Special Event: Alabama Pastor's Meeting | LIVE

Apologia Studios

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:07

There's a sticky note up here that says keep up the good word That's what we want follow the

00:15

Word of God in every area of our life because he's the Lord of every area Not just our churches, but also our politics so we do want to keep up the good word.

00:23

That's what we're here to do Grateful to be with you I'm an abolitionist which means

00:31

I believe that we're all made in the image of God from the moment of conception and And that the same laws protect my life and your life should be the same laws to protect babies

00:40

And then we should love our pre -born neighbors as ourselves that we should rescue those that are being taken to the slaughter and those who are taking them to the slaughter and bring the gospel to Them and that the gospel is the answer to the issue of abortion in our country that the answer is

00:56

Not to say that we're all victims but the gospel is to say that we're sinners and Mothers those who are willfully taking their children.

01:05

They are sinners and they are also committing what should be defined as a crime in order to deter them from that conduct and if they're not to be deterred then to hold them responsible and those who are

01:18

Aiding and abetting or pressuring them into that. So that's what I believe and you've already heard that from the from From Jeff as well.

01:28

So right now in the state of Alabama A lot of people think that hey, we've got the

01:34

Dobbs decision Roe vs. Wade is overturned. And so now our work is done Abortion has been abolished

01:42

But it hasn't been unfortunately We actually our organization I had the privilege of writing a brief to the

01:49

US Supreme Court in the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe vs. Wade that brief was signed on to by by in abortion now by OSA and by 19 other groups or 18 other groups across the country including 20 state legislators

02:06

And we made a couple of arguments We made three arguments in the brief number one Supreme Court.

02:11

You should overturn Roe vs. Wade Which they did we're grateful for that for that our second argument was and if you don't state should still outlaw abortion because as we representative

02:23

Yarbrough was talking about Because otherwise we're denying our sovereignty Right, we're denying even the

02:29

Constitution But our third argument is to the court which the court refused and that is that not only should you overturn

02:35

Roe vs. Wade? But you should find under the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution That a fetus is a person

02:44

That they are a person and therefore The 14th Amendment says no state shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws

02:54

And so Supreme Court you should find that they are a person and therefore entitled to equal protection Which would then make it the responsibility of every state to abolish abortion by providing equal protection

03:07

The Supreme Court did not go that far They rejected that and I believe they kind of went from abusing their authority for 49 years

03:16

To now abdicating their authority that we have delegated to them and by the 14th

03:21

Amendment They've abdicated that and so there's still arguments to be done at the Supreme Court Congress has authority under the 14th

03:29

Amendment under section 5 to enforce it to require states provide equal protection that should be enforced

03:35

But along the way to that It's also the responsibility of each state even if Congress and the

03:40

Supreme Court are not willing to follow the Constitution it's the responsibility of each state to follow the

03:45

Constitution and ultimately to do so because It's what God says to do as well What God says and what the

03:51

Constitution says are in agreement that we're all from fertilization made in the image of God That should be equally protected by law

03:59

Current Alabama law does not do that Unfortunately, it does not provide equal protection of the law So there's a pre -row law that's still on the books from before Roe vs.

04:09

Wade from before 1973 That's still on the books here in Alabama That could have been enforced under the state's sovereignty for 49 years, but was not

04:20

But now that Roe vs. Wade is out of the way No one is arguing is unenforceable or I should say no one on the side that opposes abortion is arguing is unenforceable

04:30

And that's Code of Alabama 13 a that's 13 -7 and it makes abortion illegal

04:38

And it says that if you can commit an abortion, there's a fine of 100 between 100 and $1 ,000 and imprisonment in the county jail

04:50

Or or sentenced to hard labor for the county for not more than 12 months so that was the law prior to Roe vs.

04:57

Wade and you'll note a problem already and that is like that that is that That's not the same law that applies to born people

05:08

Right, if you murder a born person, it's not a thousand dollar fine and up to 12 months in prison.

05:14

It's up to capital punishment life in prison Right. That's what it is.

05:21

That's what that's the value of our lives legally, but even before Roe vs. Wade in 1973 Alabama did not value life

05:30

The same way as a born person this person in the womb is the same as this person out of the womb And so denied equal protection even prior to 1973

05:40

In fact, Supreme Court said in Roe vs. Wade opinion You can go read this in the opinion because it wasn't just Alabama It was across the country that states had laws like that That you know had much lower penalties and either in the law itself or as interpreted by the courts as here that it didn't apply to the mother and The Supreme Court said in the

06:02

Roe vs. Wade opinion You can actually read this on this handout that's on your table here In the bottom right on the back

06:09

The Supreme Court said there are inconsistencies between 14th Amendment status and the typical abortion statute

06:16

That is status as a person if the fetus is a person. Why is the woman not a principal or an accomplice?

06:24

If the fetus is a person may the penalties be different That's what the Supreme Court said in 1973 and you know what they decided they said

06:36

Alabama, Texas, Georgia All these states your own laws are not providing equal protection and yet you're here in court arguing that a fetus is a person

06:45

You're not treating them like a person. So we're not going to treat him like a person either Because actions speak louder than words

06:52

We should have learned something at that moment Wow, if we really want them to be protected by law that we need to start treating them and passing bills that treat them as persons from fertilization

07:04

Supreme Court basically said that that's how we got Roe vs. Wade because we weren't doing that In fact jump jump forward now to actually just a couple of months ago in the state of South Carolina South Carolina had a heartbeat bill and just a couple months ago the

07:18

South Carolina Supreme Court struck that down and And you know what one of the justices wrote and he said

07:24

Because they struck it down just like Roe vs. Wade because there's this so -called right to privacy that trumps this

07:34

You know that a woman's right to privacy Trump's the state's interest in regulating abortion

07:41

But one of the justices wrote and said because there's a three -two decision So even just one justice opinion matters a lot because it would flip it the other way one justice wrote and he said well if It wasn't a heartbeat bill

07:53

But if the state actually treated the fetus like a person and protected them with the same laws that protect other persons

08:00

Well, then yeah, that would clearly trump any right to privacy Just like laws against murder

08:06

Trump rights to privacy and it's like Yeah That's why we should stop passing heartbeat bills that regulate it like health care

08:17

Because yeah your right to privacy Yeah, you can argue what trumps your your health care your the state's right to restrict health care

08:25

But it doesn't trump the state's right to restrict homicide And that's why again the same from a legal perspective the same arguments that got us into trouble in 1973 with Roe We're still making today and they're still getting us into trouble.

