. Abortion needs to be illegal.

If these preborn children are as human and alive as you and I are, should we not act like it? The same Constitution that protects your and my right to live protects theirs. If the Constitution doesn’t protect the lives of innocent children, it doesn’t protect ours, either.

Let's take the burden off women, put layers of protections back in place of men, family, church, and law. If we want abortion unthinkable again, we must make abortion illegal again. 

Let's hold women to the same moral standard as men. Let's expect parents to protect their children prior to birth as much as following birth.

Let's stand on the rock of obedience to Biblical truth so people can find it, letting the Bible inform politics, rather than the other way around.

Let's lead public opinion to change, rather than following it. 

Let's be committed not to compromise with evil, not to compromise with child sacrifice for temporal political gain.

And to those who keep quoting Scripture out of context that we should be like snakes, we are not asked to act like the devil, rather to be wise to recognize him.

Only the body of Christ has been promised to overcome the gates of hell. The prolife movement is not equipped to lead the charge, but the body of Christ is. There is little distance between 'prochoice' and 'prolife' pursuing the "mushy middle", but there is much distance between good and evil. It matters if someone is listening to the whole counsel of God or depending on their own intellect to be more clever than the devil.

We cannot compromise with evil. We cannot be about limiting or regulating how and when and who and under what circumstances we may kill children.

We are thankful for the many prolife groups that really are prolife and partner with us to let their volunteers know about these important efforts to end abortion in our state. These organizations are coming alongside their local congregations standing in obedience to the written word of God to do what the prolife movement cannot do without Biblical principle.

I'd like to challenge the political leaders and groups that follow public opinion to consider leading it for life and in support of prolife measures that will make abusing, mutilating, and killing children illegal. I'd like to ask all prolife leaders to stop repeating abortionists' messaging for them (like laws against the act of murdering children are against women). Rather, let's speak the truth that laws protecting children also protect women. Let's speak life, not death. Let's talk more about protecting children, and less about aborting them. And please join us in repenting for allowing any child to be sacrificed on our watch.

As the prolife movement wanted fifty years ago, we want to make abortion illegal again. This is not an evolutionary process, but an act of repentance and obedience. The process itself can be a holy one of telling the truth, gently correcting those around us, loving our neighbor, sharing the gospel, and giving all glory to God for the victory. We want abortion clinics closed and doctors to save lives rather than intentionally take lives. We want mothers to love and protect their children prior to birth as well as after. And we are inviting prolife groups who want to make abortion illegal to join the efforts.

Because every child is worth saving,

Faye

Isaiah 5:20-23

"Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight. ... who acquit the guilty for a bribe and deprive the innocent of justice."

Psalm 94

"Can wicked rulers be allied with you, those who frame injustice by statute? They band together against the life of the righteous and condemn the innocent to death."

James 4:14-17

"You do not even know what will happen tomorrow! ... As it is, you boast in your proud intentions. All such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do, yet fails to do it, is guilty of sin."

Matthew 3:8

"Produce fruit, then, in keeping with repentance." 

Faye Barnhart is a Life Affirming Specialist and Co-Proponent of the Colorado Life Initiative. She was a women’s advocate for 19 years, served four pregnancy care centers in two states, served on a federal think tank on the co-occurrence of adult and child violence, walked alongside hundreds of women including those victimized by partner violence, sexual assault, and sex trafficking, and grew the largest pregnancy care center in the United States geographically. A prelaw student who interned at the state Capitol and in media, she graduated with honors and pursued master's work in Organizational Leadership and a career in Communications for international ministries. She began in the prolife cause in the 1980’s, raised her children as a single parent, and is now married with an adopted special needs son and enjoys each of her grandchildren, including a grandbaby who needed life-saving surgery at birth. She accepted Christ as her personal Savior and Lord as a small child and seeks Him daily to end the abortion holocaust.