ACLJ’s Massive 50 State Battle

This is Jay Sekulow, the ACLJ's massive 50-state battle for life. Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Sekulow. We want to hear from you.

Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now your host, Jay Sekulow. Hey, everybody. Well, tomorrow, on Saturday, it is the one-year anniversary since the decision in the Dobbs case. Now, this is the most significant case, obviously, on the life issue that we've seen in our lifetime because it was the case that overturned Roe v. Wade, said there was not a constitutional right to abortion.

We're celebrating that victory, but also recognizing that we are in a 50-state battle. In fact, if you go to ACLJ.org, on our website, there is a map of the United States, and if you click on any state, it will tell you what we're doing in that state, it will tell you what the legislation is in that state, it will tell you the nature of the fight that we're doing, and what you can do to impact legislation to create a culture of life in the states. Because the elimination of Roe v. Wade as recognizing a constitutional right under the Equal Protection and Due Process Clause, which was flawed from the beginning, removed that club that the pro-abortion groups had of saying, well, you're interfering with the constitutional right. One of the great things about the decision, I have to say, is, and we take a lot of pride in this at the ACLJ, in the right way, and I mean pride in the sense that God gave us this opportunity to do this case, we argued serious cases in the 90s, early 90s, late 80s actually, early 90s culminated at the U.S. Supreme Court with a series of cases representing groups like Operation Rescue.

These were abortion protesters, Logan, you remember those cases. The interesting aspect of that was that ended up, those cases had language in the opinions, we won those cases, that served as the basis for the decision in Dobbs. Yeah, it definitely was making steps towards it for the entire length of the organization. I think that was always important, we always tried to push that and tell people, yes, it may not be the final decision you're looking for, but these incremental moves meant a lot in the final decision on overturning.

They meant the most, and the word you used was incremental. We had incremental victories along the way. We had some setbacks too, I mean there were cases that went the other way. But I will never forget in the case in Bray versus Alexandria Women's Health Clinic, Janie Bray was the petitioner, she was a pro-life activist. When the decision came out in the case, I sent her a message, an email, saying congratulations, 30 years later, the words of Justice Antonin Scalia rang true in 1991 and they did in 2022. And here's what they said, this course has stated that the goal of preventing abortion does not constitute invidious, discriminatory animus against women. Accordingly, laws regulating prohibiting abortion are not subject to heightened scrutiny, rather they are governed by the same standard of view as other health and safety measures. So you see, that statement right there, which served as the basis for the decision in Dobbs, and this was again a case we argued in 1991 and 1992, I had argued it twice, John Roberts was my co-counsel, he represented the United States, who was on our side, really speaks volumes. It does speak volumes, and the fact that the pro-abortion side always wants to say that limiting and restricting abortion somehow discriminates against women, which is ridiculous, it absolutely does not, and like you said, that case was a cornerstone case, it was very key, and it was that language that they used in the Dobbs decision, which was great. Yeah, and there was another one of our cases cited, because we talk about this abortion distortion factor, where the issue of abortion distorts jurisprudence, and the court in that, and again, citing one of our cases said, the court's abortion cases have diluted the strict standards for facial constitutional challenges, and they have distorted the First Amendment, and they cite Hill versus Colorado, Justice Kennedy dissenting, Hill versus Colorado, also an ACLJ case. Logan, we are fully engaged on this issue.

Yeah, we encourage you to go to ACLJ.org to take a look at not only that map that we have, a new interactive map that tells you what's the current status, and what current cases we have going on for the battle for life, and you can do that at ACLJ.org, or directly ACLJ.org slash abortion, you can find that map right there. Again, not only take a look there, take a look at all of our social media platforms, I encourage you right now, whenever you're watching this on, if you're watching it live or recorded later on, click that subscribe button, that follow button, that like button, the share, do whatever you can, whatever you see is that one thing, because even if you can't support the work financially, that is a great way to get the word out. So right now, I encourage you, whatever it says to do on the platform of your choice, do it right now, and if you're listening on the radio, I guess tell your friends or give us a call at 1-800-684-3110. 1-800-684-3110.

That's 1-800-684-3110. To have your voice heard on the air, we'll be taking calls coming up very quickly. So you want to continue on with the discussion here?

We sure do. I'm going to talk about one case, and then we're going to take some phone calls, but we're back at the Supreme Court on the life issue right now, and we are representing a board member, former board member of the Center for Medical Progress. This is a group that has done a very effective job in uncovering some of the abuses that were taking place within the abortion industry, and we are representing Troy Newman, who was a board member. And the Center for Medical Progress conducted an undercover investigation that got into the sale of fetal body parts, as disgusting as that sounds, that was an actual practice. And this was a real serious issue, and they ended up getting federal and state legislation passed because of this. That's right, and what's amazing about this case is, as horrific as selling baby parts, fetal aborted baby parts, and actually, they would do abortions in a certain way so that they could harvest these parts.