08:39

And of course, they're still striking down bills pro -life bills because they're not consistently treating the fetus as a person

08:48

So from a legal perspective, you know There's from the biblical perspective from the moral perspective from the logical perspective, but also from the legal judicial perspective

08:55

There's every reason why we should be passing bills like the one representative Yarbrough's is filing so Now fast forward to 2019.

09:06

So we have the pre Roe law in the book still here in Alabama in 2019 Alabama passed

09:11

House Bill 314 Which is that Code of Alabama 26 dash 23 H dash 4

09:17

I'm saying this because some people really like to look these up because they're nerds like me and It says it shall be unlawful for any person to intentionally perform or attempt to perform an abortion

09:31

Except basically kind of a life of the mother's thing Okay Okay And then it says that it's a class a felony so way higher than the pre

09:43

Roe laws But still not the same as homicide but then it says

09:49

No woman upon whom an abortion is performed or attempted to be performed shall be criminally or civilly liable

09:57

That's what the law passed in 2019 that I remember back in 2019 I was looking at Alabama passed this law and even then everyone's like this law completely bans abortion in Alabama And the governor said well, but we're not gonna enforce it till the

10:10

Supreme Court says we can Like okay. I think that you should enforce it. But okay Now Supreme Court says you can

10:19

Alright, we can enforce it now Except it allows for abortions it completely allows for mothers to Self -manage what they call it their own abortions.

10:31

It's not just the law in 2019 Even the homicide law here in in Alabama code of Alabama 13 a -6 -1 says a

10:42

Person commits criminal homicide if he intentionally knowingly recklessly or with criminal negligence causes the death of another person

10:50

Person When referring to the victim of a criminal homicide or assault means a human being

10:56

Including an unborn child in utero at any stage of development regardless of viability

11:02

Pretty good so far but then it says nothing in article 1 homicide or article 2 assault

11:10

Shall permit the prosecution of any woman with respect to her unborn child Alabama Has a license to kill for mothers

11:22

They grant mothers explicitly in the law not just by silence, but explicitly in the law

11:29

Mothers are granted a license to kill their own pre -born children in Alabama up through all nine months in Alabama law

11:39

That's not equal protection. That's not equal protection at all Jeff mentioned the bill in Louisiana last year

11:49

They got through committee and moved on to the House floor but in the interim week the pro -life establishment came out and Lobbied hard to kill that bill which they did

12:01

And the biggest thing that they did was just a mere hours before the debate and vote were to take place 77 pro -life organizations from across the country led by National Right to Life March for Life Americans United for Life and other organizations that if you're involved in pro -life movement, you know these names

12:19

They signed a letter that said Mothers should never be even subject to any prosecution or any legal liability whatsoever

12:30

Essentially, although they wouldn't put it this way Mothers should be legally allowed to murder their children without consequences

12:38

That's What they're saying? That's the effect of what they're saying signed by 77 pro -life organizations including

12:47

Signed by Cheryl Lewis a board director of Alabama citizens for life, which is the pack of Alabama right to life

12:55

Right here in your own state they signed that saying we oppose Equal protection what we would call equal protection.

13:03

We oppose that and they reaffirmed that just a couple of months ago It wasn't just last year just a couple months ago

13:10

World Magazine reporter contacted them and asked them what's your opinion about mothers being potentially subject to prosecution and They said see our letter that we signed last year

13:23

That's what they said to World Magazine just six weeks ago So that's kind of the state of Alabama law and the state of Alabama pro -life organization here

13:34

Opposing all opposing the concept of equal protection which you've already heard. We believe to be the constitutional and the biblical response to prenatal homicide

13:46

So many people think states now that abortions been ended Because a lot of clinics are shutting down or maybe all clinics are stopping doing abortions, right?

13:57

Maybe they're just maybe they're doing other things A lot people think oh, well, that means abortions ended However across this country every single pre -born child may still be murdered before birth legally

14:09

And not just in the Democrat states I'm talking about pro -life or states that the pro -life movement is claiming are now abortion free like Arkansas, Idaho Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Wyoming and yes,

14:25

Alabama And that's because self -managed abortion is made explicitly legal in this state

14:31

So people are not just going out of state, but they're ordering pills to do

14:38

Self -induced or self -managed abortions right here on Alabama soil That's they're ordering the pill to do it at home

14:46

And so you can't go outside the abortion clinics and minister to them and call out to them as Jeff was talking about earlier

14:51

They're getting the pills and opening their mailbox walking into their house and doing it without anyone having an opportunity to Call out to them other than maybe virtually online the

15:03

New York Times said Late last year as states banned or restricted abortion this summer after the

15:10

Dobbs case The number of American women ordering abortion pills from overseas jumped significantly

15:17

Enough to offset most of the drop in legal abortions overall abortion in the

15:23

United States declined about two percent in The first two full months after the

15:30

Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade You see we've got to get it. We all would love to believe that Alabama's abortion free, right?

15:39

We all would all love to believe I would love that to be true But it's not true. No matter how many pro -life, you know

15:46

Organizations and pro -life media outlets are proclaiming that it's not true

15:52

In fact data that we're we just looked at show that in Alabama. There's about 3 ,500 of these

16:00

Self -managed abortions taking place annually estimated right here in Alabama on Alabama soil completely

16:08

Not just made legal by silence, but explicitly made legal by Alabama law 3 ,500 a year with another around 6 ,000 going out of state

16:18

Which the ones that go out of state? There's only there's there's some things that the state can do but there's only so much jurisdiction that the state has over that But what the state can do is provide equal protection

16:30

The state can say that the same laws protect born people should protect people before they're born So we've got to get our heads out of the sand

16:37

Roe vs. Wade may be dead, but abortion is alive and well Right here in the state of Alabama and babies are still dying by the thousands right here on The soil of your state so What is this bill about?

