HB813: We Are at The Capitol! We Need You Here!

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Hey guys, Isaac Benegas with, of course, Apologia Studios and End Abortion Now.

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I'm joined with Jeff Durbin here. We're at the Louisiana State Capitol building.

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You might not be able to see it, but it's right behind us here, right behind this tree. We're here, of course, in support of HB 813, so HB 813.

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This is an exciting time, historical time. It is. This is what we've been fighting for for the past five years, and we're so close.

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We want to see this bill passed, but with that, Jeff, for people that are kind of maybe new to the conversation or haven't seen some of the news in relation to this specific bill, what's happening?

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Well, it's all over the national news and the media has picked it up. We have a bill, HB 813, here in Baton Rouge at the

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State Capitol. It is a bill that's not only made it into the legislature in terms of a bill that they have to reckon with, but it went to committee and had a hearing, and it passed overwhelmingly, 7 -2.

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It's the first bill. It's historic. You mentioned historic. It's historic because since Roe v. Wade, we haven't had the people who want to see abortion ended, largely fighting against this consistently.

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Human life from conception, all human life deserving equal protection. So to have bills going in that actually say, if you're human, you deserve equal protection, that's a big deal.

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That, in one sense, is historic, and it's been happening across the states, but it's always been resisted by the pro -life establishments.

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But this is historic because in 50 years of Roe v. Wade, we've never had a bill that says equal protection for all humans from conception pass the hearing stage.

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And so it not only passed the hearing stage, but it passed overwhelmingly, 7 -2. And so that bill,

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HB 813, it's the abolition of abortion in Louisiana, that bill is supposed to be heard this

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Thursday. So it is, what day is today, Tuesday? It's Tuesday. Thursday, it's supposed to go to the floor for a vote here in Baton Rouge.

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So it is an historic moment. Christians have been praying for this moment.

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We have believers who have been supporting us for years as we work to save lives at the abortion mill.

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We've saved thousands through the coalition we've built and the free training we've given. As we've been working towards this, as we have spoken as Christians to legislators across the country and in states across the country, you've supported this, you've been a part of this with us, and now this is the fruit of your labor together with us.

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HB 813 is truly the fruit of the labor of the church working together. What makes it distinctive is that it's a church working to come against the issue of abortion with the authority of Jesus Christ, the authority of the word of God, and the gospel itself.

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This issue of abortion is a gospel issue. Fundamentally, it's a gospel issue.

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And so this has been a movement of Christians across the country who have been speaking the truth of Christ and God's word and the gospel itself in this area, and look at the fruit that's come from that.

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We've had bills of equal protection go into Arizona, Oklahoma, Texas, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Colorado, and now

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Louisiana, and there's some other states in there as well. But now we have one that's gone to hearing stage.

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It's passed overwhelmingly. It's going to vote on the floor here. It's the abolition of abortion in the state of Louisiana.

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This is a predominantly pro -life state, and so this legislature is filled with those who believe that human life begins at conception and that all human life is sacred.

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That's what they say by profession. And so what's going to the floor on Thursday is the bill everybody says they've been asking for in 50 years of Roe versus Wade, right?

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We want to protect all human life. Well, that's the bill that we've given them, the Equal Protection Act or bill.

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This is the bill that actually says, if you're human, you deserve equal protection with all other humans.

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That's essentially all there is to the bill. That's the substance of it. It's definitional. Human life begins at conception.

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That's an incontrovertible biological fact. This bill says that what's in the womb is human from conception and what's in the womb is in the image of God and that it deserves equal protection with all other living human beings.

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And so that's what the bill is fundamentally. Those who oppose this bill cannot mount an argument against it with the substance of the bill.

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They just simply cannot. We need everybody to know that we need you here.

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We need you here. We had a rally happen today that was put on by the pro -life establishment locally.

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It was not as large as the rally that we held. We held a rally here over a week ago, and our rally was much larger, so we had more support for what we're doing than what they're doing.

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And when we had the hearing through you guys and your faithfulness, you showed up in Baton Rouge and not only filled up the hearing room, but they had to fill up an overflow room.

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And so we need you again. If you were at that hearing, we need you here again. If you are in surrounding states, we need you to pack up your family, pack up your church and your friends, and come and join us here on Thursday.

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We have signs coming that say, pass HB 813, listen to the people.

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Those are coming from our friends over at Free the States. They're bringing those with them. They got a bus coming from Oklahoma. They're driving out with those signs to support this work here.

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We have ministries from across the country that are in support of this work right now. We need you here in Baton Rouge.

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We need you here. You can do two things right now to help to save the lives of these children in Louisiana.