All of that is illegal. And then we have our client's organization uncovering that and showing the barbarism and the illegality of this. And who gets in trouble? Because of the abortion distortion, the people that uncovered these horrors are the ones that get in trouble, and that's why we're representing them. So Planned Parenthood doesn't get prosecuted. You know, the abortion clinics that are selling the fetal body parts, they don't get prosecuted. Who gets prosecuted?

The undercover journalists that uncovered the illegal acts. That's how backwards it is. That's where Justice Alito was right. This abortion distortion is for real, and that's why we're fighting. Now, we're at the Supreme Court of the United States on a cert petition right now. Now, they're about to go into recess.

We will not know until the first Monday in October what's going to happen. But they have been found liable, our clients, under civil rico, racketeering, influence, and corrupt organizations. That's supposed to go after the mob, but they've gone after pro-lifers. And Logan, we talk about this double standard. We have video that we have at the ACLJ going all the way back showing the protest movement that we've been involved in, the legislative fights we've been in.

But we've got a history here, folks, that goes back literally three decades, almost four now. Yeah. And you can find a lot of that on ACLJ.org if you just go and look at some of that. We'll play some of it during the breaks, I'm sure, as well.

If you're watching on social media, when we take a radio break, we'll play a video, typically. You'll see some of that coming up here. And it should show the scope of the work and what we've been doing for the last 40 years or so with the ACLJ and how the work continues. I think there is a – look, there's problems going on in a lot of your pro-life organizations because you see the overturning of – it's been a year. Yeah. And a lot of – sorry, yeah, the decision to adopt the overturning of Roe. And a lot of people just thought, okay, it's over.

Moving on. That has been an issue. And that has been a big problem for organizations, including ours, into saying, no, no, no, if anything, there's more going on now than there ever has been. More litigation going on now and different because before we were fighting to overturn Roe versus Wade, which we were successful in overturning. But that simply returns it to the states. So now the states have it.

And when they have it, you've got to then fight it out on the state level. We've got a call coming in on that. Let's take Robert's call out.

All right. Robert and Marilyn on Line 1. You're on the air. Hi, Robert.

Yeah. Hi, Jordan. And also, hi, Jay. I just wanted to ask the both of you, what do Maryland's residents, pro-life residents, need to do to be successful in making sure that abortion doesn't become enshrined in the state constitution in the general election that's going to be on the ballot in November of 2024? You've got a tough situation, Robert and Marilyn, because you've got a very pro-abortion state.

And I'm going to talk about two cases we have there right now. But you've got a very pro-abortion state. Now, if the left on this, the abortion groups are unbelievably organized and, you know, they're spending the amount of money they're spending on these state initiatives is, Cece, breathtaking in scope.

They are really, really lined up for this. So our teams have to do the same thing. Absolutely. And when we see these ballot initiatives, what the issue is there is they always make the language very tricky. And so you don't know whether a yes vote is for or no vote is against.

You really don't know. So you need to be educated on that. And you also have to watch the spin of the other side because they will spin it and again make it like, oh, this is terrible for women and it's discriminatory against women.

Those kind of things, you know, you can't have a miscarriage or you'll be punished. Those kind of ridiculous statements and spins you have to watch out for. Let's play Chuck Schumer's statement. It follows exactly, exactly what Robert was just saying. This is how committed the Democrats are to a pro-abortion agenda. As we approach the anniversary of the cataclysmic Dobbs decision, it's an honor to stand with my colleagues here today to say loud and clear, Democrats will never, never stop fighting to protect a woman's right to choose. They are committed.

Okay. They're not only committed there, they're committed to shutting down the voice of pro-life protesters or even students. And we'll talk about that in the next segment of the broadcast. So you have both the fight on the legislative level. We've got 12 states that we're consulting with on legislation. And then we're going to go through, we started going through the litigation. We're right now at the Supreme Court of the United States. We've got multiple other cases we're going to be talking about in the remaining portions of this broadcast. Having said that, you've got to be prepared to fight. And here's the question I ask our audience, Logan, and that is, does our audience, do you the listeners and supporters of the ACLJ, is this issue of life still the issue that it was for you a year ago before Dobbs?

Because it really should be. And we'll take your calls at 1-800-684-3110. Yeah, we'll continue on. Let's go to Monica in New Mexico on Line 2. Monica, you're up. Oh, good morning.

Thank you for taking my phone call. I just wanted to point out that it seems that New Mexico is rarely mentioned in discussions like on your program or just, you know, just in different places. And we're actually one of the worst states for the murder of the unborn, as I'm sure you know that. Yeah, it's pretty much unregulated. And really on our map, if you go to the map at ACLJ, you can click on New Mexico and you can see exactly what it is.

And I believe it's black that says it's completely unregulated. That's the color that it is on our map on the ACLJ to show that abortion is not regulated in that state. So you look at these states, and this is why it's a 50-state fight, but you've got to be cognizant of your local politics and your statewide politics. I said this in our pre-meeting before we went on air, the way this is going to end up coming down, we're going to have states that are very pro-life and states that are not. And unfortunately, it looks like New Mexico is headed in that direction. Now, what they have to not do is silence the pro-life protester, silence the pro-life speech, silence or discriminate against those that maintain a pro-life position, not discriminate against a doctor who will not perform an abortion or a nurse who will not engage in abortion activities or a pharmacist who doesn't want to do that.

