Living In a Post Roe America

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Get ready. It's one of America's most important, influential, and respected voices on cultural and political issues. An apologist, Christian political advocate, and author, here is the founder and chairman of the Citizens for America Foundation, Dr. Chris Hughes. What is Roe v. Wade? The Supreme Court just recently decided that Roe v. Wade would no longer be the law of the land. So what does that mean to us and what can you and your church do to be ready to live in a post-Roe America? Welcome to The Christian Perspective. I'm Chris Hughes, and I'm so excited that you've joined us today because we have an important topic to talk about. We're talking about Roe v. Wade and living in a post-Roe America.

So you're going to want to stick around, you're going to want to copy this show, and you're going to want to share this show with your friends. Welcome to The Christian Perspective. I want to thank our sponsor, the Citizens for America Foundation. You can learn more about Citizens for America and how you can develop a biblical worldview and learn about the issues in our culture today, like abortion and so many other things, by visiting citizensforamericafoundation.com. Today we're starting a new tour across the country called Living in a Post-Roe America, where I am visiting churches across the country and talking about the issue. The tour is absolutely free, so if you'd like to have us come in, I mean, it could certainly be a Sunday morning, but maybe a Sunday night or Wednesday night, and come and speak to your church or your Bible study group. We'd love to come, and there is no cost to you or your church.

And don't be worried, it's not a political talk, it is a talk about what's going on in the culture, what the response of the church should be now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned, and what the response of Christians could be. So if you want to have me come, you can email me at chrishews at citizensforamericafoundation.com. That's chrishews at citizensforamericafoundation.com, or you can sign up at citizensforamericafoundation.com to get our newsletter and learn about what we're doing across the country. So be praying for us as we have this new tour that's starting this week as we travel across the country to teach Christians what's next for us as we Live in a Post-Roe America. And I want to thank Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary for being the home of the Christian Perspective Studios. Right here each and every day, we bring to you this radio show, and this is the home base of our operation at citizensforamericafoundation.com. If you're looking for a great college to attend in the fall, I encourage you to learn more about the College of Mid-America, and I specifically want you to look at Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary, where you can learn how to defend your faith on what you believe and why you believe it.

You can learn more at mabts.edu. All right, so I want to jump into this issue. As you know, a little over a week ago, the Supreme Court decided to overturn Roe v. Wade. That's a term a lot of us have heard, and today I want to talk about what the Roe v. Wade decision was, what the current Dobbs decision is, what's next for us, and what we as Christians and the church should do as we prepare now to live in a post-Roe America. So what happened, and what is Roe v. Wade? Well, I want to tell you, this is the largest stroke against arbitrary taking of human life in America since the abolition of slavery in 1865. And I know that's a bold statement, but I want to tell you that abortion is murder. Abortion is wrong and is the arbitrary taking of innocent human beings' lives.

And this case has helped us put an end to that, and it's a big deal, just like the end of slavery was in the United States. A lot of people hear the term Roe or Roe v. Wade. They think that it has something to do with abortion, but they don't really know what it is. So let's talk for a few minutes about what Roe v. Wade is.

It all started really in 1970. In 1970, a young lady in Texas who already had two children got pregnant with her third child. She wanted to have an abortion, but abortion in Texas, just like most of the country back then in the early 1970s, abortion was illegal. And so she could not find a way to have an abortion and didn't really know what to do. And so what happened was there were a couple of lawyers that had been looking for the opportunity to take the case of abortion to the Supreme Court.

Now, they could have, not that I would have wanted this to happen, but I mean, if they really supposedly cared about the woman like the liberal side says that they do today, they could have helped her find an abortion because one of the two attorneys was a female and she had recently had an abortion. But she did not tell this young woman that we refer to as Jane Roe. So that's it's a false name comes from kind of like the Jane Doe situation, John Doe or Jane Doe. So this woman was going to be anonymous and they assigned the name of her Jane Roe.

And they decided to sue the district attorney in Dallas, Texas, whose last name was Wade. So that's how we get the term Roe v. Wade. The case worked its way all the way up to the United States Supreme Court. And that's where we got the decision of what we have today, which is called Roe v. Wade.

So the United States Supreme Court issued a ruling in 1973. So remember, the woman got pregnant 1970. She did end up having the child.

And by the time of that ruling, the child was two and a half years old. She gave that child up for abortion. And the court held at that time that a woman's right to abortion was implicit in the right to privacy, which is protected under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. So what the court said is that a woman could have an abortion. It really changed the landscape across the country, because remember, until that time, most of the country, abortion was illegal. So what the Supreme Court was saying, not only is it legal, but that a woman has a constitutional right to have an abortion.