16:55

This bill is a very simple bill You know, this is what people talk about when people ask me about bills of equal protection bills of abolition

17:04

It's like oh, well, actually we're not even making a new law really we're not we're not even writing new law

17:11

All we're doing is taking the existing law that already protects my life and your life from someone murdering us and Say, oh that law also protects preborn children and in Alabama.

17:26

We don't even have to We don't even have to define person to include preborn child,

17:31

Alabama law already does that All we have to do is take away this exception that allows self -managed abortions right here in Alabama That's all we have to do.

17:42

So again, we don't have to create a new law. We don't even have to redefine personhood All we have to do is take away this exception in Alabama law

17:50

And the bill does a little bit more clarify some things because some people still have some questions about that But that's basically what the bill does and yes

17:59

You know, here's the other thing a lot of people don't realize not only is Denying equal protection, which is what

18:07

Alabama currently does What every state currently does? But not only is denying equal protection bad for the baby for obvious reasons, but it's also bad for the mother

18:18

Right first and foremost because it's it's bad to tell anyone That it's okay to do wrong, right that it's okay to commit to murder someone

18:28

That's bad in and of itself. It's right where we are indoctrinating them, right people talk about the pro -abortion movement indoctrinating women

18:35

Well, the pro -life movement has indoctrinated women to believe it's okay by writing into these bills that it's okay

18:43

It's legally okay. We got to stop doing that. That's not good for babies and it's not good for women the other thing is when we when we

18:53

Deny equal protection and we say it's not homicide We also make it legal for people to pressure women into abortions

19:01

You may not realize that Has anyone ever come up to you and tried to encourage you to murder somebody to murder a born person?

19:08

Have you ever had anybody do that? I'd ask you to raise your hand, but that would be kind of weird I'm assuming there's none

19:15

I'm assuming that no one has ever come up to you and said like hey, you should really murder Joe over there

19:21

Right. It's probably never happened to you Well, one reason why is that it's illegal to do that because it's homicide and Pressuring someone to commit homicide is illegal

19:35

Even encouraging someone to commit homicide is illegal. And if they go through with it, you're now a party to that well

19:44

But what if it were legal? Well, if it were legal for you to do that Then it it's not illegal to encourage someone or even to pressure someone as long as you're not threatening their life

19:54

It's not illegal to pressure someone to do something that's legal for them to do And that's why it's not illegal for someone to pressure a mother in the state of Alabama right now into an abortion

20:05

Because it's not illegal for her to do it And so it's not illegal to Strongly encourage her again as long as if they're threatening her life or limb

20:16

Yeah, that's illegal. But up to that point. It's legal for a man to say

20:21

Or a woman say I'm gonna kick you out of the house. I'm gonna cut off your finances

20:27

I'm going to break up with you. I'm gonna divorce with you or divorce you I'm gonna do XYZ Maybe even to some extent

20:34

I'm gonna fire you that to a certain extent that's legal in Alabama Because we deny equal protection, so it's not just even about protection of the baby.

20:47

Although the baby's one who dies So that's the first and foremost, but it's even for the mothers

20:53

It's not good for them because we're telling them the wrong things and we're leaving them Exposed to being pressured into abortion and the pro -life a lot of pro -life

21:03

Establishment they say well women are victims Like well, hey, not all of them are first of all

21:10

But you know by writing this in you're actually increasing their victimhood because now you're exposing them to being pressured into these

21:17

So this bill was also solved that So that's again, that's that's the bill it's pretty simple the number of objections that people raise to the bill like this is

21:28

You know, the number one that you're gonna hear is well this bill does it this bill criminalizes women? Well, this bill doesn't criminalize women

21:37

My wife is a woman and she's not a criminal for being a woman. No one will be a criminal for being a woman

21:44

It doesn't criminalize women As people say well it criminalizes pregnant women. No, it doesn't even criminalize them.

21:50

It definitely doesn't criminalize them No, it criminalizes conduct criminalizes an action criminalizes anyone male female whoever it criminalizes them if it criminalizes their the act of Intentionally knowingly recklessly causing the death of a pre -born child

22:15

Right. It criminalizes murder It doesn't single out mothers or anybody else right anybody who does it should be subject to the laws against homicide

22:26

The you know that the there's two functions of the law there's the primary function which is deterrence

22:34

Right. The number one reason we pass laws is to deter people from conduct

22:40

The number one reason we have homicide laws is to keep people from murdering other people That's the number one reason right, just like a

22:49

Lot of you know abortion clinics have stopped doing abortions in Alabama as far as we know And yet have you ever seen any actual enforcement?

22:57

Have you ever seen any abortion clinics actually prosecuted? No, you haven't

23:04

Why not? Because as soon as Alabama said hey, we're gonna start enforcing this guess where the abortion clinics did they stopped doing it in Alabama They said we're leaving them.

23:16

We're gonna stop doing it here We're gonna stop doing abortions not because you're enforcing it but because we are deterred

23:23

We're restrained from evil by Right this you know by by law

23:29

Well again, that's the same thing that this would do Right and that is it would deter people from having an abortions at least within the state of Alabama Whether it be self -managed or otherwise

23:41

But the secondary function of the law is justice for those who are not who don't repent right who don't who are not restrained by the law then

23:54

There's responsibility if they break it. There's justice for the victim at that point And so that's what the law would do.

