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Don’t Support Wicked Laws

 

(Image credit: Scott Graham)

 

An Abolitionist Response to the Catholic Diocese of Lincoln and Nebraska Family Alliance

 

 

Nearly all abortions are legal in Nebraska.

 

The CDC states that 93.5% of all abortions nationwide take place in the first trimester. When we add to that percentile the additional exceptions Nebraska statutes allow for in second and third trimesters (rape, incest, life of mother), as well as the rising number of self-managed abortions that do not occur within the official healthcare system, it is inarguable that the overwhelming majority of abortions in Nebraska that parents wish to commit are already legal.

 

Why are they legal? Because current state laws, the Nebraska Revised Statutes, regulate abortion (as if it were healthcare): they define the how, when, where, by whom, and with what, abortions may take place.

 

These laws acquit guilty mothers and fathers who murder their own children, while condemning their innocent victims to merciless deaths. Such laws are wicked, and God hates them. He has said this very plainly in his Word: “Acquitting the guilty and condemning the innocent — the Lord detests them both” (Proverbs 17:15, NIV).

 

But what does the pro-life establishment think of such laws? And why do we take issue with their stance, however well-intentioned it may be?

 

Below we provide three (out of many) problems with Initiative 434. For more information, please visit www.NoToBoth.org.

 

 

Problem #1: Unequal Protection

 

The Catholic Diocese of Lincoln’s recent article by Tom Venzor concludes with a summary image urging viewers to “Vote for 434: Keep Nebraska Nebraska.” Nebraska Family Alliance similarly, in an email to subscribers dated October 19th, stated that a vote for Initiative 434 is a vote “for protecting our existing pro-life laws.” They say plainly that this is what the initiative was designed to do.

 

You read that right. Pause and think about this. A vote for 434 is a vote to protect existing pro-life laws. The same laws in Nebraska which permit nearly all abortions, laws that God calls detestable — a vote for 434 is a vote for protecting those very laws. It is a vote to endorse the regulation of murder. It is a vote to support when, where, and how abortions can legally occur. And yet, Nebraska Family Alliance, stunningly, calls this “protection from abortion.”

 

The Bible tells us that it is a mark of a true Christian to “abhor what is evil” (Romans 12:9), not to cast your vote in favor of it. Again, the Scriptures say: “Hate evil, and love good, and establish justice” (Amos 5:15, ESV), not compromise with evil, delay good, and pervert justice. And God’s prophet Isaiah cries, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil” (Isaiah 5:20)!

 

Our state’s motto is “Equality Before the Law.” Voting for 434 advances and supports the very opposite of this.

 

 

Problem #2: Constitutional Subversion

 

Our state’s constitution says that all persons have a right to life, that no person can be deprived of this right without due process of law, and also, that no person can be denied equal protection of the laws. Yet Venzor’s article says that Nebraska’s constitution does not currently provide any protection for the unborn.

 

To this, we simply ask: Then why would you promote the insertion of an article into the constitution that would weaken the very argument that when the constitution says “person,” it is meant to include the preborn? As constitutional attorney Bradley Pierce, who has worked tirelessly for the abolition of abortion in dozens of states, has explained: “Nebraska Initiative 434 would undermine both the equal protection and right to life provisions of the state’s constitution and weaken the argument that they should be interpreted to apply to preborn persons.”

 

The major pro-life groups disagree with our referring to their laws as amounting to a “right to abortion.” But if a woman can murder her preborn child in nearly every case, and that without any penalty whatsoever, it sounds like a right to us. And if Initiative 434, as they themselves admit, would by its passing protect those very laws that allow women to commit such murders with impunity, it is hardly a stretch to conclude that it would therefore be constitutionally protecting a woman’s right to abortion. Attorney Bradley Pierce affirms that 434 can be legally interpreted in this way: “a judge without judicial principles could even try to interpret Initiative 434 to protect a right to abortion in the first trimester.”

 

 

Problem #3: Pragmatic Foundations

 

Nebraska Family Alliance and the Catholic Diocese of Lincoln, et al., have also urged citizens to vote for 434 because of polling that indicated 439 had more than 50% of support, and because they say other states tried to defeat initiatives similar to 439 but failed.

 

To the first, we profess that we stand unashamedly on the Word of God as our standard for all of life. We have already demonstrated that a vote for 434 is a vote to uphold iniquitous and unjust laws that God hates. Nowhere does God allow us to pick and choose which commands of his we will obey. Instead: “You shall be careful therefore to do as the Lord your God has commanded you. You shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left” (Deuteronomy 5:32, ESV). To endorse evil laws in an attempt to “save babies” is to make oneself out to be wiser than God. We agree with the Norman Statement in saying: “We deny that public polling or the political winds should dictate what Christians say and do in the political sphere.”

 

God commands us to seek justice, to correct oppression, and to bring justice to those who need it the most (Isaiah 1:16–17). Nowhere are we permitted to pervert justice in order to try to save lives.

 

To the second, it is not surprising that the pro-life movement failed in other states. Nebraska Family Alliance and the Catholic Diocese of Lincoln both mentioned Ohio as an example. But what was the Ohio pro-life establishment’s message? What was their “robust ‘vote no’ campaign” that Nebraska Family Alliance speaks of? In a flyer that Protect Women Ohio widely distributed, their first two talking points as to why people should vote against the abortion amendment in their state were that it would “Erase the basic rights of parents” and “Jeopardize basic health and safety protections for patients when it comes to abortions.” Would morally upright citizens listen to such weak, unpersuasive, and sickening messaging? Even when the flyer mentioned late-term abortions, it referred to them as “painful” (for the woman). Is it really any wonder their campaign failed?

 

Initiative 439 is evil, yes. Hate it. Vote against it. But please know that Initiative 434 is also unjust, also evil, and also deserving of condemnation. We urge the reader not to be like King Saul, who took his cue from what most people said they wanted, and in doing so rejected the clear command of God. This was to his own downfall, for God then rejected him (1 Samuel 15:24). As the Scriptures say twice, and with exactly the same words: “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death” (Proverbs 14:12 and 16:25, ESV).

 

Any amount of injustice we see or perceive taking place in other states should cause us all the more to seek justice here in Nebraska, not pass or uphold unjust laws of our own!

 

 

Our Earnest Conclusion

 

We repeat, again, the indisputable reality that nearly all abortions are legal in Nebraska. This is what Nebraska Family Alliance, incredibly, calls a “floor of protection.” But it is what God calls a perversion of justice, and showing partiality (Deuteronomy 16:19).

 

Protecting these laws is what they refer to as ensuring that “Nebraska remains a pro-life state.” Again, you read that right. This is what “pro-life” has come to mean: a situation where nearly all abortions are legal. Is this not, in the end, hardly distinguishable from the pro-choice position?

 

If either measure passes, abortion wins. The only losers under such an amended constitution will be more and more preborn children, made in the image of God but condemned to death by the law.

 

Dear reader, we plead with you: Do not follow the multitude in doing evil, so as to pervert justice (Exodus 23:2). Do not give your approval to the practice of wickedness (Romans 1:32). Do not use your own hand to support the writing of a law that upholds the oppression of the needy and most innocent among us (Isaiah 10:1–2).

 

Reject the false choice. Refuse to compromise. Take a stand for truth and justice. Vote with a clear conscience. Vote against both 439 and 434.

 

Abolish Abortion Nebraska, www.AbolishAbortionNE.org

End Abortion Nebraska, www.EndAbortionNE.com