I want to tell you, this is bad law. Many jurists for the past nearly 50 years now have said that it is bad law because if you bother to read the Constitution, there's nowhere in the Constitution that abortion was ever alluded to or that abortion was listed as a right in the United States Constitution. In fact, the true Constitution believes that if it's not in the Constitution, that the constitutional right does not exist. So what the court did is they divided pregnancy into three semesters, which we call trimesters, and they declared the choice to end the pregnancy in the first trimester was solely up to a woman. So basically, at about 23 weeks, they were saying that there was no case where an abortion could be prevented in the United States in the first trimester of a pregnancy. In the second trimester, the government could regulate abortion, although not ban it, in order to protect a woman's health.

And that's where today we have all this screaming and crying across the country that this is a right that a woman has, and it's protecting her health. In the third trimester, the government said that the state or the Supreme Court said the state could prohibit abortion to protect a fetus that could survive on its own outside the womb, except for a woman's health was in danger. So the Supreme Court of the United States had this ruling that we now call Roe v. Wade in 1973 that took the decision about the legality of abortion away from state. They said that states could no longer ban or restrict abortion in most cases, and particularly in the first trimester. Now, there was another important Supreme Court decision in 1992, but not near as big as this one was, where there was litigation against Pennsylvania's Abortion Control Act, and that reached the Supreme Court in a case called Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey. So you might hear a reference to the term of the Casey case, and in this case, in Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, the Supreme Court upheld the central ruling in Roe v. Wade that allowed states to pass more abortion restrictions as long as they did not pose an undue burden.

So how do we get the ruling that we have today? Well, in December of last year, in 2021, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on a case that we now call the Dobbs case. That case was called Dobbs v. Jackson's Women's Health Organization.

So when you hear reference to what's called the Dobbs case, and by the way, the ruling that came out a little over a week ago, that ruling is in reference to the Supreme Court hearing oral arguments in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization case. And what had happened is the legislature in Mississippi passed a law last year that basically said that they were going to restrict abortions after 15 weeks. So after 15 weeks of pregnancy, the Mississippi law banned most abortions after 15 weeks. Lower courts ruled the law was unconstitutional under Roe v. Wade. Because remember, under Roe, states had been prohibited from banning abortions prior to 23 weeks. In Mississippi, the legislature said they were going to ban abortions prior to 15 weeks only, and that after 15 weeks, a woman could not have an abortion anymore, because they determined in the legislature and the law in Mississippi that a fetus was considered able to survive, because it had a heartbeat and other functions at that point. So in its decision that was just released a little over a week ago, the Supreme Court ruled in a 6-3 decision, meaning six justices voted to overturn Roe v. Wade in favor of Mississippi's law, which overturned Roe v. Wade, which had been the precedent for nearly 50 years in the United States of America. Again, the ruling was centered around in the Dobbs v. Jackson case. The ruling is centered around a Mississippi law that abounded abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy, and now put the power of abortion rights at the state level rather than the federal level. So the Dobbs decision not only overturns the worst Supreme Court decision, in my opinion, of all times, which is Roe v. Wade, it is an absolute treatise on the restoration of federalism and how the judiciary has overstepped and literally trampled constitutional jurisdiction. When I say federalism, what I mean is, until that time, these issues have been decided on a state-by-state basis. That's really how our Founding Fathers set up the government of the United States, as they intended for decisions to be made on a local basis as much as possible.

So what's the result? The ruling did not make abortion illegal like the crazies on TV are running around and saying, no, abortion is not illegal. Instead, it pushed the decision back to the states. All it said was that women do not have a constitution, a federal constitutional right to an abortion, and it said that the decision will be made on a state-by-state basis. This was expected among many states across the country.

I mean, this is not a surprise. There was a leaked opinion of what they thought was going to be said about six weeks prior to the issuing of this decision. But now people across the country are growing crazy. We're talking today about the recent opinion issued by the United States Supreme Court and the Dobbs case to overturn Roe v. Wade and say that the decision of abortion has gone back to the states. Going back, we're going to talk about what this means, what was the result of Roe v. Wade, what's the result of a new decision, what's our responsibility as Christians, and what is our responsibility as a church.

So stick around and be right back. This show is brought to you by Generous Joe's, the coffee company with the Christian perspective. This is the answer that Christians and conservatives have been looking for, a coffee company that gives back to causes you care about.