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7 ,000 children, about 7 ,000 children are killed a year here through abortion. You can be a part of saving that next year of 7 ,000 children and then beyond by, number one, calling the legislators here in Louisiana, the

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House of Representatives, the House of Representatives. They're the ones that have this first on a floor vote on Thursday.

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Call the House of Representatives in Louisiana. Call them all and say that we expect you to pass

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HB 813. Do your duty before God and for the citizens of Louisiana. Pass HB 813.

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Let them know you're praying for them. There's no need to be abusive to them. Just tell them that you expect them to pass it.

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It is the right thing to do before God. HB 813, they need to know that they have the support of the people, so send them emails.

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Give them phone calls. Put your church on it. That's the first thing you can do. The second thing you can do is you can come here and join us, our team, here in Louisiana at Baton Rouge at the state capitol on Thursday.

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This goes to vote on Thursday. We need the legislators to come to work on Thursday through a sea of Christians that are telling them pass

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HB 813. We expect you to do your duty. This is a moment where you need to be a part of this with us.

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They need to see that they have the encouragement and support of the Christians in this state and surrounding states.

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In order to do that, you have to come here and show your face. We need you here for this. You can do those two things right now.

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If you've ever cared about the plight of the pre -born, if you've ever cared about this injustice and you want it to end, then

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I want to encourage you to be a part of this right now. Call, email, House of Representatives in the state of Louisiana.

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Let them know that you expect them to pass HB 813, and then show up here on Thursday. Be with us as we speak with encouragement and also prophetically to these legislators and tell them to do their duty before God.

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Do what's right before God. Amazing thing here is that many of these legislators, they know and they believe that what's in the womb is human from conception, and it deserves equal protection.

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You wouldn't be telling them something that they don't already believe, but what you can do is you can tell them to firm up their commitments to that profession and that commitment they have and to do their duty before God and the people of Louisiana and these children especially, and to pass

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HB 813. This is a big deal. This is a monumental moment for us as the church.

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I know one of the things that Zach Lautenschlager, he was actually here during the hearing when it was before the

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Committee of Criminal Justice, and one of the things he mentioned in our live stream right after that hearing was that the numbers had an impact on the decision.

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I guess there was a lot of people that turned out, and so we're hoping for the same thing here on Thursday to kind of sum things up.

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Of course, this bill passed the Committee of Criminal Justice last week, and Wednesday, and the hearing now for the

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House floor is on Thursday. Is there a specific time, or is this something that could kind of carry through the whole day?

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Bradley's walking up right now. I could probably ask Bradley. My understanding was that it was around one o 'clock. Bradley, the floor vote, do we know about what time?

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I think it'll be sometime after 2 p .m. Sometime after 2 p .m. Bradley Pierce is our constitutional attorney.

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He drafted the legislation, and so praise God for Bradley Pierce and for his family. I know, because we came to the

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Capitol, and to kind of even take this maybe a step further back, we knew

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Louisiana was going to be a place where we wanted to hone in on, kind of have a direct hit.

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Because of the cultural context. Because of the cultural context, we knew Louisiana had a good chance that we could be here.

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Of course, we've poured many resources into Louisiana.

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I was talking to Carmen, who's behind the camera, that even thinking maybe three or four months ago that we would have gone to Louisiana three times in the past four weeks, we had no idea.

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But we've poured resources into this to make sure that we're here, to bring awareness, and hopefully to garner more support of this bill.

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Because, like I said, this is historic. It's monumental. It's what we've been fighting for. So we came to the

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Capitol today. We had a PA system going on, as Jeff is here, kind of trying to announce to people about HB 813, just trying to put ourselves in a position where God is going to work.

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You did have an opportunity to speak with some. I'm not sure how hush -hush we need to be with that.

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We've been talking to legislators today. We've been talking to legislators. What would you say is the current mood? The legislators here are in a difficult position because, those who are professing pro -life, this bill is everything they say in substance they believe in.

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Now, what it's going to take now is courage. If you were asking right now,

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Jeff, what can I pray about right now for these legislators? Pray against the fear of man. The main thing right now is the fear of man.

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Pray against that. Pray that God would firm up their commitments to his truth, firm up their commitments to the preservation of human life and what they say they already believe.

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Of course, in a moment like this, when you have the national media on the one hand saying, look, they're going to criminalize and abolish abortion.

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I don't know how many people are going to show up here on Thursday, but there could be a lot of opposition. There's that onslaught of how dare you and keep your laws off my body kind of stuff.

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There's that kind of stuff. But you also need to pray against the pro -life establishment that tells these legislators, we believe human life begins at conception.

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All human life is sacred. All human life needs to be protected. That's what these pro -life organizations are constantly saying to these pro -life legislators.

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Do you believe that too? And the legislator says, yeah, great. You're our guy. We're going to support you. Now these pro -life establishments are coming against our bill.

