Exclusive: Louisiana's Abortion Bill - Interview From The Capitol

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What's up, everyone? This is Zach Conover, the Communications Director for End Abortion Now, coming to you with a very, very special broadcast.

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History, I believe, today has been made in terms of the pro -life movement and legislation that advocates for the rights of the pre -born.

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A very special broadcast here. I'm joined by the four men that serve to testify in support of HB 813 today in Louisiana in the

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Criminal Justice Committee. I'm joined by Pastor Brian Gunter, Bradley Pierce, Constitutional Attorney that we had on yesterday,

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Representative Danny McCormick, who proposed HB 813 and House Bill 344,

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Defy Roe, as well. Joined by Zach Lautenschlager, the Vice President of Action for Life.

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Gentlemen, where are you standing right now? We are standing in front of the

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Capitol and we are just so happy to have this victory today. I would just like to thank everybody and tell everybody in this audience how wonderful this team of men that you sent down here to support me was.

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This is just such a pleasure to serve with them. They're just a wealth of knowledge. We're so excited about this bill getting out of committee.

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So excited to all the Republican members of our committee voted for this bill. We feel strong support in Louisiana. For y 'all that may not know,

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Louisiana is by far a very pro -life state and we're just honored and blessed by God to get this out of committee and get this start.

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We're just sitting history there and it almost seems like it's not real, but we know it is.

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Well, correct me if I'm wrong, gentlemen, this is the first abolition bill ever to go to the floor of the state legislature.

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Is that correct? Not exactly, but it is the first bill to be passed by a committee that have been political maneuvers or parliamentary maneuvers to bring a bill out of committee to the floor for a vote.

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But this is the first time it's received a positive passing vote anywhere in anybody in American history.

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Praise God. Pastor Brian, maybe you could bring us into the scene this morning. Obviously, we spent time there last week having a rally to draw support of the legislation for you all there.

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It was a great turnout. I had a lot of people in attendance. Bring us into the scene today. And what happened?

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Were there people that showed up to testify in support? What was the scene like today when you arrived?

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When I showed up to the Capitol about 45 minutes before the committee hearing was supposed to begin,

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I got there and over 100 supporters were waiting. And when I came down the hallway to the committee room, literally people started cheering because we were about to have our bill heard.

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It was incredible. And so we got there. We had people fill out green cards in support of the bill.

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And when we went into that committee room, there were more people on our side than there were seats in the committee room.

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It was standing room only. And then some people had to stand out in the hallway. And then the chairman opened up a room next door, a second committee room as an overflow room so that all of our supporters had a place to sit down.

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It was incredible. I've never seen that kind of attendance at a hearing in a

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House committee. And I can just say to you, those 100 plus supporters of HB 813, look those legislators in the eye, as we told them that they need to establish equal justice for the unborn.

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And they passed HB 813 by a vote of seven to two. Praise God, we did it.

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Congratulations to everybody who showed up. We really appreciate everybody who drove. I know people came from quite a ways.

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Some of you did. And you really did make the difference. Having that many people turns heads. Those legislators were convinced, mostly by the numbers.

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And that's how it works. Thank you, guys. Yes, praise God, indeed. Now, as you guys were testifying and presenting the case for abolition, essentially, before the legislature,

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Bradley, what was the general feel in the room? Did you guys get a sense that they were overwhelmingly in support, that there was going to be any trepidation to, you know, positively favor this?

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What was kind of the atmosphere as you guys were testifying in favor? Well, really, I got to speak right after Pastor Brian.

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And after he finished preaching to the committee, really, it was just silent.

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I mean, everybody was just locked in just 100 % what he had just said. And he just preached the word of God to them.

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Proverbs chapter 24, verses 10 and after. And it was just a powerful moment.

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So I had to follow that. And we just talked about just how simple this is, really.

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This is just about, hey, what are the laws that protect you and me? All this bill does is say that those laws protect people before they're born.

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And really, the only question that we got from the committee was, you know, well, what about, you know, are we defying the

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Supreme Court? And we pointed out, well, first of all, it looks like the Supreme Court is actually in agreement with us.

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And then secondly, hey, where the Supreme Court is not in agreement with the Constitution, you know, we do need to follow the

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Constitution instead of the Court. We made that clear to the committee here. Excellent. So, okay.

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So you mentioned the importance, Pastor Brian, we were talking a little bit before the broadcast about the word of God and Scripture and actually bringing that to bear upon this issue.

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Can any one of you comment on the importance of where this movement is at right now?

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The movement for life, for the complete and immediate abolition of abortion, the fact that we actually have

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Christians showing up to legislative hearings, supporting bills that protect all human life at the state level, and actually showing up as Christians to do it, not showing up from a neutral perspective, not showing up from human rights argumentation.

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They are showing up in full force to preach the word of God and to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to bear upon this issue.

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How historic is that? In and of itself, you actually have Christians being consistent with their professed commitments and bringing

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Scripture to bear on this issue. How historic is this really? I mean, this seems like a return if you will, to how things ought to be, right?

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When Christians were Christians everywhere, not just Christians in private, not just behind the four walls of their home and the four walls of their churches, but now actually in the public square making noise and making an impact for the kingdom of God and for the sake of these children.

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What was that like to see today? I would just like to say that when

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Pastor Brian Gunner brought me this legislation and asked me to run it, I was encouraged because there's so many pastors that showed up today and supported him and his movement.

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This is about Christianity. This is what we believe as a nation. This is about the basic rights of the pre -born.

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We need the Christians to show up. We need the pulpits to be on fire. We need to be preaching this.