Order your coffee today at shopgenerousjoes.org and even subscribe to a subscription coffee plan and never forget the coffee you love or the causes you care about. Walk in the footsteps of Jesus and see the Bible come to life. This December, join nationally syndicated radio host and founder of the Citizens for America Foundation, Dr. Chris Hughes, on a life-changing trip to Israel. It's one of the world's oldest and most fascinating travel destinations, luring the faithful from all over the world for thousands of years. Visit Jerusalem's religious quarters and explore Christianity's most treasured religious sites like the Wailing Wall, the Dome of the Rock, and the Via Dolorosa. Walk with Chris through the winding alleyways of Nazareth's old city and visit ancient Bethlehem, the place of our Savior's birth. Float in the Dead Sea, visit the Sea of Galilee and the Jewish fortress of Masada. See firsthand where the events of the Bible took place. Touring Israel with Dr. Chris Hughes is a travel odyssey like no other.

Visit citizensforamericafoundation.com and get ready for an unforgettable trip and memories that will last a lifetime. Do you desire to build family relationships that stand the test of time? Does creating a godly family seem like a daunting challenge?

You're not alone. I'm Connie Albers, author of Parenting Beyond the Rules and host of Equipped to Be. As a mother of five, I understand your struggles. For 35 years I have been helping families just like yours build lasting relationships.

I'd like to invite you to tune in to Equipped to Be and visit connyalbers.com where I share useful tips and proven strategies to help you navigate the seasons of motherhood, faith, and life with confidence and joy. History was made on today's date. Stay tuned for an American Minute with Bill Federer. Once political enemies, they became close friends and died yesterday, July 4th, in the year 1826. An awe swept America as these two men at a distance of 700 miles from each other died on the same day exactly 50 years since they both signed the Declaration of Independence. Their names, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. President John Quincy Adams stated, A coincidence so wonderful gives confidence that the patriotic efforts of these men were heaven-directed and furnished new hope that the prosperity of these states is under the special protection of a kind providence. This has been an American Minute with Bill Federer. For a free transcript, call American Minute at 1-888-USA-WORD. Welcome back to The Christian Perspective.

I'm Chris Hughes. Today we are talking about really the issue of abortion. We're talking about the Supreme Court decision that was recently handed down by the United States Supreme Court where the Supreme Court said that women do not have a federal constitutional right to abortion and that the issue of abortion would now be decided on a state-by-state basis.

And that's not what you're hearing in the news. Women are screaming across the country that they'll no longer have health care. That is a lie, that health care has nothing to do with the murdering of an unborn baby. They're claiming that women can't get abortions anymore and that it's just simply not true of what's happening on the contrary today. So you might ask, well, how many lies have been taken by abortion since the ruling of Roe v. Wade in 1973?

Well, we don't know, but we believe that somewhere between 63 and 65 million babies have been murdered through abortion since 1973. Now, I live, as most of you know, if you listen to the show, I live in the mountains of North Carolina. We have a university here called Appalachian State University. They have a football team that really has been pretty good. They've won some national championships in lower divisions.

And a few years ago, they became a Division I team and they've been consistently ranked in the top 25 in the nation in their football team. And they have a big stadium. So when you think about 63 million babies being born, look at it this way.

So I go watch football at App State, wherever your big football stadium is for your college or university in your area. Think about that football stadium being filled 2,100 times, 2,100 times, slam full. That's how many babies have been brutally murdered by abortion. And here's why that number matters, because there is an intentional effort in America today to deflect attention away from the intentional killing of innocent human beings to other causes that are equated to it.

Like abortion, instead of talking about abortion, they talk about what about the people that have been killed by war and so many other areas. Look, we're not arguing that all killing is wrong. We argue that it is wrong, as a pro-life movement, we argue that it's wrong to intentionally kill an innocent human being, an innocent human being. And folks, abortion does that. Abortion intentionally kills an innocent human being, so we argue that abortion is wrong.

That's a pretty simple premise. We argue that it is wrong to intentionally kill an innocent human being. We argue that abortion is the killing intentionally of an innocent human being, therefore abortion is wrong. Politicians and others also want to confuse what they call contingent evils with absolute evils. Contingent evil may be wrong on the context. For example, capital punishment may be wrong if we've wrongly convicted somebody and then we kill them from a crime they didn't commit. War could be wrong if we don't have a just cause for that war, which is the case where some people argue is a toast of what's happening in the Ukraine right now. Contingent evils are different from absolute evils. Those contingent evils are evil contingent on such and such happening.