So we've got a whole series of those cases. But we have a 50-state plan here in place. In some states, it's going to be, Logan, defending life and winning and being able to secure victories for the life cause. In other states, it's going to be at least keeping the avenues open. For instance, California, on the pro-life message, we've had it. California is a very pro-abortion state. We've had a fight to keep the crisis pregnancy centers and pregnancy resource centers open because the state is trying to regulate them out of existence. So we're fighting to keep them open and that's part of the battle we're engaged in as well. Yeah.

All right. Well, we're still going to get some more calls up. Give us a call at 1-800-684-3110.

That's at 1-800-684-3110. But I think it's important when people see, they look at their map and maybe they are in one of those states that's, on our color-coded green, it's pretty much, there's no currently, there's no abortions happening in the state or very little laws banning them almost completely. And then you have that kind of all the way till you said black where there is multiple states and maybe they live in one of those states. And they do feel a little bit like our caller going, well, what do we do now? So what's important, I guess, is to get involved locally and see what the constituents of your area really feel because it may not be that they're aware that this is how unregulated it is.

No, I think that's absolutely true. And I think that's why, you know, each state is going to have a different type of litigation. As I said, we're at the Supreme Court of the United States right now, folks, where RICO laws being applied in California courts to silence investigative journalism, fundamental freedom of the press. And they're using the RICO statutes and they got a verdict.

And the Ninth Circuit affirmed it. So now we're at the Supreme Court of the United States because what do they want to do? They want to silence the pro-life, not just the message, even getting information out.

That's true. And, you know, we even fight at the city council level where when there are certain places where city councils will not let the pro-life message get out. And we've showed up and made sure that anybody who wants to speak a pro-life message and stand up for life is able to do that. So whether it's the Supreme Court of the United States or whether it's even just a city council meeting, we will make sure that the truth gets out there and that life is able to have a voice. This is a fight that we've engaged in since the 1980s, folks. And we started our work in 1992, but I was engaged in this battle before the ACLJ was even formed. And we're not going to stop.

We're not resting on our success in Dobbs. We're litigating around the country. As I said, 12 states that we're consulting with. As Cece said, some of these state measures are very confusing for people to read. They're confusing for lawyers to read, frankly, the way they're worded. So we're trying to bring clarity to that.

That's why we have this 50 state interactive map. You had your team, Logan, really get that as a resource for folks, but also a great reason to support the work of the ACLJ. And it's continually updated. So as these new cases come out, the new heartbeat bells, everything's passed, not like we rested on it a year ago.

It's updated continually. So if you want to know what's currently going on, also if there are cases going on, you can see those listed. Again, that's at ACLJ.org. You can support the work financially just by going there.

It's the easiest way to do it. ACLJ.org. Look for the big donate button. That's how you support the work. Continue not just this broadcast, but all of the legal work and all the other work that goes on at our organization.

You can do that literally by just visiting right now, ACLJ.org. And if you're watching on Rumble or you're watching on YouTube, I have one ask right now. And if you're brand new, which I know a lot of you are, click that subscribe or that follow button. It means the world to us. We appreciate it. We'll be right back. We're talking about life today because tomorrow, Saturday, the one year anniversary of the Dobbs decision overturning Roe vs. Wade.

And as I said at the beginning of the broadcast, our Bray decision that the Supreme Court served as a basis for that, the Supreme Court in Bray said that opposition to abortion was not discrimination against women. Let's go ahead and take a phone call. We're also going to talk about some other cases that we have pending right now. We're taking calls at 800-684-3110.

That's right. Let's go ahead to Deborah who's calling on line one. You're on the air. Hey, Deborah. Hi.

Yes. My question is, and I agree with you that abortion does not discriminate against or forbidding abortion does not discriminate against women. I agree with you. I have my own arguments. I was interested in your arguments why forbidding abortion does not discriminate against women. Let me tell you what I told the Supreme Court in 1991 and 1992. This is exactly the question that I was asked by the Chief Justice.

I remember the question being asked. And what I said was this. It's not an activity that is aimed at abortion, at women. It's the activity of abortion that men and women of good conscience were opposing. So it wasn't because they were women. It was because they were taking, it's the taking of a human life.

And the court in a six to three decision agreed with us on that and same again in the Dobbs case. So again, it was the act of abortion itself. And there were women that were opposed to abortion that of course are not discriminating against themselves. So the left was trying to make this equal protection clause argument that this is unequal treatment and the reality is it was the activity of abortion not the fact that they were women. True that only women could be pregnant. But it was the activity that was going to be engaged in by the abortionist that was the opposition and the court agreed with that. That's right.

Absolutely. It's the taking of an innocent life. And again, that's where abortion distortion happens. They always want to spin the argument and they always want to say, oh, this is about us protecting women, which we know Planned Parenthood does not care a thing about.