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They're coming against our bill and they're telling the legislators, don't pass that bill because in reality, the pro -life establishment does not want equal protection for all humans.

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The pro -life establishment believes that the woman, and even in that case, the father who actually delivered the child over to the abortionist, they are themselves not guilty.

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God's word forbids that. It tells us in Proverbs, it says that God is against the not only the condemning of the righteous, but the acquitting of the guilty.

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It's an abomination to God. God is against and prohibits unequal weights and measures, partiality, saying you can kill these humans, but not these humans, right?

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Or partiality and justice and saying, well, you're guilty for committing the crime, but you are not guilty, even though they both participated.

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You know what I mean? So it's partiality and justice there too that God forbids. It's inconsistent. And the pro -life establishment here is working against HB 813.

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It was amazing. Earlier we had this PA system set up, and we were sort of encouraging the legislators, telling them thank you for passing it, pass hearing.

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And there was a crowd of women that poured out of here who were part of a very well -known local sort of Christian conservative group in Louisiana.

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They walked past, and they were pro -life. I think they thought we were pro -choice. And they were like, oh, you're pro -life.

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Oh, OK, what's going on? And so we started talking to them. And they were just at the pro -life establishment rally.

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I said, did they mention to you HB 813? They had no idea. Louisiana Right to Life would not mention to these women

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HB 813. They didn't know that they have a bill of abolition happening on Thursday.

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And they couldn't believe their ears when I told them that the rally they were just at, the organization holding it, was actually opposing the bill of abolition.

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They couldn't believe it. And so we're working against a lot here in terms of we sort of have, we're fighting a fight on two fronts.

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And to be honest with you, the pro -choice or the pro -abort community is not giving us much resistance at all, to be honest with you.

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We've had almost no arguments, no fights of any significance. But the people that we are up against right now is those that would tell the legislators,

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I know I told you we believe that, human from conception. I know I told you all human life deserves equal protection and it's all sacred and needs to be protected.

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But right now I want you not to do that. Right now I want you to not pass the bill that says that. And so what we need is we need encouragement.

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We need a flood of encouragement to these legislators to say, you're doing the right thing before God. We encourage you to do it.

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Pass HB 813. We expect you to. So that's where we're at right now. So again, if you're just getting onto the live stream, those two things, contact the

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House of Representatives in the state of Louisiana. Let them know you expect them to pass HB 813. Be respectful, be prayerful for them.

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And the next thing you do is I need you to show up here with us on Thursday. Show up. I know there are people driving from across the country, from across the country to be here for this historic moment.

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We've never gotten to vote a bill of equal protection on the floor before. And all glory to God, we've got a bill going to the floor to get a vote.

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And so I need you to know that this is a serious spiritual battle.

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I cannot tell you the conversations that I have been in and the clear marks of just compromise and evil influence and fear of man being infused to all of this.

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And so you need to be very prayerful and you need to be here with your body. Be here to stand here.

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We're going to have signs coming that say pass HB 813. We're going to need you to hold those signs. So when these legislators are coming into this

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Capitol, they're going to see a sea of people saying pass HB 813. They need that encouragement because I think the one thing, the one thing is fear of man.

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And God tells us we are to have no fear of man. We're to fear God over our fear of man, over our fear of man.

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And that is the most important thing right now is that these legislators can be courageous enough to do is right before God.

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Question. Everything that's kind of taking place at the federal level with Roe v. Wade.

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Is there any bearing as far as what takes place here in the sense of is this happening here in Louisiana because of that?

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Or did we submit this even prior to? We had our stuff in before, right? Because it's ultimately going to be the responsibility of the states to to essentially criminalize or abolish abortion in their state.

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Now, one of the things that we see from the leak is that the leak essentially suggests the idea that if Roe is overturned, it goes to the people's representatives.

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Now, that's not just the states that also exist in the federal level as well. Now, I want to highlight something very, very important that if you've been with us for years praying and giving towards this financially and you've been a part of this, you need to think about what's happening right now nationally.

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The leak happened, right? The leak happens. Our bill was already in. We've had bills in states already saying defy

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Roe and establish justice for the pre -born. We don't need Roe v. Wade to fall. However, we did actually argue in the

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Mississippi case that Roe needed to be overturned. We argued we have an amicus brief that we helped to fund that went into the

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Mississippi case. So our amicus brief is in there. We did say to the court, you need to overturn Roe v. Wade.

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However, we don't need Roe to be overturned to actually abolish abortion in the states. Very, very important.

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And so I think a key thing for everyone to understand is that what you see in a national conversation right now, when the left heard, oh my goodness, they're going to overturn this possibly, what was their first move?

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Just consider it. It's all over the media. Their first move was we need to make a law with Congress about abortion because as we've been saying the entire time, the

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Supreme Court does not have power to legislate. Congress legislates according to our constitution.

