Important Announcement about Texas law HB948

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Hey guys, Jeff Durbin with an important update on what's going on in Texas right now with the legislation that has been submitted to criminalize abortion in the state of Texas.

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On January 11th, Representative Tony Tenderholt filed HB 948, the

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Abolition of Abortion in Texas Act. In May 2016, the Republican Party of Texas passed a legislative priority calling on the

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Texas Legislature to abolish abortion by enacting legislation to stop the murder of unborn children and to ignore and refuse to enforce any and all federal statutes, regulations, executive orders and court rulings which would deprive an unborn child of the right to life.

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The Abolition of Abortion in Texas Act answers that call by outlawing abortion in Texas.

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Current Texas law defines a person to include, quote, an unborn child at every stage of gestation from fertilization until birth, unquote.

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Texas Penal Code 1 .0726 and 38. However, in spite of that definition of personhood, unborn children have not been protected.

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Abortion continues because we have allowed the federal courts to overrule the Texas Declaration of Independence, the

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Texas Constitution, the U .S. Declaration of Independence and the U .S. Constitution, all of which stand for the fact that the duty of our government is to protect our

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God -given right to life. Representative Tenderholt commented on this bill, saying, Since my first day in office,

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I've stated life begins at conception. Facts and science are on my side.

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I've defended innocent life my entire career and I'm honored to continue that fight with the filing of HB 948.

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This is an important bill, a sort of landmark bill in the state of Texas. From a

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Christian perspective and just a purely factual perspective, human beings are human at the moment of conception.

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That is an irrefutable scientific fact and biblical fact. God knits us together in our mother's womb.

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And it is our position as Christians that we ought to protect human life from conception.

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What's taking place in Texas right now is pre -born children are actually identified as human beings from fertilization, but they're not protected in Texas right now.

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What HB 948 does is it actually provides some definitions.

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HB 948, a living human child from the moment of fertilization is entitled to the same rights, powers, and privileges as are secured or granted by the laws of this state to any other human child.

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So effectively what HB 948 does is it provides equal protection under the law, which is an important aspect of this entire fight, equal protection under the law.

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So it's an important bill, HB 948. Next, it says an act relating to prohibiting abortion and recognizing the rights, powers, and privileges of all unborn children at every stage of gestation from fertilization until birth.

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And this is what's important here, affecting criminal offenses and penalties. So it's really a specific bill, an important bill.

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And of course, we recognize that this is a consistent Christian kind of bill.

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It is just a consistent bill with the laws of the state of Texas, the laws of our own nation, and as Christians, it's important for us to actually support bills like this.

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One of the things that we've been saying a lot lately is that the pro -life movement over the last 40 years has been in many respects an abysmal failure in terms of how we actually approach the ending or the abolition of abortion in our nation.

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When we try to actually remove the moral component from this discussion, we remove the ability to actually have legislation that enforces the protection of pre -born children.

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HB 948 is a consistent bill. It's a consistent bill because it affords equal protection under the law, and it actually mandates that there are criminal offenses and penalties.

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And so think in terms of consistency here. If there is a mother who actually, with malice of forethought, ends the life of her five -year -old, we would call that, in any other context, murder.

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If there was a mother who hired somebody to kill their four -year -old child, their seven -year -old child, we would, of course, call that murder.

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People who are engaged in the act of ending the life of other human beings in an unjust manner are called murderers in any other context.

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And so ultimately, what HB 948 does in Texas is it provides the support for the civil magistrate to essentially provide justice for these pre -born children.

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And there's another interesting aspect to HB 948, something we talk about often, is that Roe v.

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Wade was actually built upon false premises, the idea that what's in the womb is potential human life.

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Now, we know, of course, as Christians that that is completely untrue. It's not potential human life. It is, of course, image of God.

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It is human life from conception. But we now know, of course, through biological science, it's an irrefutable fact that what's in the womb is not potential human life.

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It is, by very nature, human life. It has all the biological components of human life from the moment of conception.

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And we also know that what's important to consider here is that Roe v. Wade cannot ultimately make law that affects the law in Texas in the way that Roe v.

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Wade has. So consider for a moment that our constitutional documents actually do not give to the

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Supreme Court the legislative power to create law that says that mothers and fathers can kill their own children.

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And that is supposed to, in some way, affect the Texas law that protects them. And so what's important here is that the state of Texas has the right to protect pre -born children and not ultimately be affected by the decree of a court in 1973.