Because even when you try to put, you know, common sense laws in place that abortion clinics need to have, you know, abortions need to be done by a doctor, abortions, abortion clinics need to have sterile environment. Planned Parenthood fights those things. That's not because they want to protect women. They're not about protecting women. They're about the money making profiteering off of killing babies, abortion. That's what they care about.

Yeah. And let me take you from the Supreme Court and get you right down to the city courts in Baltimore because Robert from Maryland called earlier. We've got a case where two pro-lifers, Mark and Dick, been out in front of abortion clinics for decades and they simply share literature, talk to women that are seeking an abortion and offer alternatives for life. They're not blocking access.

They're not charged with blocking access. They were brutally attacked. I mean, brutally attacked. I want to play for you the video that the police department in Metro Baltimore has put out about our clients. It's graphic. I'll describe it as we play it for people to see.

So let's go ahead and roll it. Baltimore Police Department's Central District detectives need your help identifying a suspect involved in an assault that occurred on May 26, 2023, around 1020 in the morning in the 300 block of North Howard Street. Surveillance video shows the suspect, a white male with a beard, approaching a group outside the Planned Parenthood building. After a heated conversation, the suspect tackles one of the victims into the ground.

Another victim, who came to help, is then assaulted by the suspect. Anyone with information about the incident or the suspect is asked to call Central District detectives at 410-396-2411. To remain anonymous, call Metro Crimestoppers of Maryland at 1-866-7LOCKUP.

You can also submit a tax tip by visiting the MCS Maryland website. By the way, if you're in the Metro DC area or Baltimore and you recognize who this individual is, call that number because he's still at large. Now, Mark and Dick were brutally attacked.

These are guys in their 70s. Brutally attacked, kicked, dangerous. The police are looking for the individual.

Once that individual is caught, they're going to face criminal prosecution. They're going to face a very aggressive American Center for Law and Justice civil lawsuit. Because we're going to fight against this, because this is, again, another way to intimidate and silence pro-life speech, and we're not tolerated. Logan, let's take another call. All right, Mary Ellen in Illinois, Line 5, you're up.

Oh, hello. Robert triggered a thought in my mind with a lot of talk about President going forward being pro-life. And with Roe v. Wade back to the states, it's like, what's the chances of a President signing bills coming out of Congress versus governors who are responsible, you know, over their state? So should pro-lifers not be more focused and educated on what's going on in their state, I mean, rather than Congress? It's not mutually exclusive, but we do think, and you're right, that understanding what's going on in your state is critical, because what Roe did was return it to the states. And that's why we've got a map up of all 50 states so you can find out exactly what is going on in your state. Maryland, for instance, which is a very pro-abortion state, the fight there is to make sure pro-lifers can speak out. So that's what we're fighting there.

Yeah, absolutely. You're correct that when Roe was overturned and there was found in Dobbs that there's no constitutional right to abortion, then this issue did return to the states. So I encourage everyone who's listening, you have to be involved and engaged in what's going on in your state, and even in states, you know, we have states that literally abortions have been banned. I would encourage pro-lifers in those states not to give up the fight, because the fight's still going on, maybe perhaps not in your state, but it is one that needs to be engaged in. She said something during the break that I think is worthy of repeating here, and that is this attitude, there are states like Tennessee, Alabama, I could go through a list of them, probably 20 states, where abortion's not really an issue anymore on a statewide basis. But it is an issue for the rest of the country, and what we're trying to seek here is to protect the life of the unborn, no matter what state they live in.

That's right. It's still a United States issue, and even if it's not an issue in your state because Dobbs came down and then your state is very conservative and they are protecting life and not allowing abortion, you still need to be aware that this fight and battle is going on in other states. And try and be engaged and active, as active as you were previous to Dobbs. We're going to be on for another half hour. In the next segment of the broadcast, I'm going to get into two cases we have for life for students, where their message was being stifled by the federal government, and we're going to talk about where those cases are. But I go back to the nature of this fight. This is something we've been engaged in for almost 40 years. We're not backing down. We've seen victories. We're at the Supreme Court again on it. It's not on overturning Roe because that's been overturned.

It's now utilizing these states and these groups like Planned Parenthood utilizing, in this case, the RICO statute to silence pro-lifers. By the way, this isn't the first, second, third time I've had to deal with RICO and pro-lifers at the Supreme Court. This is number four. Fourth time.

And we've won it, but we're back up there again. And so this utilization of RICO is something that they've wanted to do the entire time. I don't think we have time to get to this call yet, but stay on hold, Ann, if you're on the air. And if you want to give us a call, 1-800-684-3110. We do have a second half hour, as you said, coming up. Some of your local radio stations don't carry it.

And if they don't, one, they should. But you can find us broadcasting live right now or archived on ACLJ.org, on your favorite podcast apps or on Rumble or YouTube. So you can find us on all those platforms, all those social media outlets. So if you lose us here, just flip on over.