24:01

That's what the law does for you and me Scripture says to love our neighbor as ourselves What are the laws that are protecting our lives right now

24:10

If we're loving our neighbor as ourselves We should want the same laws to protect our pre -born neighbors as well who are even way more innocent legally speaking than we are they've never even

24:21

Gone over the speed limit some people say you know again, there's a lot of Sometimes the pro -life lobby

24:33

Even uses pro -abortion talking points when trying to attack bills of equal protection like they'll say well

24:38

That's gonna make it. What about women who have miscarriages now? There's gonna be tons of Investigations, and it's gonna like wait

24:47

Is there something in the in this bill that would allow for so to prosecute someone who has a miscarriage well

24:54

Well, no well is there something in there your pro -life bill That that all the pro -abortion people are saying allows for miscarriage or something in there that allows for miscarriage

25:04

We'll know Well, yeah, there's not here either There's not no it's it's there's laws against homicide

25:12

Guess what that doesn't apply to natural or accidental death Which is what miscarriages are and they're very tragic

25:19

I mean my we have ten children on this earth But my wife and I have lost four children to miscarriage and so we know and I don't want us being investigated

25:29

You know or having anything like that go on Because of a miscarriage, and it's not

25:35

It's not gonna happen First of all I Think there's actually a system that we could put in place that would make sure

25:44

As much as humanly possible that people would never be prosecuted for miscarriage and that's that if someone has a

25:51

Suspicion first of all someone has to have a suspicion that a homicide has been committed And then they report it to law enforcement and then law enforcement before they can go into the you know start

26:02

You know prying into that family's life or getting evidence against them, or you know like the pro -abortion

26:08

It's also like Oh getting data from their period cycle tracker apps Like before the law enforcement can go get access to all that thing all that sort of thing

26:18

Maybe we should have it where law enforcement first has to go to a judge and convince the judge

26:26

That they have more than just a reasonable suspicion, but they have a fair probability

26:33

That a search or getting access to that will result in evidence of a crime being discovered, and they got to convince a judge of that Before they can ever pry into that family's life

26:45

That would that I mean that sounds reasonable That's the exact system. We already have right you already have to do that.

26:52

That's in the Constitution That's in the US Constitution says you have to have a warrant based upon probable cause to do a search and seizure

27:01

Right so that the idea that there's going to be all these law enforcement officers going out there prying into It's just ridiculous.

27:08

It's ridiculous Or as I said to somebody the other day. I said don't quote me, but I'll say it now

27:14

Is that this baloney right? It's not not gonna happen What what prosecutor or what law enforcement department is going to risk the public outcry?

27:24

That there would be for something like that not to mention just their own consciences not to mention that they could be sued and And have all kind of issues.

27:32

That's it's not going to happen Well some people talk about well, how would this affect

27:41

IVF? and Hey, there's some people that have some very real concerns with IVF, but as far as this bill is concerned

27:50

It you know fertility specialists can continue to perform IVF procedures. They just can't

27:55

Intentionally or destroy human beings they can't intentionally destroy embryos

28:03

And that's what because why because that would be homicide This bill would prohibit that but it would not prohibit the creation and the attempting to create life

28:14

No, that's it would not prohibit that What about a mother forced into an abortion no it would not it would not criminalize her because she's under duress

28:24

The bill is not retroactive Right doesn't go backwards for 50 years and try to round up people who've had abortions

28:31

You know whenever the government has said hey This is legal for you to do how unjust would it be now for the government to go back and say like nope just kidding

28:38

Right no no the bill that that's not only immoral and unjust it's unconstitutional under both

28:44

US and Alabama Constitutions you just can't do that and no one's wanting to do that so a lot of these

28:52

And again, so there's an one more Throw out another objection people say well the bill doesn't have any teeth to it

28:59

Where's the enforcement part in the bill like well? It's not in the bill Because it's already the law

29:06

Homicide is already the law with lots of teeth to it and lots of due process for people accused of homicide

29:14

Who get an attorney and if what they can't afford one one will be provided to them paid for by the government? And we require the government to prove to a jury of their peers beyond a reasonable doubt that they've committed this crime after a another jury of their peers a grand jury is indicted and then it is court systems and even the

29:34

Governor the executive branch can even pardon someone so there's this entire justice system out there

29:40

To apply a law of equal protection on a case -by -case basis that has to be nearly unanimous

29:48

In deciding what the correct charge is and what the conviction is and what the correct sentence is

29:54

That's the justice system that protects all of our lives That should be the same justice system that protects the lives of her people pre -born children as well and ultimately

30:09

You know a lot of the pro -life movement. They say let's make abortions.

30:14

We should make it unthinkable And a friend of mine Dusty Deaver's said he had published an article just yesterday or a couple days ago

30:22

And he said Let's phrase that another way Yes, we should be unthinkable, but we live on earth and they're sinners.

30:30

They're people who commit crimes Homicide is legal across this country yet. There are 25 ,000 homicides of born people every year in this country

30:40

But that's way fewer than the number of pre -born people which is closer to a million

30:46

Why because it's illegal to kill born people, but it's not illegal to kill people before they're born

30:53

And so by making it illegal as he said Let's not just say make it unthinkable.

30:59

How about we say make abortion something only murderers would do make abortion something only murderers would do

31:07

That's what we because that's what it is That's what it is Whether it's the mother

31:14

Willfully doing it as a murderer or if it's someone forcing her into it And then that person is murdering the child and using her as their as an unwilling agent, right?

31:24

It's murder. It's murder So we need to follow the golden rule do unto others as we would have them do unto us

31:31

What laws we want protecting our lives we wanted to be pretty strong Protecting my life and lives my born children.

31:38

I should want the same laws protect others if I'm really loving them and James calls this the royal law to love your neighbor as yourself, but then

31:46

James says But if you show partiality And this is also on this

31:55

Actually, it's not on here. We should put it on there. But if you show partiality You have transgressed you are a transgressor in other words

32:03

Actors speak louder than words. If you say oh, I keep I keep the second greatest commandment. I love your my neighbor as yourself as myself.

32:10

Oh But do you show partiality? Meaning, you know, what is partiality in?

32:17

Judgment what God talks about partiality is Let me show you what impartiality is.

32:24

This is impartiality Impartiality is hearing the facts of the case and making a decision based upon the merits of the case

32:35

Partiality is saying oh Well, hold on. Hold on. Who are the parties here?