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And so now they've shown their cards. Roe was never legislation. It was always a court opinion.

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And we have a history in the United States of America of American citizens rejecting tyrannical stuff coming from above and unjust decrees coming from above.

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You can look at that at the Dred Scott v. Sanford case where the Supreme Court argued that black people were not persons but property and needed to be returned to the

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South. The states, thank God, several states in the North said, no way. And so they defied the

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Supreme Court's opinion. But notice right now the left, the pro -aborts are trying to create federal legislation around the issue of abortion.

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What did we say all along? No credit to us. It's just the way our nation works. This needs to be done at the state level and you need to defy the tyranny from above because if Roe falls, they're trying to now create an actual law.

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An actual law that, listen, never existed for 50 years in Roe v.

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Wade. What's that tell you? That the pro -life establishment who has been fighting this battle, telling everyone that Roe is law of the land, they have been completely ignorant of our law.

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They have been completely ignorant of our history. Roe was never law. And proof of it is the Democrats are showing you right now they know it's not law because they're trying to create law right now.

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So if there is a legislator that is watching this, what are some things that we want them to know when it comes to maybe some clarifications with this bill?

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If there's any, one, if for any reason they have the tendency to think, not right now, but maybe next year.

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Or let's just kind of push this out because there's just too much going on right now as far as possible conflict.

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Let's have that conversation with Zach. Can we get Zach and Brian in here?

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This is Zach Lautenschlager right here. Let me go ahead and... No, you can stay in here. Just kind of step back.

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I'll move over. Just let us know, Carmen, how we're doing here. This is Zach Lautenschlager. You guys are all familiar with him.

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Action for Life. And then we also have Pastor Brian Gunter. He's the pastor on the ground here that's doing so much damage for the kingdom of God.

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So the question at this point is addressing the things that are coming up in terms of opposition.

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You know, one of the things that was said during the hearing, well, several things were said that were fallacious in terms of IVF and in terms of miscarriages and those sorts of things.

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They can't argue against the substance of the bill, right? The principles in the bill, the substance of the bill, they can't argue against it.

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Crime denial is all you get. Well, that's just not so. Right. So when you say the bill says it's human from conception, can you argue with that?

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Nope. Can't argue with that. Did you notice who made the arguments that this bill would prohibit

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IVF, that this bill would prohibit contraception, that this bill would make a woman who has a miscarriage a criminal?

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Do you know who made that argument? Who? Planned Parenthood's attorneys. That's right. The abortion industry came to the hearing, made those arguments, and now they're being repeated by the pro -life industry.

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It's incredible. Right. I mean, they literally, in the hearing, all the pro -lifers said, yeah, we need to do this.

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Now that they want to oppose it, they borrowed the same arguments that Planned Parenthood's attorneys were making, and now they're saying, you know what, we might need to be concerned about IVF and these things, and what we realize is they are using strong -arm tactics to kill this bill because they're terrified of it.

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Yes. But this is exactly what the pro -life movement has always said that we believe, that life begins at conception, and children in the womb should have equal rights.

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Well, that is the foundational thing, as we've been having conversations of people's trepidation or questions about the bill, is that you're finding now that a lot of the pro -life leaders here and establishments are now having to actually use arguments that are actually against their own position.

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That's right. You know, I mean, human from conception is what Louisiana Rights of Life and other pro -life organizations have said for years.

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Yes. And what this bill says in substance is what they have been saying for years, human from conception, and it says equal protection for all humans, so this ought to be the bill that actually everyone celebrates.

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That's what we've been saying all along. Well, you saw an initial celebration, right? There are a few people who lead the pro -life industry who are in deep, and they know what the political ramifications are, and they could tell, and they were quiet, but everyone else was celebrating until the politicians turned around and said, we don't want to vote on that.

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And then you have an entire structure that comes up and says, oh, well, what do we need to do to avoid that? We need people to come out and oppose it.

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We need to strong -arm, unfortunately, some of our allies who have now reversed their positions. They stood up in committee and said, we're for this bill, and they get a call from the politicians.

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They get a call from important people, and the next thing you know, oh, well, we have to reverse our position. That happens because the political structure influences the other side, right?

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Influences the pro -life leadership, and they turn around and provide cover. And that's what's going on.

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It happens in every political fight. You can look at gun fights. You can look at tax fights. You can look at shrinking government fights.

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And you can look at the other side. You can look at how, you can look at the animal rights fights.

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And you have politicians who tell the leadership, we need protection, and suddenly they're turning and telling their bases, now calm down.

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That's too much. You can't go there. These guys are on our side. That's what we're hearing all day here at the Capitol.

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That's how the fight works. And Jeff, I've got to tell you, I've been getting phone calls, two types of phone calls.