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And so what is added to this is any federal statute, regulation, executive order, or court decision which purports to supersede, stay, or overrule this act is in violation of the

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Texas Constitution and the Constitution of the United States of America and is therefore void.

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Very important language. The state of Texas and its political subdivisions and agents thereof may not enter an appearance special or otherwise in any federal suit challenging this act.

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Oftentimes people ask the question, what takes place when a state actually preserves justice and protects the life of the unborn in their state and they ultimately defy the decree from the

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Supreme Court? What would happen? People say, well, the higher courts would essentially attempt to strike it down. But what that ultimately does is it submits the state to the fiction that the

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Supreme Court could ultimately do what they effectively did. And so what this act does,

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Texas Bill HB 948, is it follows the letter of our law.

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It says ultimately that courts cannot make laws like that and courts cannot ultimately destroy the lives of children in Texas when the state of Texas has the right to protect their lives.

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And so this is a very, very consistent bill, a very important bill, and what we need to be doing as Christians right now, as you hear about this, is we need to be getting the word out.

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It's very important. It's a grassroots movement element to all of this. As Christian communities across the country, we need to be making sure that the world knows about this.

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We need to be making sure that we're supporting this on a national level. This is not just about Texas. We need to have

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Christians across the country. You need to be tweeting about this. You need to be posting about this in your social media.

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You need to be letting people know in the state of Texas that you support this, that you're behind the legislators who actually are in support of this bill.

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And so this is one of those moments really within the life of the Christian church where we have to work together to make sure that we communicate with a unified voice that we will not stand for the murder, the slaughter of pre -born children any longer.

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And so this is a fantastic opportunity afforded to us. Some wonderful Christians in Texas put this bill together and it's been submitted now.

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And so what we have to do right now is number one, pray and support. Pray and support. Find out who your local legislator is in Texas.

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Contact your local legislators and let them know that you expect them to uphold and essentially vote on this bill,

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HB 948. Let them know that you will support them. Let them know that you're behind them and make sure that you let others know that this is happening in the state of Texas.

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This is a moment for us where this is no longer just talking about what if one day we had a consistent bill that protected the lives of pre -born children.

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That bill is in Texas right now. It's been submitted. And so this is a moment where we need to as a church rise up and actually say something.

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In the book of Proverbs it says to rescue those who are being delivered to death, people who are being taken to the slaughter, we're supposed to do something.

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This is an opportunity for us as Christians to speak prophetically to the legislature in the state of Texas and to tell them,

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God commands you, you shall not murder. You must uphold justice in the state of Texas.

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What we're going to do here is we're actually going to provide a link at the bottom of this video where you can actually connect and get more information about how you can be a part of this particular fight and who you need to specifically contact.

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We encourage you guys to share this video to get the word out, to let everybody know in your social network that this is happening in Texas and let's make sure we apply pressure nationally to make sure that it's clear.

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Abortion is murder. This is an issue of national sin. The only hope we have is repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.

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There is forgiveness and mercy in Jesus Christ, the gift of eternal life. Of course, we want to help these mothers and fathers who are considering abortion, but we demand the immediate ending of abortion in our nation and right now it's starting in Texas.

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Brothers and sisters, this is fantastic. It's begun in Texas. Let's provide the support that is necessary.

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We need to speak prophetically to them. We need to demand that they uphold justice for these preborn children and that's got to start somewhere.

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It has to start with us. I'll just say one last thing as a final note on this.

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It's compelling, really, that when you see secularists, unbelievers in this realm, in the legislative realm, you see them crying out.

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You see them holding up their voices. You see them actually engaging. You see them in it for the long run.

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You see them trying to leave a legacy for their particular worldview. You see them actually fighting the good fight for their position and their worldview.

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I want to encourage you as a believer, it's time that we stood up as Christians, as followers of Jesus Christ, and we do what's necessary to love

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God, number one, and to love our neighbors. These children who are being slaughtered in Texas today, these are our neighbors and what we ought to do as Christians is display the greatest kind of love and that's where you lay down your life for another person.

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That is the greatest love. Laying down your life right now is helping something like this to pass so that these children are protected and children are no longer slaughtered in the state of Texas.

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HB 948, if you're in Texas right now, contact your local legislator.

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Let them know. Ask them, what are you going to do about this bill? We expect you to pass it and to protect the lives of these children.

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For more information and for detailed discussions, go to apologiaradio .com. You can also go to endabortionnow .com.

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We'll try to provide some updates as we move along over the next couple of weeks on this particular story. So HB 948, pray, and thank you guys for watching.