32:41

Oh Well, this party's rich This party's poor. Oh Well, this defendant is very powerful this one

32:51

You know, it's fairly weak Or this is a man or this is a woman or this person has this skin color this person has a skin color, right?

32:57

God says he hates that He explicitly throughout scripture says do not do that do not do he said judges explicitly over and over don't do that That's why when we have make statues of Lady Justice, she's blindfolded

33:12

Right because that's biblical the justice should be Blind as to who the parties are should hear only the facts of the merits of the case and make a decision based on that But right now even the pro -life movement

33:27

Pro -life establishment pro -life lobby pushing these bills. They're saying no, no, no, no, no, no take the blindfold off If the defendant is the mother

33:37

She shouldn't even sitting there. She shouldn't even be accused legally And all we're saying is no

33:45

Justice should be blind and every case should be decided on a case -by -case basis

33:53

And that's what the bill does Bill follows the Golden Rule follows the royal law

34:01

Provides equal protection and protects their lives with the same laws that protect ours That's all it does.

34:08

Thank you All right, thank you

34:20

Bradley So as you can see, this is not a Republican or Democrat issue.

34:26

This is not a black or white issue. This is not a Any other type of issue?

34:31

This is an issue of are we going to stand for justice and truth? Or are we going to continue to allow injustice to happen in our in our state in our nation?

34:40

So thank you for Giving that present a presentation to us real quick I wanted to point out that on Wednesday several new sources

34:49

Came out talking about some of the abortion bans that are some of the pro -abortion Bills that have been introduced in the legislative session this year the legislature convened on Tuesday So they're now working on the matters of the state and what laws they want to pass and what they don't want to pass and There have already been three pro -abortion bill bills filed

35:10

One would add exceptions to the existing Human Life Protection Act and say that you can kill babies under these certain circumstances

35:17

Another one would completely repeal the Human Life Protection Act and another bill would repeal the the pre -road ban that Bradley talked about And what was really concerning is around the time that the

35:29

Dobbs decision or the Dobbs opinion was leaked The sponsor the

35:36

Republican sponsor of the Human Life Protection Act said that she she might support adding in exceptions and allowing abortions in Certain instances you could kill she said that she might be willing to consider allowing folks to legally kill their babies under certain conditions and So that that was concerning when it's it's not just Democrats talking about that it's it's

35:57

Republicans talking about this injustice as well, and so instead of talking about moving forward and Finally establishing justice and saying the same laws that protect born people will protect pre -born people in our state

36:10

They're talking about going backwards So I just wanted to point that out Before we get on to our next speaker

36:18

Jason are you ready? This is Jason Storms, he is the director of Operation Save America, and he's going to tell us a little bit about What what they're working on?

36:33

Amen Everybody wake up for that fantastic lunch Amen, that was good very good.

36:39

We are appreciative of it Ernie Thank you for that brother and all the ladies you ladies in the kitchen hard -working in the kitchen. Thank you so much for doing

36:47

And so you'll have to forgive me I Come from a area of Frozen tundra, so it's nice to be down here and warmer hearts warmer climate warmer people.

36:58

I love coming to the south I live in Milwaukee, Wisconsin But I lived in New Orleans for a long time and I actually got saved in my life to Christ in New Orleans in 1997 and so my conversion to Christ was coincide with a conversion to southern culture, so I love southern culture

37:13

I love southern people. I'm a Saints fan. Don't hold it against me. I'm an LSU fan really Please don't hold it against me

37:18

But I've been I've been on deployment in the frozen tundra for 17 years in Wisconsin where my wife grew up But we were blessed to have 10 children homeschooling them up there and in the frozen tundra where we're

37:30

Green Bay Packer fans there yay, and we beer brats and cheese curds, but Anyway, it's it's good to be down here

37:38

And the same things that are happening in your state are happening in states all over the country And it is very unfortunate to see in So many ways that that that despite having pro -life majorities in so many states even with pro -life majorities

37:53

We sadly do not get a lot of policy victories in Operation Save America the ministry that I Am currently running and have worked with for many years

38:01

They've been around in the front lines for over 30 years in this fight standing and getting churches mobilized to engage the culture of death and to get

38:09

Christians to go to the what I call the gates of hell the abortion clinics and to plead for the lives of these babies to preach the gospel and to seek to exalt

38:17

Christ in these places of darkness and we've been on the front lines for a long time in 1997 was the year that my father who was a pastor in New Orleans took me to an abortion clinic and I remember seeing women coming in and out of that clinic and watching them as they would leave the clinic holding their stomachs and in weeping and and Just knowing what had just happened to them and when

38:36

I was 18 years old I had a girlfriend that had an abortion living in California and devastated her life I remember she called me on the phone told me she was pregnant.

38:44

Both of us were against abortion I don't know why I was against abortion I was a lost heathen kid but for some reason

38:49

I wasn't and we both said we were against abortion people should take Responsibility for their actions and I remember she called me and she said, you know,

38:55

I'm pregnant Jason. What should I do? And in a long pause and I said well whatever you want to do and she knew of course exactly what that meant

39:04

That's your problem. That's your decision. You do what you want to do. Don't look to me for help and I was sadly a selfish

39:11

Lost young man and sadly, there are so many young men that have been emasculated in our culture And as I often like to say if there's one thing that's needed above all else in this country

39:19

It's a revival of godly masculinity Amen, and we desperately desperately need that and really we are where we are because of the failure of men to be men

39:28

And so she said well, I guess I'm gonna go get an abortion And so after a long pause in the phone,

39:33

I said well if that's what you want to do That's what you want to do and she hung up and that was the last time

39:39

I ever talked to her never saw her again She was from a very strict Japanese family, and I know that was devastating to her and her family

39:45

She went through with the abortion and never saw her again, but all I heard from other friends. It was devastating to her now

39:52

Why did why does she do that? And you say was she a victim or was will be victims. I would say well, I was the culprit.