We're broadcasting live a full extra half hour coming up. And we're going to be taking your calls, like I said, 1-800-684-3110. I also want to encourage you to support the work of the ACLJ, especially on this life fight, folks.

Become part of our team. Go to ACLJ.org. Any amount you donate is going to be tax deductible, and that allows us to stay in the fight.

And we encourage you to do that. ACLJ.org to support the work of the ACLJ. On this issue, by the way, we're handling the life issue internationally, globally. Our affiliates all over the world are standing up for the life of the unborn. It doesn't matter what state you live in. You have the most paralyzed state in the country.

There's still abortions going on and the taking of innocent human life. We're taking your calls as well at 1-800-684-3110. We're going to be back, as Logan said, with another half hour. ACLJ.org support our work. 1-800-684-3110 to talk to us on air.

We talked about our 50-state map that shows you exactly what's going on in your state. We're taking your calls as well at 1-800-684-3110. Let's go ahead and take another one. Yeah, let's go to Ann in Washington on Line 6. You're on the air. Hi, Ann.

Hi, thank you. I'm a long-time radio listener and supporter of you, Jay Sekulow, and your team. And I'm calling, as you heard from the state of Washington, our very liberal state, that Senator Patty Murray is trying to restore Roe v. Wade.

And I just wanted to make your listeners aware of that so we can do what we can do to prevent that. So you're right. You've got a very liberal state. They're trying to read into the Constitution a state constitutional right. Again, if you go to our map, you can find – Logan, let's explain to people how that works.

I think it's important. So you just click on Washington. Yeah, there's an interactive color-coded map. You just go to ACLJ.org slash abortion and it will come up.

And it's updated continually with what is currently happening in each state. So make sure you go there and you can find out all, like I said, of what is happening in your local area. That's where you find it, Logan.

I'm looking right now. You just go to ACLJ.org slash abortion directly and it will be on our website as well. It should be on there under probably the life topic.

We'll make sure that that gets up there somewhere that is easy if they can't find it. But it is a really good tool to go through and you can find out – there's a whole portion of Washington of what's happening there. So in Washington, and what we have to focus on, is the ability of pro-life messages to be delivered and also for pregnancy resource centers, crisis pregnancy centers they used to be called, to be able to talk to women that are seeking an alternative to abortion.

So you do have a voice. It's just you're not going to get legislative support, but you've got individuals that are really standing for life. Yeah, and the fight is also not just in the states, but we do see it at the federal level as well because we see Democrats like Schumer saying they're never going to stop fighting. They're never going to stop pushing for this right to abortion. So, you know, the battle still continues on even at the federal level. We need to make sure that, you know, nothing is passed there or gets through there as well.

So when you go – it's right on the homepage to get the map. When you go to Washington, for instance, we put in there that there is – in Washington state there's a statutory right to an abortion before viability or to protect the life and health of the mother. That's in the legislation. They also passed a law protecting abortion providers, and the governor issued an executive order restricting cooperation with out-of-state investigations pertaining to abortions, which we believe is unconstitutional. So you have to understand there the real avenue to defend life is the individuals that are speaking out for life. Yeah, let's go to Kathy in Kentucky on line four because, again, it shows you sort of that 50-state fight that's happening right now across the country.

Thank you for taking my call. Yesterday we were informed that Attorney General Daniel Cameron two days ago announced that the opposition to the trigger law, which had been taken to court, saying that if the Right to Life bill passed in November, it would automatically go into effect in Kentucky. That – the challenges were voluntarily dismissed. Yeah, so here's what you've got. You had enacted a trigger ban in 2019.

Again, I'm going right to our map. And you enacted a trigger law in 2019, which placed a ban on abortions with minimal exceptions. It's usually life and health of the mother. And now you've got a situation where it looks like – you've got a situation where that law is being placed on hold. So that's at the district court level. We've got an office in Kentucky that's looking at that right now. But this is the nature of the fight.

So you've got to stand up for your rights here and speak out. And in a situation like that in Kentucky where you've got a state that's very purple, again, it's a little bit nuanced, but we've got a team in Kentucky that are working on these issues as we speak. Coming up in the next segment, we'll be talking to Rick Grenell.

He has some work from the international point of view. We're going to talk a little bit more about that. And then later on, you're going to hear from Senator James Langford about his fight for life and everything that's going on.

So really great rest of the show. Stay tuned. Stay on hold.

If you're going to be on hold, try to get some more calls at 1-800-684-3110. And we'll be right back. Welcome back to the broadcast, everyone. Well, Rick Grenell, who is our senior advisor for national security and international relations, is very international right now because, Rick, I'm talking to you. I believe you're in Albania.

Yeah, I was in Kosovo the last two days and I just drove over to Albania and that's where I am now. The conflict between Kosovo and Serbia is threatening to begin, again, another major crisis when you already have the largest land war in Eastern Europe since World War II. What is the situation and what's the risk factor here and the danger?

Well, I think the risk factor is very high. We've got, you know, huge tensions here. Both sides have taken individuals either arrested or taken across the border.