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People who love the bill, people around our state and our nation, they want to see this in law. And then the other kind are some very influential political actors, some very powerful members of the legislature, of Congress, those in very, very high offices and positions, making not so thinly veiled personal threats toward me about what's going to happen if we don't back down and pull this bill.

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And I want people to understand something. Not everyone who says they're pro -life is truly going to risk their career in order to protect the lives of these children.

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And what has happened here is, is that we are the ones who say, you know, we don't care what men think.

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We're going to do the right thing. And I have people calling me in very powerful positions saying, if you don't pull this bill, we're going to destroy your career.

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We're going to go after you personally. We're going to destroy your reputation. And some of the national media outlets that have written hit pieces against me are a direct result of those people who call themselves pro -life unleashing the dogs and saying, go after this pastor because he's causing trouble for us.

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He's responsible. You know, I've never had a hit piece in national newspapers written against me. I have.

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Welcome to my house. But I got to tell you, New York Times, USA Today, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, I mean, all these national publications are now talking about the pastor in Louisiana who wants to criminalize abortion.

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It's really a shame. And the reality is, is our bill says exactly what the pro -life movement has said for 50 years that we believe.

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We just propose putting it into law. Yeah, right. And, you know, the interesting thing, maybe you already talked about this, but as we saw another pro -life rally on the steps full of people who want to end abortion, they walk by and we have the opportunity to talk and they're like, oh, well, that's exactly what we believe.

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That's where we are. That's what we want to do. And that's what you see. You have this overwhelmingly strong majority of rank and file people who identify as pro -life who absolutely believe that HB 813 is exactly what we should do.

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In fact, they were here saying, well, that's what we support. That's what we want to do. That's what we're here to support. And their leaders are up front giving them doublespeak and telling them, oh, well, this is what we need, knowing very well that their intent is to gut the bill, amend it and remove any semblance of actual pro -life policy, actually recognizing that life is worth having, and then using the same number to say, well, see, we all support the same thing.

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That's the type of evil that you have. And the beautiful reality is that when someone's willing to stand up and be controversial and have the national news come after you, which, you know, welcome.

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And it's great. From my perspective. The water's warm. That's right. Come on in. You are over the target.

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So good job. Yeah. And it gives, you know, the attempt to vilify pastors in the media, the attempt to mischaracterize their beliefs, the attempt to do the hit pieces.

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What it really allows for is us to be a part of the conversation to say, no, this is the truth of God's word. This is the gospel.

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This is the consistent position because the people that they're talking to 50 years of Roe versus Wade are inconsistent, are not standing on the word of God.

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They will not have allegiance to Christ. They won't preach the gospel in the midst of it. So for us in this situation, all we represent is actually the consistent position and they haven't met it yet.

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Abolition is the only truly consistent pro -life position. It is the logical conclusion of pro -life ethics that if the child in the womb is human from the moment of conception, then that human being ought to have the same rights and the same protections under the law that all other persons enjoy.

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And the reality is that's very simple. That's why this bill is so dangerous because it would put into law exactly what the pro -life movement says they believe.

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And let me just address some of the objections. This bill does not in any way criminalize a woman who would have a miscarriage.

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I asked one lawmaker, I said, who's an attorney? I said, are you telling me you really don't understand the difference between natural death and homicide?

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You're an attorney and you don't understand the difference between natural death and homicide. You know better.

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What you're doing is you're trying to misdirect. This bill does not ban IVF, in vitro fertilization.

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What it does is, is it bans unethical IVF practices where we create embryos and throw them in a trash can because we decide that we don't need them anymore.

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No, if you're going to use IVF, which is a blessing from God, use it ethically, treat it as human life.

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That is what it is. That's all our bill would require. That's right. It provides definitions. This does not prohibit contraceptives.

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Not at all. It prohibits abortifacients. If a chemical has an abortive intent, then yes, it would be banned.

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If you're using a chemical to kill the child in your womb, that would be banned.

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But it doesn't ban contraception. That's absurd. Yet, that's the lie that's being told.

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It's absolutely incredible. You go down the list of the things they say. They say, well, you can never criminalize a woman who has an abortion.

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So I turn it around and I ask them this question. Are you telling me that it should not be a crime for a mother to kill her preborn child?

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The next thing is, they say, oh, well, what about women who are coerced into abortion? Currently, under Louisiana law right now, the penalty for forcing a woman to have an abortion is no more than a $5 ,000 fine.

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Do you know what the penalty under HB 813 would be? You could get charged with homicide. The reality is, is we would treat the pimp, the sex trafficker, the abusive boyfriend, we would treat him as a murderer for forcing a woman to have an abortion against her will.