Absolute evils are wrong on the face of it, and we must always be opposed to absolute evil, and abortion is absolute evil. They meet millions of dollars each year by lying to women and telling women that they are incompetent and they're incapable. The society and the culture today tells us you can't have a baby and complete your education.

Listen, that's a lie. Plenty of women have had babies and completed their education. They tell you you can't have a baby and be a professional woman. That is simply not true. They tell you you can't have a baby and support yourself or be successful and meet any of your goals. And these are lies, and it's time for the Christian church to stand up to these lies and let women know they're wrong.

Pastors, you need to preach sermons on the worth of women and stand up against the lies of society today. This is not an issue. Abortion is not an issue. Abortion is the greatest moral tragedy of our time, and 63 million babies have died while most churches and most Christians have remained silent on the issue of abortion. As I mentioned, this case was heard in early December of the Supreme Court, and we were blessed to have members of our team at the Citizens for America Foundation there at the court. When the oral arguments were being presented, we were also blessed to have members of our team at the Supreme Court on the day of the March for Life, which was back in January. And members of our team have been present at the Supreme Court many times over the past few months. It's what has happened in December to guide us where we are today.

But I want to tell you something that upsets me. You know, I noticed this particularly at the March for Life and then at other events that have been held over the Roe v. Wade decision in recent months, is the Catholic Church has done a great job of being present on this issue. The life issue is an important issue for the Catholic Church, and I'm so thankful to our Catholic brothers and sisters who have taken a stand on the issue of life. But it really disappoints me and even disgusts me that most Protestant denominations are not prominently featured on this issue. I'm a Southern Baptist. I've done a lot of shows on what it means to be a Southern Baptist, and I'm thankful for the work that the Southern Baptist Convention has done to send missionaries not only in the United States, but missionaries around the world. We are the greatest sending organization of missionaries around the world. We are the greatest trainer of pastors with our six seminaries.

We train not only Southern Baptist pastors, but a third of all pastors around the world are trained in Southern Baptist seminaries. I'm thankful for that work, but I'm very disappointed that as a whole, the Southern Baptist Convention and Southern Baptist churches and Christians who claim to be Southern Baptists across the country have been very silent on the issue of a life. They've been very silent in their support of the Dobbs v. Jackson case where oral arguments were presented in December. So is this the end of abortion in America, and did we win? Truth be told, this is not the end of the pro-life movement. In fact, I believe, no, our battle is really beginning, and it's going to be harder than ever for us now that the abortion issue is going to be heard on a state-by-state basis.

We're right now, now with the overturn of Roe v. Wade, we as a church body and we as a pro-life movement are in a knife fight. Our opponents are going to lie, and they're already lying about what it means. They're lying and saying women can't get an abortion, that's simply not true.

They're saying it's an end to women health care, that is certainly a lie. They're going to scream, they're vandalizing, they're already vandalizing pregnancy care centers across the country and government buildings. They're going to obstruct, they are blaspheming God, they are demonizing Christians, and they're openly violating the law. No, the battle is not won, the battle is not over, and sure we have a small victory, but the real battle is just beginning. The only question that we as a church have to have is are we ready to fight? As I said, too many of our Protestant brothers and sisters have not joined our Catholic brothers and sisters in this fight, and they can't do it by themselves anymore. We have got to buckle up, we've got to put on the armor of God, and we have got to enter this fight.

Are we ready? We need to ask ourselves as a church and as Christians, are we ready to protect and defend the most vulnerable members of our community, even in the face of vicious opposition? And I want to tell you that our opposition is going to be vicious. There's a new group that has sprung up, you may have heard about them on the news, they're called Jane's Revenge. The liberals in Congress can make a big show about January 6th and what did or did not happen and whether or not it was an attempt to overthrow the government, but they are silent on what's happened through this Jane's Revenge group since the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

They've threatened Supreme Court justices, they've protested, which is against the federal law in the yards of Supreme Court justices. Jane's Revenge is a female terrorist group that has already attacked, they have vandalized, and they've even burnt down and bombed pregnancy centers, and they are now promising to have nights of rage across the country, and they've declared it as an open season on pregnancy centers, and on Christians who are taking a stand in the pro-life movement across the country. We need to be ready because this is all-out war, and I'm not saying that, certainly, we don't need to be defacing buildings, we don't need to be tearing them down, but we need to show love and compassion on mothers, on mothers-to-be, and on unborn babies across the country right now. So what's going to happen at a post-Rao America, and is this an end to abortion in America?