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We need to be honoring God's word, and that's what it's about. We may win the battle in this capital, but the fight is in the pulpit, in the churches, in the hearts and minds of Christian people.

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When they decide that they want abortion to end in Louisiana, it will end. Period. No other choice.

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I thank Brian Gunner for bringing this. I thank the other men here standing with me, Christian men that are willing to stand up in a subject that's not popular for men to stand up nowadays, and I'm proud and honored to be serving with them.

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Zach, if I could also speak to that. I want to say when I quoted Proverbs 24 verses 10 to 12, you could have literally heard a pin drop in that room.

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Hundreds of people, and those legislators realized. I said, one day soon you're going to stand before Jesus Christ and give an account of what you did to protect these children from being murdered, and the feeling in the room was incredible.

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I mean, you could just sense that they realized we truly are in a historic moment, and they were really put in a position where they had to do the right thing because ultimately, we're all going to answer to King Jesus for this, and the word of God is powerful.

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I want to say one other thing. You know, in a lot of states, we've had a hard time getting the standard pro -life movement behind what we're doing, but we have seen some pro -life organizations in the state of Louisiana come on board and actually support our bill.

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I'm thankful to Louisiana Family Forum that they decided to put on their website and publicly announce that they are for our bill.

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I'm very thankful to my friend, Dr. Will Hall. He is the director of the Office of Public Policy for the

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Louisiana Baptist Convention, and he came and testified in committee today that the 1 ,600 churches of the

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Louisiana Baptist Convention, those are Southern Baptist Convention churches in the state of Louisiana, we are for abolition, and we want to see it ended.

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I know that in the Southern Baptist Convention, there is a downgrade nationwide. I know we have concerns, but I'm here to tell you,

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Southern Baptist in Louisiana, we want abolition. We want it ended now. We're not compromising.

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We're going to get this passed into law. Indeed, brothers. Okay, so we know where we're at right now.

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It's out of committee. It's been approved to leave committee, and now where do we stand as to what's next for this historic bill?

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Where are we headed next? What do people need to do in order to support this? Obviously, Christians need to be praying fervently to continue the move forward and ask that the would move upon the hearts of his people and upon the hearts of these legislators.

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But what's next? What's the future of the bill look like? Where are we going next? Next, it goes to the

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House floor. A committee vote is an approval that has to happen before the full chamber votes on it.

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So everybody on that committee will have to vote again if they're in the chamber. Hopefully, we'll have their votes and we have to work to get them.

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But the next step is to get it through the and then we do it all again in the Senate. It was the

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Senate committee, Senate floor. One of the biggest challenges is going to be meeting that higher count that we have to have on the

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House floor. There's a lot of hopeful counting that's going on to add up that 50 % that we have to have plus one vote.

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But it's going to be touch and go, I think. So especially if you're from Louisiana, you need to call your state representative.

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That's especially powerful for everyone else. Yes, call any state reps you want to express your support for House Bill 813.

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All right, you heard it right there. That's what you can do to support what's going on next. Once again, brothers and sisters, let me just tell you here personally,

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I can speak for end abortion now. Of course, we have Action for Life represented here in this effort.

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This is the farthest that we have ever been in this fight to abolish abortion, to completely end it.

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And by God's grace, we're going to do it with his word and by his gospel. Christians are on the ground fighting.

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Louisiana has a very, very unique opportunity in all of this. And they could serve as a beacon for the rest of the nation to follow suit by taking a stand for children and saying, we're not going to tolerate it anymore.

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We're not going to go along with whatever a federal court says. We're going to do the right thing by our people, by our citizens, by the children in our state, and actually protect them from being murdered.

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Because that is our obligation. That's our moral duty before God. He has given us the jurisdiction to protect our own citizens, and we had better start doing it.

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Or as Pastor Brian said, we are going to answer to Almighty God for the bloodshed that exists and is taking place every single day in our nation.

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But particularly, Pastor Brian mentioned this in his testimony. He said that 7 ,000 children were murdered brutally last year in Louisiana.

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Brothers and sisters, it has to stop. It has to stop. And praise God, he is raising up his church to do that now in our lifetime.

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He is doing it right now. Do we know what the future holds exactly? No. We know that God does, and we can see his work.

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We can see his hand of providence in this whole thing from beginning to end, and we can see what he's doing.

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So we implore you, get behind it, get supportive, show up, raise your voice, speak the truth, strike a blow for freedom, and let's protect these children for the kingdom of God and the glory of God.

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Is there anything that you want to add in addition to that, brothers? Any additional comments you want to make? We're going to have the entire

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House of Representatives vote soon. We hope the vote will be next week, and we're going to need

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Christians and abolitionists to show up and put in a four note where it'll go to the 105 representatives who are voting.

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We need at least 53 of them to vote yes for this to pass the House. And so stay tuned, because very soon, we're going to put out word what time on what day, hopefully next week, but we're going to put out what time on what day the

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Louisiana House of Representatives is going to have a vote, yes or no, to pass

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HB 813 in the House. Praise God, and yes, stay tuned, brothers and sisters.

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We'll be announcing what's next, updates on the bill, what you can do to jump in, get your hands dirty, support and protect children in your state.

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Pastor Brian Gunter, Bradley Pierce, Danny McCormick, Zach Lautenschlager, gentlemen, thank you so much for your work, for your service, for your sacrifice.

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We love you very much, and we're looking forward to seeing how the Lord continues to move in this. Praise God.

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Thank you, gentlemen. All right, guys, thank you for tuning in for this very special broadcast.

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Continue to pray for all that the Lord is doing in Louisiana with HB 813. Get involved and stay tuned for more updates.