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We should prosecute the abusive one and we would protect the woman who has been abused and been forced into an abortion that she never wanted to begin with.

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But they're satisfied with laws that say, oh, let's not criminalize forcing women to have abortions.

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Let's have mild penalties for sex traffickers who force women to have abortions. No, I think that they ought to be charged with murder.

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Because what they're doing is grievous against God. And yet they want to continue with laws that play easy with those who are actually abusing women.

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I say it's absolutely unacceptable. And when you have, until you have someone who is willing to stand up and say what you are saying, take the heat that you are taking, and say, no,

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I'm sorry, you know what, we're not going to back down. Because what's the request? Is the request from the politicians, hey, you know what, we're going to kill your bill, we hope you're okay with that.

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We're going to go ahead and vote. No, their request is please pull the bill. If you don't pull the bill, we're going to do bad things to you.

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We're going to hurt you. We're going to destroy careers. We're going to do X, Y, and Z. Why? Because they know very well that they can't vote against the bill and stand up with a straight face and not get called out when they say,

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I'm pro -life. Yeah, absolutely. And I think that's the key issue, is that there is no way to ultimately argue against the bill from those who are part of the pro -life establishment or leadership or legislatures.

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Because what's in the bill is the essence of what they say they believe and what they say they believe for votes and for donations, right?

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And there's no way to argue against the bill from the pro -choice or pro -abort side. This bill is representative of consistency, consistency with the biblical worldview, consistency with the law of our nation.

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And so that's why you cannot mount an argument and sustain it against this bill. And so that's the power and the strength of this position, is that the people on our side are supposed to affirm it, and they're afraid not to because they know the consequences that they do.

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And the people on the other side know they can't mount an argument against our position. Because ultimately their position is that I don't care that it's biologically a human.

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I think a mother and father have the right to kill their child. It's ethical. Right. We're the elegant, the rally. That's gross.

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Yeah. That's quite an argument. Yeah. That's impressive intellect there. Right. Exactly. And so this is fundamentally a collision of worldviews.

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And it really ultimately has to do with the authority of Jesus Christ, has to do with the transcendent law that's above this legislature.

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Now when this nation was formed, this nation was formed by people who had a particular worldview and a belief system that they had been taught, they were discipled in, they had the books, they had the whole worldview behind them, they had the blessings of all the justice that was behind them.

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And when they established this, they understood and even establishing their laws, okay, we need to spread power out because people are sinners and you can't give any sinner ultimate power.

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So let's create, you know, a section over here, a chamber over here, this over here. So there can be checks and balances because no one's allowed to have ultimate power because they're all sinners and God is the king ultimately.

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And they said, we've got this constitution, but everything in that constitution that is a blessing and is just comes from the biblical worldview first and foremost.

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And so they understood that there is a transcendent law above government that government has to yield to, which is why presidents used to have to lay their hand on the blessings and cursing section of Deuteronomy to honor and say,

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I understand that as a leader, I am first and foremost accountable to this God and may

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God bless or curse based upon my obedience or disobedience. That's where this comes from.

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And what we've forgotten here in our legislatures is that there is a king above this king and that there is a law above this law.

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It's transcendence. And what we're missing here from the Christian witness against all this is the fundamental commitments of that.

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There is a law higher than you. And you know, one of the things I think is really important, and this is, I think this needs to be said as much as possible in the next couple of days.

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One of the silliest arguments in the hearing from the pro -choice side was, was this appeal to, we're supposed to believe in a separation of powers and you know, everything else.

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And they were trying to allude to the fact, like if you guys as a state defy the federal government, like you're not understanding that we have a separation of powers for, for a reason.

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Think about what that means. What they're saying is, is there's a separation of powers in our nation to defy any kind of tyranny, but you guys aren't allowed to use it in Louisiana.

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That's what they're saying. Think about it. They're using the argument that Louisiana should be saying, we believe in a separation of powers and we're going to appeal to it.

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It's a false appeal to a separation of powers while saying there's a separation of powers, which means the federal government can do whatever it wants.

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That's my point. They're actually holding it. That's a non -sequitur. The way I've addressed this with those who object in the pro -life industry and some legislators who say you can't defy the

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United States Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade. The first thing is, is do you believe Roe v.

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Wade is constitutional? Yes or no? Well, of course I don't. Okay. Do justices write the constitution?

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Is that how it works? If you want to amend the United States constitution, do you just need to win a few presidential elections and then get five justices and now they can just totally rewrite the constitution?

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Or did our founders envision some sort of process which would involve not only US Congress, but would involve the states in consenting to change our nation's highest law?

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And that's not the Supreme Court. It's the US Constitution. Now Jesus stands above the constitution with his biblical law.

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But the point is this, in this nation, the highest law in this land is the

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United States constitution. And here's the key. The United States Supreme Court has to uphold the constitution.

