EAN Special: History of Protecting Life in The Womb

Apologia Studios

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Most modern Christians think that the abortion industry and the abortion problem in America started with Roe v.

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Wade. The truth is that it is woven into the fabric of the sin nature to be selfish, to be greedy, and to be cruel.

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It's called original sin. It's called concupiscence. And as a result, ancient societies universally practiced child killing.

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So it shouldn't surprise us that in early America there were entrepreneurs who were brazen in their sin that found a way to exploit sexual promiscuity and the desire to rid ourselves of our progeny.

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So in the 1860s and 70s, in the midst of the chaos of the war between the states, there was an abortifacient industry that was birthed.

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There was one particular entrepreneur who went by the name of Madame Rostell in New York City. She had five abortion clinics in New York City.

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And she began an abortifacient pills scheme with salesmen that traveled the entire nation.

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And she was a multi -multi -millionaire. She was able to fund a tremendous amount of political shielding for the abortion industry.

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But, interestingly, there were a handful of Christians that became aware of this grisly illicit trade, and they began to mobilize themselves.

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And out of their mobilization, a number of remarkable things occurred. For instance, doctors began to associate themselves together, first in local associations and then later nationally.

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And that was the birth of the American Medical Society. The American Medical Association, which we have today, was birthed as a part of the pro -life movement.

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In addition to that, there was one particular small New York City newspaper that made its reputation by zeroing in on this grisly trade and became an ardent advocate for life.

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It's a little newspaper that eventually came to dominate the city's newsrooms, a newspaper called the

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New York Times. Exposing this grisly trade became their stock and trade.

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So what happened was that in the 1870s, we had the beginnings of a pro -life movement that was so successful that they changed the laws in every single state in the

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Union. They made the murder of unborn children a felonious offense.

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And as a result, all of the laws that we inherited into the 20th century were birthed out of that early pro -life movement.

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One of the things that I have said to pro -lifers for years is, why don't we go back and study what our forefathers said and did, how they mobilized, how they organized, so that we're not having to reinvent the wheel in our day.

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This is nothing new. We can go back to early American history. We can go all the way back to early church history.

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We can go to the mission field as missionaries went across the globe.

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And we can follow the pathway of the Amy Carmichaels in the elimination of Sartre and child destruction and learn from them and see how the

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West was won. One of the things that happens when jurisdictions are violated, when one jurisdiction that God has established oversteps bounds and supersedes another jurisdiction, is that tyranny results.

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Largely, in America today, there are lots and lots of people who recognize that we're in a dangerous situation with massive federal overreach.

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But a lot of people don't realize that there are legal, constitutional mechanisms that our

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Founding Fathers put into place in cases just like this. We have lots of lower magistrates who are wondering, how can we resist the rising tide of madness in our land?

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And there are complications because the federal government controls the flow of money back to localities.

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So one of the huge problems that we face is the flow of money. But another thing is simply utilizing the legal mechanisms that we have in the

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Ninth and the Tenth Amendments. The Ninth Amendment tells us that there are rights that are not enumerated in the

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Constitution that nevertheless reside with the people and cannot be violated by the federal government.

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And then the Tenth Amendment says that the state governments and the localities, along with the people, are the mechanisms by which those

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Ninth Amendment rights are protected. So in other words, we have a way for lower magistrates to constitutionally interpose themselves against the presidency, the legislature, and the

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Supreme Court. There has always been a mechanism for us to say no to the

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Supreme Court. The Supreme Court doesn't make laws. The Supreme Court doesn't even change laws.

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So when Roe v. Wade was handed down, when Obergefell was handed down, that changed no state constitution.

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It changed no laws in the states. We acted like, all of a sudden, everything changed.

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It didn't. Only one case with one standing changed. So what we've got to do is have the backbone to say, you know what?

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We have these rights, and therefore we're going to exercise these rights. It's constitutional.

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It's structural. A fine lawyer from Tennessee, here in Tennessee, has written a wonderful book on the

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Ninth Amendment. His name is David Fowler. He's the executive director of the

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Tennessee Family Association, which is a focus on the family organization.

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It's really incredibly helpful, and it sets the precedent, and it shows us that there is a way for lower magistrates to step in and stop the madness.