Did we win? Well, as I said, I believe the abortion issue is going to heat up in ways that we never ever imagined possible. Individual states are now going to be free to make their own decisions about the issue of abortion. So the abortion issue is not going away. No, now it's going to be up to state legislatures. So we're in election year in 2022, and in November of this year, every state House member, every state House member across the United States of America will be up for re-election this year. And a lot of state senators will be up for re-election, a lot of district judges are up for re-election, and a lot of state Supreme Court judges and justices are up for re-election too.

Now a lot of times we as Christians have ignored these races, but we cannot erase them anymore. They're going to be extremely important. It's important that we get engaged and be involved in the 2022 election cycle because these men and women that we elect in November are going to be the ones who determine whether abortion is legal or not in our states across the country. We're talking about the Roe v. Wade decision, what is Roe v. Wade, what is the Dives case, and what's going to happen in a place for America. Stick around, we'll be right back with more on the Christian Perspective. Your tour will include an up-close and personal look at the nation's establishment and how it's evolved over the centuries. Learn about the government and the men who helped forge this new kind of republic, one that acknowledged the creator from its very inception.

Know the truth about the creation of the United States of America, about the faith of the founding fathers and how Christian principles were used to establish this form of government. Visit CitizensForAmericaFoundation.com today and secure your spot to join Chris Hughes in Washington, D.C. this June. This show is brought to you by Generous Joe's, the coffee company with the Christian perspective. This is the answer that Christians and conservatives have been looking for. A coffee company that gives back to causes you care about.

Order your coffee today at ShopGenerousJoes.org and even subscribe to a subscription coffee plan and never forget the coffee you love or the causes you care about. The Conservative Baptist Network is a dynamic movement of Southern Baptist pastors, churches and Christians committed to standing for the sufficiency of God's Word in the face of a culture of compromise. Visit our website today at ConservativeBaptistNetwork.com to learn how you and your church can join and support this exciting movement. Welcome back to The Christian Perspective.

This is Chris Hughes. Today I'm talking about a topic that we hear on the news every single day, what it's going to be like to live in a post-war America. Is this an end of abortion in America? No, it's not. Did we win? Not really.

The battle is just heating up. As I said, we're in a knife fight now and the elections in this November and 2022 are going to be more important than ever in the pro-life cause because now the issue of abortion is going to be decided on a state-by-state basis, which it should be. It kind of cracks me up when all the liberals are crying that abortion has ended in America. Abortion has ended in America. What has happened is the Supreme Court has said that women do not have a federal constitutional right to abortion.

That's true. Roe v. Wade was bad law. It was a law dictated for the bench and that is not the purpose of the United States Supreme Court under our Constitution. This issue should be decided on a state-by-state basis and that is exactly what's going to happen now is the issue of abortion will be decided by state legislatures across the country. So you need to decide that you're going to engage in this battle and one way that you can engage right now is to get involved in state legislative races. Every state house member in the United States of America's re-election this November and a large number of state senate members. We need to elect godly men and women to these state house and state senate races that are going to take a stand on the issue of life and say that abortion is not allowed in your state. It's also important which most Christians and most people in general never know who's running for judge, particularly district judge races and state Supreme Court.

We need to know who's running for those offices and we need to know their position on life because individual states will now be free to make their own decisions on the abortion issue. And we as Christians need to stay focused on the real issue and we need to not get distracted. That's why it's important for us and now as Christians to become pro-life apologists. What is an apologist? Apologist is somebody who can defend their position. In the case of the pro-life movement, most of us cannot state and if you stay on this show, I'm going to share with you how you can defend the pro-life argument in less than 60 seconds before the show's up.

So you want to stick around so you can do that. We want to become a pro-life apologist. Now what do I mean when I say pro-life apologist? You need to become someone who can make a case for what you believe in a minute or less.

You don't need to be a scientist and you don't need to be throwing around a bunch of Bible verses to a non-Christian who's not going to care about that. You need to be able to make a statement in a minute or less of why you're pro-life and what do you mean to be a pro-life person. Look, people are trying to change the subject on abortion. Right now, I've heard it so many times, I've heard it for years but particularly in the last week since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade where they're trying to say on the other side that Christians and churches don't care about women and children.

I want to tell you that is simply not true. No one has done more to provide care for women and the unborn in churches in the United States and around the world today. So they want to distract you because they know that's not true and they talk about well what about world hunger? Why aren't you as worried about world hunger? Why aren't you worried about literacy? Why aren't you worried about child mortality around the world? Why aren't you worried about forced prostitution? Why aren't you worried about the mentally ill? Why can't you accept illegal immigrants and why aren't you worried about what they now call refugees that are illegally coming across our border? Why aren't you worried about freedom for gays and lesbians to love and worship as they desire?