It's very tense. I spent yesterday in the northern part of Kosovo. It's interesting to note that no American or EU official has been brave enough to go into the northern part. I went by myself as a, you know, a private sector American citizen.

I didn't have security. I went in, I talked to the people. I had a meeting with a bunch of the Serbian representatives inside Kosovo. I walked around, I had lunch, and it was just perplexing to me that the U.S. and the EU are saying that they can't even go there on the ground. I think diplomacy is nowhere to be found. The U.S.'s position is that the Europeans are in charge, so the U.S. is no longer in charge, and that is a fundamental difference between the Trump administration and the Biden administration. You haven't got the conflict between Serbia and Kosovo, and you said there's tensions on both sides of this. Where should the United States be on this, and what is our national interest involved in this situation, Rick? I think people need to understand, because the ACLJ, we're a global organization.

We have offices in Europe, we have offices in the Middle East, we've got offices on the continent of Africa, we've got offices around the globe. Why should we be concerned about this, and what is this conflict, and how do we settle it? Well, think of the Serbian-Kosovo conflict as really a dispute about territory. You've got a small group of Serbs inside Kosovo that are not being treated well, and so they want to have their own right to existence and their own local government.

This is a huge problem. I think the national security question is a good one for the United States. The people of Kosovo are Albanians, ethnic Albanians. Albania is a NATO ally of ours, and we have to be able to help solve disputes before they turn into crises like we've seen in Ukraine. I think it's pretty clear now that the Europeans and the Americans and NATO are all united. It took the Democrats in the United States and the Biden administration three years to get there, but now everybody is united that the prime minister of Kosovo is the problem. He has, for the last three years, made unilateral decisions that have really denied the previous agreements, certainly the agreements that the Trump administration put in.

This guy is a real problem. And you know, Jay, if I can just finish by saying the prime minister of Kosovo, who is relatively new over the last three or four years, he got there when the President of Kosovo, the previous President, Hashim Tachi, was arrested by Jack Smith at the Hague. This gets real messy for the United States because what Jack Smith did to arrest the President of Kosovo, who still sits in a jail at the Hague for three years, has been sitting in prison waiting for a trial for three years. It's really outrageous when you dig into the details of what Jack Smith did to this guy. Well, Rick, as you know, I am one of the few lawyers in the United States that have appeared before tribunals at the International Criminal Court in the Hague. And I will tell you that the word justice, as we think about it in the United States, is not what takes place at the Hague. I hate to say this for the President, but three years in International Criminal Court time is not a lot.

Some of these cases are around for 10 or 15 years. But it's interesting that of all the people it was Jack Smith that... And is that really increasing the tension because of that arrest? Absolutely. It kind of tore the country politically in half. And the new, not so new anymore, but the prime minister of Kosovo, Elvin Kurty, has consistently been against America. And it's shocking for people to hear that because Kosovo has been such a great American ally.

And I still think the people of Kosovo are just the government. That's the problem. Rick, we appreciate the update on this. And thank you for your work. Be safe over there. We appreciate it. All right, folks, we're going to go right back to our topic on life.

We've got a lot of calls coming in at 800-684-3110. Yep, let's start with Kyle in Texas on Line 3. Yep, you're up. Kyle, you're on the air.

Hi, yes. So my question is, when the founders penned the Declaration of Independence, they stated that the first right guaranteed to man is the right to life, which means abortion is unconstitutional and the government's role is to protect life at all costs. So we're focused on making this the constitutional amendment banning all abortion since it is unconstitutional and anti-American. And how come we never hear this argument on the pro-life side?

Well, we have made that argument and we've made it successfully. I mean, now, but remember, when you're talking about the federal constitution, the way our government is set up, you've got state rights and you have federal rights that are in place. The Declaration of Independence is not the Constitution. The Constitution is a different document. But the right to life, we believe, is recognized in the Constitution as well.

Here's the issue. It returns to the states. What the overturning of Roe vs. Wade did is return it to the states. And what Cece said earlier, which I think has to be reiterated, is some of you live in pro-life states. A lot of you don't because we have a lot of listeners in California, Oregon, and Washington.

And there are things that can be done there as well. But this, if you're in a pro-life state, don't say, well, I'm in great shape in Tennessee while they're aborting tens of thousands of children in California. That's the problem here. And that's why we've got to fight it on a 50-state basis. Oh, that's all right.

Yeah, absolutely. This has turned into a 50-state fight. And life should be protected. And you're exactly right, Jay. It doesn't matter if you're in a state that has pro-life laws or not. This is still a battle.

We hear it from the Biden administration constantly. And we need to stay engaged and involved at every level. All right. Let's take this last call. Let's go to Alfredo.

He's calling in California on Line 1. You're on the air. Yes, sir. So, yeah, when it comes to the abortion, I feel like if it has a heartbeat, then it has a soul. So I feel like it's from here on now, like the next generation, they should be taught a little bit more with more sex education classes and more structure from home.

