At what point does a life become worthy of protection? This is the question behind the pro-life movement. We believe human life deserves protection from the moment of conception.
Since Roe v. Wade, states have decided when this protection begins in various ways. Some states allow a woman to recover civil damages if someone kills her baby in the womb no matter the stage of the pregnancy, recognizing the humanity of the preborn life inside her. Some states heighten punishment for a person convicted of killing a pregnant woman, which recognizes that two lives were taken.
States have also regulated when abortions can occur. Some states are passing “Heartbeat” bills. The laws ban abortions after a doctor detects a heartbeat, recognizing the scientific fact that a heartbeat is a sign of life. Typically, a heartbeat can be detected around the sixth week of a pregnancy.
Though these laws are typically immediately struck down by federal and state judges because of the so-called “right to abortion” in Roe v. Wade precedent, they do serve the important purpose of reminding everyone what we all know: There is a baby worthy of protection in the womb. There are other important legal and strategic implications of these bills, but no one can deny that there is a separate beating heart inside the woman.
Other laws protect babies from certain forms of abortion, such as dismemberment laws, which ban an abortionist from tearing a baby apart limb-by-limb in the womb while the child is still alive. Courts have struck down these laws, even judges we’d consider “conservative judges,” because it is the most commonly used abortion procedure after 15 weeks into the pregnancy. Courts say that this violates the “woman’s right to choose to have an abortion” up until the baby is viable outside the womb, at around 24 weeks.
Even as we are seeing progress in the court of public opinion and as legislators in many states are beginning to recognize this as an issue they can no longer ignore, Planned Parenthood and their pro-abortion followers recognize the progress we are making and are fighting back. I’m sure you wept with us as New York passed a law allowing a preborn child to be killed even up until the moment before birth—and stripping any requirement that an infant who survives a botched abortion receive proper medical care. But New York isn’t alone. At least four other states – Vermont, Virginia, Rhode Island, and New Mexico –are considering bills similar to New York’s.
Even more shocking—some state lawmakers want to permit abortion procedures to occur without a doctor’s oversight. They also want to require doctors to perform abortions—regardless of their professional judgment or religious beliefs. Clearly, the pro-abortion movement will stop at nothing.
As John 1:5 says, “A light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it.” We know the truth – the baby in the womb is a life worthy protecting. In fact, the Bible tells us that it was a preborn baby who first rejoiced at the coming of Jesus! (John 1:41) Today’s Christ-followers are called to shine a light in the darkness of our culture of death.
Along with our state allies, we are engaged in the fight for every child in state capitols across the country. Will you make sure you are ready to fight against the pro-abortion bills coming in your state—as well as the good prolife bills that need your support?
Please check our ACTION CENTER to see if there are any bills in your state or in D.C. that need your voice?
Please also make sure that you are signed up with our state ally in your state—CHECK HERE to find your ally!
For Life,
Brittany Jones, Esq.
Policy Manager
P.S. Do you not have an allied state family policy group in your state? Email info@FamilyPolicyAlliance.com if you’re interested in helping get one started!
by Ashley Shaw
If your child attends a Christian school, he or she is likely to be taught by teachers who cherish the Christian values so important to your own family. Your child’s teacher may even have signed a faith-based code of conduct to help preserve the school’s commitment to biblical morality.
But what if your child’s teacher chose to abandon those values and became pregnant out of wedlock or even decided to have an abortion? Your school may face the hard choice to take disciplinary action against the teacher for not reflecting the code of conduct she voluntarily signed.
Should a Christian school have the freedom to make that choice?
If the legislatures in California and New York have their way, the answer is “No.” Both bodies are considering bills that would take away the freedom of religious employers to require their employees to abide by codes of conduct based on biblical values.
The bills ban an employer from “tak(ing) any adverse employment action” against an employee based on his or her “reproductive health care decisions, including the use of any drug, device or medical service.” The bills also prevent employers from requiring employees “to sign a code of conduct or similar document that purports to deny any employee the right to make his or her own reproductive health care decisions.”
These provisions essentially mean that an employee who, for example, has premarital sex or has an abortion in violation of their employer’s guiding biblical values would be free to do so without penalty. In fact, while many Christian schools often require their students to abide by a moral code of conduct, those schools would be unable to require the same standard of their teachers, if these bills pass.
Proponents of the bills, like NARAL, argue that firing or disciplining an employee for violating a code of conduct is discriminatory. But federal law and the Supreme Court have long allowed religious employers the freedom to hire and fire based on the tenets of their faith.
The California bill, AB 569, purports to align with federal law by providing an “exception” for religious organizations if the employee in question is the “functional equivalent of minister,” but that exception is intentionally drawn too narrow to adequately protect most religious employers.
The real aim of such bills is to chip away at the established freedom of religious employers to establish a moral standard on issues such as abortion or sex outside of marriage. But religious organizations must be allowed the freedom to have employees who will abide by the tenets of faith that are so integral to their organization’s purpose.
If you live in California, now is the time to reach out to the members of the Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee to ask them to vote NO on AB 569 to protect the religious freedom of employers. You can do quickly and easily that through our Family Policy Alliance Action Center.
Even in left-leaning New York, many people hold pro-family and pro-life values.
Our Stuart Shepard helped out at a large event in Albany this week that was organized by our allies at New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms and New Yorker’s Family Research Foundation.
Stuart asked President Jason McGuire and keynote speakers David and Jason Benham how to effectively motivate Christian conservatives to influence legislation at state capitols.
Learn more about New Yorker’s Family Research Foundation.
About a thousand evangelical leaders met with presidential hopeful Donald Trump, today in New York.
Paul Weber, Family Policy Alliance President and CEO, was in that meeting. He described it as the beginning of a longer conversation.
Stuart Shepard spoke with him immediately afterward via webcam.
Hearings are under way in the case of a California law that forces pro-life pregnancy centers to promote abortion. AB 775 requires licensed medical centers offering services to pregnant women to post a disclosure that California offers free or low-cost abortion and contraception services. It also forces non-medical centers to add large disclosures to all advertisements, even if they don’t provide medical services.
Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys are in court defending the rights of pro-life centers. Matt Bowman asked a district judge to stop the law while the lawsuit proceeds. The judge refused to do so.
“It’s bad enough if the government engages in censorship and tells you what you can’t say,” he said, “but a law that tells you what you must say – under threat of severe punishment – is even more unjust and dangerous.”
Similar laws have been struck down in Texas, Maryland and New York. Bowman hopes that will ultimately be the case in California as well.
“In this case, political allies of the abortion industry are seeking to punish pro-life pregnancy centers, which offer real help and hope to women,” he said. Forcing them to promote abortion and recite the government’s messages is a clear violation of their constitutionally protected First Amendment freedoms.”