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Justices on the Supreme Court do not get to amend and rewrite the constitution. There is a much more stringent process for that.

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And what's really being said is, is we want to allow five unelected lawyers in robes in Washington DC to take rights out of the constitution and put new rights into the constitution, which never were envisioned by our founders.

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And you're going to tell me you're a pro -life conservative and you're okay with that? Absolutely not.

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We defy Roe because we believe we should uphold the US constitution and the law of God.

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That's right. What do you swear an oath to? That's right. Not to the Supreme Court. You swear an oath to uphold the constitution, to protect and to defend it.

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Why swear an oath if it doesn't involve challenging the court, right? I mean, that's probably what you're trying to say, what you are saying.

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Exactly. And why swear an oath if you never intended to keep it in the first place? Because in a moment like this, we're not asking anybody to be lawless, to be disrespectful and disregarding of government institutions.

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We're saying that your duty before God is to uphold that oath you made. And that is to say, when you know the court has done something to violate the constitution and something that actually is going to bring tyranny down upon children, you have to defy them.

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We have a history of it. Praise God we do. I mean, one thing that was being said in there is it's in our blood.

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Like this nation was born out of a defiance of tyranny.

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Of wrong. And what we have now is we have a lot of people who have just accepted the fact that this life is all there is.

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I want to be happy. I want to be healthy. I want to be safe. I want to be wealthy. And I thank God that we have a history of ancestors behind us, not just physical, but spiritual ancestors behind us and physical ones too, that actually gave us a deposit to say this is how you behave in the face of tyranny.

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This is how you uphold the law of God in the face of tyranny. So what we're actually saying here in the end, historic doctrine of Lex Rex, the law is king.

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The law is king. The law is king. That's ultimate in terms of God's law. It's above everything. But also you can take it in a smaller section and say the law is king in terms of the constitution.

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That is what you're bound to. And so that's what we're impressing. And I think people need to hear that this is not lawless.

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This is law keeping. And this is not inconsistent. It's consistent. That's right. How do you prove your allegiance to a constitution that is being violated?

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By defying the violation. Right. And everyone would agree with that. You can have people who sat with us today and time after time argued, well, we swore and oathed to uphold the constitution and so we can't do that.

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Great. So if the Supreme Court decided that we can go through the Capitol and shoot everybody who's black, would you defy that ruling?

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Would you stand up and say, no, that's wrong? Of course you would. So you actually do agree. It's just a question of, is it because it's new?

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Is it because it's degrees? Is it because you can't see the person? What is it? But the only way to demonstrate that, yes,

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I actually do hold the constitution as the highest law of the land is by enforcing it when necessary.

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Right. And in this case, one of the things we've been trying to impress upon the legislators here is just to simply ask the question, do you agree with that bill?

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They all say yes. Yes. That's what they say. Do you agree with the bill? That's right.

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Yes. Yeah. Do you know what the bill is saying is true? Yes. Then you have a duty before God to pass it because you know that it's the truth before God.

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You know that this is what Christ requires of you and you know that this is what your duty is to protect these children who are being slaughtered.

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7 ,000 in the next year are going to die. So your duty is to act consistently with what you know is the truth.

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Well, Jeff, let me tell you what I told one of them today. When they made that argument, they said, well, look, I believe in equal protection.

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Your bill is indeed the consistent pro -life position.

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I agree with all of it and I want to see it passed into law, but it's just not the right time. You know, let's wait on the

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Dobbs decision. Let's see what the Supreme Court does and then next year we can come back and reconsider it.

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I like that. Now that we have a bill that's going to the House floor for a vote, let's pull it and wait till next year.

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I realized the political tactic there. We're not idiots. But also you say you agree with what's in the bill.

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Okay. If you agree with what's in the bill, then let's look at it together.

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You believe that the bill is right and just and good and would end the murder of pre -born children in our state, but it's just not the right time to do it.

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Where in the word of God are we ever told to delay justice? Where in the word of God are we ever told it's the wrong time to do the right thing?

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So wait a little bit longer and then one day down the road, then you can establish justice for those who are being oppressed and murdered.

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So I asked one of these lawmakers today, I said, well, you agree with the bill, but it's just not the right time.

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Where in the word of God does it tell us to delay justice? And he thought about it for a second and he said, well,

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I guess nowhere. But do you realize this is going to destroy people's careers? My answer was, do you realize that 7 ,444 more babies are going to be murdered in the next year while you wait to establish justice for the unborn?

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When if you guys who ran as pro -life voted for this, it would be ended next week. Do you realize that?

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I mean, they say, oh, the governor will never sign it. When you look at the House and the

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Senate in the state of Louisiana, there are more than enough legislators who ran as pro -life who, if they vote for HB 813, would override the governor's veto.