39:58

I was deserving of Just punishment and I can tell you this if there had been a law in California at that time that her and I would have been held accountable

40:09

Subject to legal sanction. We probably would not have done it. I can almost guarantee we would not have done it she went and got an abortion and it devastated her life and destroyed our child because it was so easy to do because she was granted

40:20

Immunity and given license by the state to do it and had that not been the case I would have a 26 year old son or daughter here with me today

40:28

And so this that we're talking about is not just an academic matter.

40:33

It's not just a matter of theology This is a matter of literal life and death and the lives of Thousands of little

40:42

Alabama babies hanging the balance With what the men in this room decide to do amen with this information and what the the men who lead this state decide to do with this information and So the one thing that is lacking in addition to the lack of proper doctrinal understanding as as Jeff laid out very clearly for us and as Bradley laid out very clear clearly for us

41:07

What is lacking beyond that? understanding of proper doctrinal and theological understanding is proper character

41:21

So we must have orthodoxy, right? We must have right thought right belief, but we also must have orthopraxy

41:27

We must have right practice and you can have all the best doctrine and theology in the world

41:33

But if you lack courage if you lack character It will all be for naught right, and so as Ernie said courage is that that very virtue where all other virtues are tested and So it doesn't matter what you say you believe about the preborn child

41:51

It doesn't matter what you say you believe about being pro -life or an abolitionist What matters is are you willing to stand up and lay your life down?

41:58

Are you willing to follow in the footsteps of your Savior deny yourself take up your cross and follow him and do the hard things?

42:06

Do the difficult things because this is not an easy fight It's easy to stand up here and tell you this is what we ought to do

42:13

What's not easy is to get into the trenches and actually do the hard work and there is hard work before you

42:18

We make no illusions as to pretend that this is going to be an easy fight that you will not suffer that you will not Be persecuted that you will not be beat up and even abandoned by some people that you thought were your friends

42:27

Stabbed in the back and spit upon but guess what? That's what they did to our Savior Amen, and so this is the point where our faith is tested

42:36

And you say how did we get here? How did we get to this place? Where this is the situation where we've won elections pro -life people have been put in office all across the country and in states

42:48

Like Alabama, we have pro -life super majorities in The George Bush era for those of you that lived through that we had six years of pro -life majorities all three branches of our federal government and pro -life

43:01

Leaders in the majority of our states for six years and not a single thing was done to restrict abortion in any substantive way and The in the

43:11

Donald Trump era 2016 to 2018 We had pro -life super majorities and all three branches of our federal government 32 state governments pro -life majorities and those pro -life leaders wrote 500 million dollar checks to Planned Parenthood and And abortion continued on unabated now

43:29

I'm thankful for the Supreme Court justices that Donald Trump appointed and I'm thankful that Donald Trump was a fighter

43:35

I think he was the best president of my lifetime And the one thing that Donald Trump brought to the table was somebody who when he got punched he punched back

43:42

Somebody who had backbone and I would to God that the men that stand in our pulpits would have that kind of backbone.

43:47

Amen Because it's desperately desperately needed. So we've gotten here We've gotten to this place because here's the game that's being played, right?

43:55

Jeff talked about the dirty little secret of the pro -life industry and here's what's happening the

44:01

Republican Party Funnels billions of dollars through its coffers.

44:07

Do you understand that? And so the real enemy here is not even really the pro -life establishment

44:12

It is really the Republican establishment which is really the political establishment in this country that has bought and paid for how many of you know that Washington DC is a

44:20

Successful of corruption and bribery and most of our state capitals. I would dare say all of our state capitals

44:27

Are not a whole lot different the amount of money that runs through the state capitals that runs through the state capitol in Montgomery the big special interest groups

44:36

The Ernie you're gonna see you're seeing it already I'm sure brother right the amount of money that runs through people's hands from organizations that do not care about protecting life

44:46

And so what here's what they do Republican leaders They rise to leadership positions most often because of the most willing to take the bribes

44:53

They rise to positions of power and authority and what they do is they seek out organizations that are going to give them political cover

45:00

They know that they have to get pro -life votes. And so what they do is they seek out a pro -life organization that are willing

45:06

To be a conduit for their money and they will elevate that pro -life organization in in our state

45:13

For example, I'll give you an example of how it goes down I don't know if it goes down exactly like this in Alabama But in our state, we have a speaker of our house

45:18

Robin Voss. Robin Voss is his name he's not a good man at all, but though he claims to be pro -life and He goes to Wisconsin right to life's fundraising dinners

45:29

And he says Wisconsin right to life is fighting for babies in Wisconsin Give them your money give them support and he channels money into their organization

45:36

It was constant right to life has grown into the largest pro -life organization in the state of Wisconsin Largely due to the

45:42

Republican establishment putting their stamp of approval on them So what is Wisconsin right to life do Wisconsin right life turns around and they go to Robin Voss's Fundraisers and his campaign stumps and when he has a primary challenge from a good guy

45:53

They go there and they say Robin Voss is a hundred percent pro -life. He's fighting for babies And so they both scratch each other's backs.

46:00

They both raise money for each other They both give each other cover and in reality Here's what's happens in the Republican caucus

46:05

Robin Voss brings all the Republicans together And he says you will not talk about abortion in the caucus

46:10

You will not pass or we will not put forward any bills you get one pro -life bill and it better be very very very safe and very mediocre and any

46:20

Republican pro -life Legislator that puts forth any bill to contrary gets punished gets campaign funding diverted away from them

46:28

One gentleman, that's a champion in our state for pro -life causes our Republican pro -life speaker of the house

46:34

Actually drew this guy out of his own district redistricted his district drew him out of his own district

46:40

So he had to sell his house and move then they found a primary challenger to run against him gave that guy $500 ,000 to try to unseat this incumbent sitting

46:48

Republican merely because he would not stop talking about abortion Now this was all done quietly the average

46:54

Wisconsinite the average pro -life person in our state does not even know that this is going on Wisconsin right to life while that was happening was going

47:01

And stumping for Robin Voss and saying he's a pro -life man. He's fighting for babies in the legislature

47:06

And so this is the game that's being played and I can guarantee it's being played here in Wisconsin I'm sorry in Alabama.

