Why A Life Amendment Is Imperative

Throughout Scripture two conditions sever man’s relationship with God and bring destruction upon nations: idolatry and shedding innocent blood. Abortion manifests both. Abortion sacrifices an innocent human being, made in the image of God, for “choice”. God warned Israel that He would not listen to their many prayers for their hands were full of blood, and He sent even His chosen people into captivity.

With legalized abortion, America has the unprecedented national policy of unrestrained killing of innocent human beings. We cannot sweep 60 million aborted children under the rug with a God who sees the sparrow fall. Thomas Jefferson said it well, “I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever.” Slavery and a civil war bore out his fear. And abortion is even more final than slavery. It places America at enmity with God.

For this reason it is imperative that the pro-life movement clearly establishes that its over-arching objective is to make abortion illegal as our national policy as quickly as possible.

To bring this into focus, consider that activities comprising the pro-life movement can be placed in two categories: 1) activities that reduce legal abortion, and 2) activities that end legal abortion.

A listing of these activities by these two categories shows the stark reality of their effect.

A further expansion and explanation of activities that reduce abortion can be found in A Guide To Pro-Life Activism at www.LifePriority.net or provided by e-mail at your request.

Reducing abortion and ending abortion are not mutually exclusive activities. If combined they have the potential to end the abortion holocaust. However, where one’s focus is exclusively on reducing abortion, no matter how well intentioned and dedicated the endeavor, that activity is essentially living with abortion and preborn children will continue to die. It provides no enforceable end to legal abortion.

To end abortion, pro-life must strike at the core of the holocaust by making abortion illegal throughout the nation. Only an amendment to the U.S. Constitution fulfills this need. Pro-life legislation has repeatedly failed before a hostile President or Supreme Court, however neither is required for an amendment. A reversal of Roe v Wade, even if accomplished, would only return America to its pre-Roe condition for each state to decide whether or not to make abortion legal.

As a case in point, in 2002 a California pro-abortion legislature and governor passed and signed SB 1301, locking abortion on demand into state law. Thus, California, which accounts for 1/5th of all abortions in America, would be unaffected by a reversal of Roe; it would be business as usual.

The abolition of slavery provides noteworthy parallels and insight for abolishing abortion. Slavery was an economic and moral issue in colonial America. Our Constitution and Bill of Rights failed to explicitly exclude slavery in America, denying slaves personhood and protection of the law. Similarly, Roe and Doe deny the preborn child personhood and fail to extend 5th and 14th Amendment protection to the preborn child.

In the early decades of the 1800s the slavery pendulum swung to and fro. Under President Thomas Jefferson, the importation of slaves was ended in 1808. However, the invention of the cotton gin made cotton the economy giant of the south and slaves were essential to economically pick cotton. Slaves came from and were bred in the indigenous black population.

The hypocrisy of slavery in a nation founded upon the God-given right to liberty enflamed many Americans, but this was moderated by the prospect of southern state secession and the collapse of the nation itself. Note the parallel hypocrisy of the God-given right to life being denied to the preborn child for socio-economic reasons of an unwanted pregnancy and corresponding public ambivalence.

Church denominations split over slavery, laws were passed to balance incoming territories as being slave or free, and compromise was repeatedly made to preclude secession. With the advent of the Civil War, it was evident that compromise had failed.

From its beginning in 1854, the Republican Party opposed the expansion of slavery into new territories, while the Democratic Party championed slavery. Again the parallel with abortion is stark and clear between the Republican pro-life platform and the Democrat pro-abortion platform.

As the civil war engulfed the nation, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, granting freedom to slaves in the secessionist states, but not in the Union. Freedom for the slave was not assured even among the northern states during the Civil War. However, the Emancipation Proclamation was tactically effective, raised slavery to military significance, and set the path toward abolition.

In 1988, President Ronald Reagan issued a Proclamation of Personhood for every American from the moment of conception until natural death. It challenges the Supreme Court position on Roe that the preborn human is a non-person and does not merit protection under the law. As with slavery, it placed the Executive and Judicial branches of government at odds with each other.

What would the Legislative branch do with slavery? Historian James Oakes writes “In retrospect, it seems obvious that the easiest way to destroy slavery was to add an amendment to the Constitution abolishing it.” Such an amendment was introduced as a joint resolution in February 1864. It was passed by the Senate in April, but stunningly, in the House it was yet 13 votes short of passage in June. It took 8 more months of persuasion and pressure before the House finally approved the 13 th Amendment which, when ratified by the states, ended slavery in America.

Can a similar end to abortion occur? Yes! As with slavery, an amendment to the U.S. Constitution can guarantee the end of an errant national policy. As with slavery, a morally dedicated movement opposed to injustice is essential to advance an amendment through the rigors demanded for its passage.

The pro-life movement is vital to advancing a Life Amendment and you are needed. To get started, pray that God will bless the Life Amendment and your personal efforts toward its passage. Join the campaign. You will be kept informed of Life Amendment activity and opportunities to help move the Amendment forward. Continue to visit www.LifeAmendment.org for current information on progress of the Life Amendment.

We look forward to your participation with us. You will be making history, you will be ending the abortion holocaust, and you will be setting America right with God.

Sincerely,

The Life Amendment Coalition