You know, we got to teach these young men that right now is really unstructured. And by generation, it's only getting worse, especially how… That's what's interesting in what you said, and that is the heartbeat and the soul. So there are legislations called heartbeat bills. And these are in a number of states. And the heartbeat bill really focuses, Alfredo, on exactly what Alfredo was saying, Cece.

Absolutely. And we've helped consult these states on a lot of these heartbeat bills in drafting this legislation. But it does acknowledge that, you know, obviously, I believe that at conception, that's when life begins. But, you know, when you have a heartbeat, I think you cannot argue that there is not life when there is a heartbeat.

And so a lot of these laws protect that. But you know what they do, Logan and Cece, and this is true. They don't want, the Planned Parenthood groups do not want women seeing an ultrasound.

That's absolutely right. They do not want that ultrasound even shown. They do not want it. And why is that?

Because you hear the heartbeat. You've got now, you can have pictures of the unborn child in multidimensional. And that is what, so we've got to fight even for that basic right. And the Supreme Court said that these health decisions have to be handled as ordinary health decisions.

And that's exactly what we want. Not allowing a special rule to go in place because the issue happens to be abortion. So what I want to encourage you is go to that map. I think, Logan, it is the best place to get up-to-date information on all 50 states. Yeah, you can do that at ACLJ.org or directly at ACLJ.org slash abortion.

You can look at what your current state is or states that you are surrounded by and see what those are and how you can get involved as well. So go to ACLJ.org. We can also not only support the work of the ACLJ financially, but you can also look at all the great content that we do here. It's not just this hour-long show each and every day. There's incredible news articles and blogs that are put up.

Really, it's continually updated throughout the day. So it's a great resource for anybody, a free resource. And talking about free speech, remember those students that went into, during the March for Life, they went into the National Archives Museum and they went into the Smithsonian. They were told they had to take their hat off.

They couldn't wear it. They were threatened with arrest simply because the hat said on it, pro-life. We went to federal court and we've gotten restraining orders, basically, injunctions. But we're still fighting it out with these groups because we're not just saying, okay, we got an injunction, we're done. We want to know who in the federal government thought this was a good idea to arrest or threaten with arrest students because they had a pro-life conviction on a hat.

I mean, think about that for a moment. And your American Center for Law and Justice is fighting that out right now. Two cases in Washington, D.C. in federal court. So again, I will encourage you, ACLJ.org, support the work of the ACLJ. What we're doing here in the United States, what we continue to do around the globe, the positions we're taking on life, we are not resting on the success. Now, we're also working at the national level. And joining us coming up, Senator Langford.

This was an interview Jordan did. Very important because it tells you what is going on on the national level. We've been focusing on 50 states. In the next segment of the broadcast, we focus on the national level. We're taking, again, your support means the world to us, ACLJ.org.

Welcome back to Secular. We're joined by a great friend of the American Center for Law and Justice, someone who battles for the citizens of his state in Oklahoma. But for all of us with conservative values, especially when it comes to life, I'm talking of course about U.S. Senator James Langford of Oklahoma. And Senator Langford, this Saturday will mark one year, what a year it's been since the Dobbs decision from the Supreme Court overturning Roe vs. Wade, Casey vs.

Planned Parenthood. Could you just reflect just for a moment on the historic decision and what it means for our country now that we've kind of been living with it for nearly a year? Well, Jordan, it's great to see you. Great to get a chance to be able to chat again.

Let me talk to the most basic thing that it means. About 200,000 children, there's our best estimate, are alive today because of the Dobbs decision. That's 200,000 children that will be in kindergarten in a few years. That's 200,000 children that are smiling at their moms right now and giggling.

That's 200,000 children that will be singing silly songs in the days ahead as they head into school. That's an enormous gift to each one of those children, that they're actually alive and they're having the opportunities that all of us have had to be able to have life. What that does also mean is a real division among the nation. A lot of states like mine and other states have stepped in and said, hey, we value every single child. Other states have stepped in and said, we believe some children are disposable, some children are valuable, and so we want to do everything we can to increase the number of abortions.

This administration, the Biden administration, has literally done everything within its power to increase the number of abortions in America. So we do see this philosophical divide that's out there between those who believe children are valuable and those that think some children are disposable and some are valuable. We can't decide on it and so we're going to just keep talking about the value of every single child and what it means to be able to present a culture of life. To me, Senator Lankford, we've been given the opportunity now to finally take this battle to the people directly without Roe vs. Wade hanging over our heads and this idea that we can legislate, we can put forward ballot initiatives.

But as we do that, we've learned early on in this process, education is going to be key. There's so much bad info that comes out of the abortion industry. In fact, a lot of times when people are about to vote on one of these initiatives involving abortion, they're talking about all these scare tactics that have nothing to do with abortion at all to try and scare people away from voting for life. So we know that, in fact, obviously we celebrate this victory to overturn Roe vs. Wade. A lot of people didn't think they would see it in their lifetime. Now that we have the victory, we have to double down our efforts in the states across the country in the conversations we have and the education that we need to do.