47:12

I can guarantee you There are folks that do not want to touch the issue that we're bringing up here There are folks in Alabama and the legislature that do not want to pick this fight

47:20

They do not want to have a public debate about whether women should be punished for abortion They want to keep things just as they are and they will find quote -unquote pro -life organizations to provide them cover

47:30

They will funnel resources into those organizations and it's a big charade and it's designed to confuse voters

47:37

It's designed to confuse the average person who doesn't have the time or energy to pay attention to what's going on in the state legislature and it's why despite 40 years of winning elections

47:48

Pro -life versus really cannot point to one substantive policy victory and why abortion is still legal in all 50 states

47:56

So that's the lay of the land. That's what we need to be aware of That's the game that's being played when you be wise as serpents harmless as does we need to stand up and fight these things

48:03

Amen, and so I want to thank you all for coming to this I want to thank the folks that are here that put this on we're gonna have a

48:10

Q &A panel after brother Paul gets up here and speaks to us and brother Paul's gonna close this out and After that, we're gonna have a good

48:16

Q &A So if you have some questions some things you want to unpack some things you've heard you have questions about bring them to the table

48:21

Let's have a robust discussion about them But I want to tell you dig in your heels stand up and get ready to fight because this is gonna be a fight

48:27

Amen, and let's let's let's stand up as men with strong backbones strength of character.

48:33

Not just right thinking but right action Amen, god bless you Thank You Jason Like he said we're gonna do a

48:47

Q &A in just a little bit So I'm gonna keep this introduction short Paul Abbott. The second is a board member of end abortion,

48:54

Alabama He lives in Northeast, Alabama Many of you may know him and he's gonna come up wrap things up for our speakers once Paul's done we're gonna take a quick break get everything set up for the

49:05

Q &A hope you've been jotting down all your questions and That's the plan. Oh Yes, my name is

49:17

Paul Abbott the second Paul Abbott Senior over here as well as my mother and then some of my siblings are here.

49:23

There are nine children I'm the the oldest of them our family has spent the last six years heavily involved in the fight against abortion

49:34

For some time we've been going out to the abortion mills regularly used to go out to the one in Huntsville Try to go every

49:40

Friday, but thankfully since June 24th of last year all the abortion clinics in this state Have ceased operations as far as abortion are concerned.

49:49

A couple of them are still open and referring women to Florida or Georgia But as far as we know the abortions have stopped in them, of course as you've already heard

49:59

That doesn't mean that abortions have stopped in this state even before Roe v. Wade was overturned 54 % of abortions in the

50:07

United States were done by way of the pill And they were not done in the way that we might simply think of an abortion.

50:13

I think in our mind oftentimes abortion means Surgical it means a vacuum or the forceps or whatever, but even before This latest from court decision that actually wasn't the case for most abortions.

50:25

And of course since Roe was overturned the number the percentage of the abortions that are done by Chemical has greatly increased

50:35

There is of course, no There is no law in this state

50:41

Prohibiting it any way to sell the abort sale the abortion pill or the mailing of the abortion pill not just for The woman swallowing the pill but any part of that process.

50:51

There is no repercussion. There's no penalty at all For anyone involved in that It was already mentioned how last year some of the

51:01

Republicans in this state were quick to make comments about how they wanted to look at amending the

51:10

Life Act from 2019 and Possibly make it even more lenient for abortions

51:15

But it wasn't just last year when the Life Act passed back in 2019 right at that time

51:21

The Republicans in the state were already saying those same things Terry Collins the author of the bill

51:28

I was at the committee hearing at the State House in Montgomery and heard her say this is not a line in the sand

51:34

She was saying that I don't actually want this law to be enforced I'm just sort of prodding the

51:41

Supreme Court to take a look at abortion And then we'll go from there if they let us enforce the law

51:47

Mack McCutcheon who was our Speaker of the House at the time He since resigned but Speaker McCutcheon said a similar thing. He said

51:52

I hope this law is never enforced even though he Supported it. He said hoped it was never enforced because it's just too strict

52:00

It's not leaving enough room for someone wanting to get an abortion Governor Ivey as is mentioned

52:05

She signed the bill into law in 2019 and then she released a statement that same day Saying I quote we must always respect the authority of the

52:14

US Supreme Court Even when you disagree with their decisions and she'd gone to say in that in that press release that she had no intention of enforcing this

52:23

Bill that she had just herself put her signature on she was happy to pass the buck to him court and Rely on Their erroneous decision in a row and Planned Parenthood versus Casey And use that as an excuse to not actually enforce the law

52:40

So abortions nothing happened to them in 2019 many people thought that abortions were illegal but that would law was never enforced and so abortion continued unabated right until June of last year and of course as Bradley said there hasn't been any real enforcement of the law

52:58

So to speak there. There's just a threat of that that has closed down the abortion clinics That's really just stopped the professional abortionist and abortions are happening by the thousands still every year in this state

53:10

It's just even now actually hard to track it down and harder for us to see where it is happening

53:18

So Speaker of the House are our bill author our governor many

53:23

Republicans are Open even to going the other way now.

53:28

This is the first year that this bill have been introduced So actually it's technically not introduced yet.

53:33

Hopefully by the 21st of this month. They'll be introduced Once the special session is over, but the bill has been written.

53:39

We are on our end. We're ready for it to go the It's the first time in Alabama that we have had a bill like this all of the

53:47

Various pro -life bills have been passed including the Life Act of 2019 had massive loopholes in them

53:53

Where it was still legal many ways to get abortion. It's not just the fact that the 2019 law Said that we couldn't criminalize or penalize a mother for getting abortion also had fetal abnormality exception saying that if the

54:07

Doctor thought that the that the fetus in the womb had a severe abnormality Then that was an excuse for an abortion

54:12

It also gave the excuse that if the doctor Thought that the woman would give a self and would do a self -induced abortion that he could go ahead and just do it for anyways

54:21

Because she would risk damaging herself, of course a massive loophole

54:28

So what an abortion Alabama is going to be doing is we're going to be supporting this bill we're going to supporting representative

54:33

Yarbrough as he files a spill and We're going to be pushing for to get a committee hearing and so we're going to be hoping that whatever committee that is assigned to That there is a hearing on the bill.