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I want to make this very clear. This is the absolute truth. If every legislator in the

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Louisiana legislature who ran as pro -life votes for HB 813, even if the governor vetoes it, they can override his veto.

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They can establish justice for the unborn. And by this time next week, abortion would be abolished in the state of Louisiana if these pro -life legislators kept their word.

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So you believe we're mad about this? Of course we are. These children are going to continue to die.

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And the blood will be on the hands of those who delayed justice and opposed justice because it might hurt their political career.

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Well, I don't care more about your political career than I do the lives of 7 ,444 more babies that are going to die while you keep waiting to do something about it.

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That's the key issue. I think that's a good place to stop. What do we need people to do? How many people are watching right now?

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Okay, good. So for everybody that's watching right now, you see how passionate we are about this because it's the truth.

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This is all a gospel issue. You can see that the way that we are operating as men here in doing this is not just as conservatives.

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We're not just trying to just do political things. We're doing this as Christians, as pastors, as men of God.

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We're doing this pointing people to Christ and the law of God. We need you to join us. So what do we need to do? Well, you can do a couple things.

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You can go to Take Action for Life and you can donate there to the cause. There are opportunities to sign petitions.

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Just a small donation helps so much in making this happen. You can go to End Abortion Now and donate on the legal and legislative side.

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Action for Life is what enables us to actually be here and lobbying. End Abortion Now, very familiar with it, but it also handles the bill drafting and that side of things, which is able to do.

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You can also call the House of Representatives, the members of the House of Representatives in Louisiana, especially if you are from here.

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If you are from Louisiana, please call your House member. It's not hard. You can go, just Google Louisiana Legislature and you can click on finding where is my

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House member, who are they, and what's their contact info. Call them up. Don't take no for an answer. They're instructing their staff to tell you all kinds of, oh, well,

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I don't know if I can deliver that message. I don't know. I don't know. Blah, blah, blah. Just don't take no for an answer. Tell them, well,

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I'm calling to ask you to vote yes on House Bill 813. That's all you have to say. Yes on HB 813.

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And then show up Thursday at 2 p .m. If they don't want to take your call, if they don't want to respond to your email, well, guess what?

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We know where they're going to be on Thursday at 2 p .m. They're going to be on the floor of the House of Representatives and they're going to have to walk right past you on their way to the floor and you can be standing there to say, hey, there is my state representative.

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Are you going to vote for HB 813? Hold them accountable. Tell them that you expect them to do what they said they would do when they ran for office.

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They said that they would end abortion in this state if they had the opportunity. Well, guess what? They have the opportunity.

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Vote for the bill. Pass it into law. This is a remarkable opportunity to be part of history in the making.

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You know, we look back and I know that some of us may wish we lived in a different era or wish that, you know, whatever we had opportunities, you have the opportunity right now.

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This is American history in the making. It has not happened before. And to be able to be here, bring your children and say,

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I want you to remember this day. You were here. Or if you cannot be here, participate.

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Make a call. Write the letter. Send an email. Bring your children into the process because they will remember.

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And they need to be told, you were here for this event. Well, I'm going to pray.

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You guys would join me in prayer. Father, we ask for you to be glorified that your kingdom would come and your will would be done on earth as it is in heaven.

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And we know, Lord, that it is against your will, a violation of your will to engage in the sin of murder.

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And so we're praying against it here in this state. And we thank you, Lord, that you've given us victory to get this bill past the hearing stage and onto the floor for a vote.

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We pray for the legislators here. You bring them under deep conviction. You'd open their eyes and hearts to the truth, that you give them strength,

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God, to be courageous, to obey you first and foremost and protect these children. We pray against all those who are trying to work against the bill, those who are coming against the bill that even say they are on our side.

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We pray that you would thwart, Lord, their arguments, even bring them under deep conviction. We pray for victory here for the name of Jesus Christ and for your glory,

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God. Not for ours. Not for our sake. We pray for these children. We pray you protect them, that you protect their lives.

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We pray that you give us strength and courage and endurance, Lord, to continue this fight, to protect the lives of these pre -born neighbors.

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We pray for our brothers and sisters who are watching this right now, that you bring them under deep conviction, Lord, to stand for the truth, to preach

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Christ, to proclaim the truth and even call the legislators, Lord, to encourage them to obey your word and your truth and also,

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Lord, we pray for safety for those who are going to come here and to stand with us and to encourage these legislators to do what's right before the

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Lord Jesus Christ and to establish justice for the pre -born children. We give you all the glory for this, Lord. We pray that the people who hear about this bill and are involved in the conflict,

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Lord, which is hear Christ and his gospel proclaimed throughout it all, we, Lord, love you, we confess you as Lord, we trust you and we pray for you.