Yeah, that's exactly right, Jordan. So what's happening, the pro-abortion folks are out there saying in state questions, this prevents treatment from miscarriages, this prevents in vitro fertilization, all these scare tactics that are out there which are just factually not true. Even the comment that if you have a miscarriage in the days ahead, there'll be no doctors to be able to treat you, which again is factually not true. When you actually talk to OBGYNs, they'll tell you that the training for a miscarriage is a standard part of the training because tragically that also occurs naturally and so they've got to be able to know how to be able to treat women from miscarriage.

There is no state that makes it illegal to be able to get care for a miscarriage or an atopic pregnancy, none of those things are true on it. So they'll continue to be able to throw out false information, try to sway people over. What this debate is really about is, are children valuable?

That's really it, that's the whole substance of the debate. We believe children are valuable and they're important, they're not disposable and so we're going to continue to be able to talk about this. We talk a lot about it being illegal.

There's a difference between illegal and unthinkable. A lot of our dialogue around the country and from state to state and dialogues around dinner tables and conversations at work is really about how to make it unthinkable. How to be able to go back to talking about not just what does the court say or what does the legislature say that represents people's values and opinions, but actually going to each individual family and saying, I believe children are valuable and communities come alongside moms that are really in scary moments and saying, I don't know if I can actually support this child. The dad has left and I'm vulnerable and all those things that are out there. So it's communities wrapping around people and saying, we're going to walk with you, we're going to help you in every way that we can because we believe that every child is valuable. And you're just not going to meet a mom that looks in the face of her child and says, I regret having this child. They see that child for who they are and understand I'm so grateful that they're there.

I want to talk about the moms for a moment here because I think it's so important as we have these conversations with folks across the country, having those conversations with women, with moms is so important. But also this current push to expand access to abortion drugs without oversight of a doctor, something that was unheard of before the Dobbs decision. It kind of came out during the COVID crisis where rules and laws were being put aside when it came to the practice of medicine.

But it actually puts people at risk, puts lives at risk. And this is a disregard for not just the life of the child in the womb, but even the life of the mother in this situation. That Planned Parenthood and these organizations are so dedicated to the business of abortion that they don't want to be treated the same as any other medical provider. They want you to be able to take medication that can cause you to actually die if not taken properly, and they want federal protection for that.

Right. Yeah, this is the do-it-yourself abortions that this administration, the FDA, Planned Parenthood are pushing to say in states like mine and many others, we're not going to allow abortion clinics to be able to take the life of children. They will just say, OK, we'll just mail you abortion pills into your state and you can just take it yourself. And they keep saying it's totally safe. It's been done for a long time.

But here's what they've done. Number one, it's never safe for the child 100 percent of the time. Number two is if you have an ectopic pregnancy and you've not been checked for that, you have this response of actually aborting this child.

And it actually can take the life of the mom. You have severe bleeding. We have a very high percentage of individuals that end up in the emergency room on this for bleeding. And what the Biden administration said is they no longer want reporting for those that took these abortion pills that ended up in the emergency room. Don't even report that it was connected to these bills because they don't want people to know how many people end up in the emergency room, how dangerous that this really is to be able to take these pills. Also, if you have R.H. negative blood and you've just been mailed these drugs and you don't have any kind of testing to be able to know that, if you have that particular blood type, when you take these abortion pills, it will actually keep you from having a child again in the future as well. It could sterilize you. And so women need to be aware of that. But right now, the Biden administration saying don't report it if there's a problem in the emergency room. Don't go to a doctor. You can just have any quote unquote medical professional.

Any individual in the medical industry can actually mail you this drug and then just be able to take this drug at home and assume it's going to be OK. Senator Lankford, we've also seen the increase in the attacks on pro-life institutions like pro-life pregnancy centers and pro-life activists, and yet only a handful of arrests. I mean, literally, I think there's been two or three. And the vandalism is outweighing the violence against pro-life pregnancy centers is about 70 percent of the violence post-obs. And yet I think two or three people have been arrested by the FBI. And yet we have seen, again, it's always supposedly the right and the pro-life community that is being targeted by law enforcement. And even though those numbers have flipped around, it seems like the administration's got a lot more work to do to protect pro-life speech, which we know they despise. Yeah, they do despise it, and they're actually trying to be able to find ways to be able to limit the speech of individuals that are pro-life. This administration says if you're a parent and you go to a school board meeting, we may investigate you. But if you're some activist that comes in, spray paints, attacks, smashes a pro-life center there, the Pregnancy Resource Center, we're just going to look the other way and pretend that that didn't happen. That is unequal justice under the law, and we need to make sure that individuals are treated fairly and that people are treated with respect and with dignity through the whole process, including those folks that are standing up for the value of children. Senator Lankford, I so appreciate you spending the time with us today. One, I want everybody to celebrate this week and this great victory overturning Roe vs. Wade. And remember, as Senator Lankford said, we need to double down our efforts now to educate and talk to our friends, not about this being illegal, but unthinkable. Senator Lankford, a great US Senator, is fighting for all of us across the country, and I appreciate him joining us today on Secular.