54:44

That's been a fight just In and of itself, I think only two states have given hearings to our bills in the past course here about Louisiana, Louisiana Only the only state out of 15 or so states have seen these bills

54:57

Louisiana is the only one that even voted the bill out of committee

55:03

And as you heard earlier that was that was then defeated by the full House of Representatives But we're going to be trying to do that here

55:12

We have a very new Republican caucus in our House of Representatives over one -third of the

55:19

Republican members of the state house We're just elected for their first term last November. So we have a very large

55:26

Group of freshmen including representative Yarbrough and that could be a good thing.

55:31

They're they're more independent they haven't been perhaps swayed by the Establishment there at the at the state house

55:39

Actually, he was telling me yesterday of another issue about how they were the establishment leaders

55:45

We're trying to hold back and say well these the freshmen they really don't know What they should believe about this issue, so we can't really bring it up right now until next year

55:53

So we have time to get them into line And so, you know that may work in our favor and these

56:00

Representatives who have not been there very long. They many of them did not vote for the Life Act because they were not there in 2019 and maybe we'll be able to to convince them of the truth of this but Really Whether or not this bill passes isn't the main issue here

56:19

That's end abortion. Alabama would love to see this this become law But our primary goal is to glorify

56:26

Christ our primary goals Is that Christ will be exalted in the state of Alabama that his gospel be proclaimed and that his unchanging standard for?

56:36

righteousness and justice Would be upheld and that is really what we exist to do. We are not first and foremost a political organization

56:43

We are certainly going to be talking legislators and lobbying and hoping that they pass this law But we exist to help the church in Alabama to understand what

56:51

God's view of justice is and how God wants us to care for our pre -born neighbors to help the church to love our pre -born neighbors as we love ourselves the

57:02

I Don't want you to get Confused as in what our our request of you is we're not asking you as Pastors to be more political in fact in anything we're asking to be less political as far as the the partisan aspect or We're not asking you to be endorsing candidates to ask you to leave your pulpits and run for office

57:23

The thing is the our problem is that the pro -life establishment has been too political

57:28

They've been looking at the political situation and in large part the pro -life establishment the pro -life movement has

57:34

Been a front for the GOP it's been a front Republican Party exists in large part to elect

57:41

Republican candidates before anything else and so that's why you'll see them

57:46

Sending you mailers telling you to vote for such as a candidate who has voted for Abortion funding who has voted against bills that would abolish abortion and that happens all the time

57:59

The pro -life issue is a very important issue many people many people Genuinely care about abortion and want to see it ended and so when the

58:07

Republican Party is able to use that as a wedge issue To get votes for them. It is very powerful

58:12

I've spoken to many voters just on the phone or out door knocking for candidates And if they see that a right -to -life group has endorsed that candidate that is all they need to know that is that is good

58:22

For them, and they're gonna go vote for that candidate. I'm glad that they Take this issue seriously.

58:28

I'm glad that they care about abortion and protecting the lives of the unborn But the Republican establishment sees that and they have taken that and manipulated the church into just doing

58:39

Whatever they say is the way to see abortion Ended and so at an abortion

58:46

Alabama. We are not asking you to engage in partisan politics. We're not asking you really to do anything other than just Proclaim the scriptures faithfully and hold

58:57

Christians accountable for their actions be calling the people in Alabama to repentance

59:06

Nathan the Prophet confronted David over his sin With Bathsheba and he very directly and pointedly told him thou art the man

59:15

Even though David was a man after God's own heart We see the king

59:21

Uzziah and 2nd Chronicles 26 It says but when he was strong his heart was lifted up in it to his destruction free transgressed against the

59:28

Lord as God and went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the altar of Incense and as arrived the priests went in after him and with him four score priests of the

59:36

Lord that were valiant men And they withstood Uzziah the king and said unto him it Appertained is not unto thee

59:42

Uzziah to burn incense unto the Lord But to the priests sons of Aaron that are consecrated to burn incense

59:48

Go out of the sanctuary for thou has trespassed Neither shall it be for thine honor from the Lord God Then as I was wroth and had a censer in his hand to burn incense and while he was wroth at the priest's leprosy even rose up in his forehead before the priests in the house of the

01:00:01

Lord from beside the incense altar and Azariah the chief priest and all the priests looked upon him and behold he was leprous in his forehand and they thrust him out from Thence yea himself hasted

01:00:10

Also to go out because the Lord had smitten him if you read in Second Kings, you'll see that Uzziah Was one of the good kings of Judah He is one who said that it said that he did that which was right in the sight of the

01:00:26

Lord and yet when it came to a point where he broke from that and began to do

01:00:34

Iniquitous and unlawful things offering sacrifices The Ecclesiastical leaders of the day were quick to stand up and confront him and say no, this is not your place

01:00:42

This is what the Word of God Says John the Baptist he rebuked the king for committing adultery. And so that is all we're asking to do we're just asking you to faithfully preach the

01:00:52

Word of God and When Republican professing Christian politicians come and say well, this is how we end abortion

01:00:59

We say no, actually, this is what the Bible has to say about any abortion This is what God's standard is

01:01:05

Deuteronomy 27 19 says cursed be he that perverted the judgment of the fatherless

01:01:12

And the next line says and all the people shall say amen and the church in Alabama has not been

01:01:18

Saying amen to Deuteronomy 27 19 instead We have been blessing those politicians and those pro -life leaders who are asking us to treat the unborn

01:01:29

With partiality and injustice that we've repent and looked to the unchanging

01:01:35

Standard of our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen So take a quick break and we will then have the