Why wouldn't you as a church and as Christians accept gender identity and sexual orientation? Why wouldn't you do that if you're truly pro-life? Listen, don't let them distract you with these other issues. They are important issues. They are issues that the church is addressing. When we're talking about the pro-life issue, we need to not get sidetracked with these other issues. They say that because you oppose the intentional killing of an innocent human being in the womb, that you're responsible for fixing all these other problems in the world.

And folks, that is simply not true. We can't solve every problem in the world. That's what our enemy is doing. They're trying to change the narrative and they're trying to change the subject. If we're going to be effective in a post-war America, we're going to have to be very serious about our messaging. Not just in this issue, but a lot of different issues. We have dropped the ball when it comes to messaging. We allowed the liberals to set the narrative and the messaging for so many things, like saying that a homosexual is gay. There's nothing happy about being a homosexual. We let them steal the rainbow as their symbol.

Well, the last time that a rainbow, when God gave the rainbow, was a promise that he would not destroy the world anymore because of the issue of homosexuality, among other issues. I have a dear friend who I believe is the best pro-life apologist in America today. You need to listen to his videos on YouTube, on the internet, and you need to buy his books.

His name is Scott Klusendorf. Scott Klusendorf says that there are three questions that we need to ask that will help us make our case for the life issue. There are three issues that we need to ask. Those three questions are, number one, what is the unborn? Number two, what makes us valuable as human beings? What makes us valuable as human beings? And third, what is our clear duty? What is our clear duty? Scott says, Scott Klusendorf, again, you need to get his books.

You need to listen to his videos on YouTube and on the internet. Scott says we need clarity on these three questions because abortion is now going to return to the people and their elected representatives in the state. State by state, as I said, Christians have got to lead the way in appealing to the 14th Amendment and recognizing the personhood of infants in utero so that no person in America is deprived of constitutional rights nearly because he or she has not yet been born.

We need to encourage Southern Baptists and whatever your denomination is to support our activities and respective states to pass legislation that recognizes the value and the sanctity of human life and affords every person the right enshrined in the United States Constitution. So what happened right after Roe v. Wade was overturned? What happened is abortion now remains legal in the country and in a majority of states. 22 states right now have what they call trigger laws that would trigger pro-life rights right away.

So what were the trigger laws? These were laws passed by states who had the foresight to see that this decision was coming, and those laws would trigger into action once the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. There are 28 states that have very solid pro-abortion majorities in them right now, and there are six states that we believe are going to be battlegrounds in the coming months. One of those is my home state of North Carolina, where we have a Republican legislature, where we have a Democrat governor, and we do not have what they call a super majority in the legislature to overturn a veto should they pass pro-life legislation and the governor then veto that legislation.

So as you can see, our job is not done. We've got a lot of work ahead of us, and now we need to begin to fight on a whole new level, because there's still going to be more than a million women in the coming year that are going to be seeking abortions, and circumstances around which we seek abortions do not change unless we collectively change them on a state-by-state basis. This issue eliminates how important local and state elections are going to be, and I'm not trying to push politics in your church, but I'm telling you that this issue is going to be decided by state legislatures and your states, and you've got to be engaged and elect godly men and women to public office this November who are going to take a stand on the issue of life. Life after Roe places demands on all of us from the church to the state to every pro-life American.

In some states, pro-life groups and individuals are going to be under as much attack as ever, and they're going to need a strong legal defense to protect their life-saving work. State legislatures are where we can begin to craft laws that protect mothers and protect babies, because I want to tell you the federal government under the Biden administration is going to do all they can to continue to push the abortion narrative. They're talking about setting up tents to provide abortions on federal land.

President Biden has now mandated that abortions will be allowed on military installations and military bases across the country. They're going to try to continue to find money to filter to Planned Parenthood and to other organizations. They're going to try to identify an abortion as an elective surgery that will be allowed under insurance programs across the country. Two areas where they're really going to work is the area of morning after pill and chemical abortions. They're going to make the morning after pill as available as possible, and they're going to continue to push. Right now chemical abortions make up almost 60% of abortions right now. And so what the Biden administration has said is they're going to make it where these abortion pills, and it's a pill that you take, can be made available even in states that do not allow abortion.

So that's going to be a real battlefield for us. Are we going to say that abortion is allowed if it's mailed to somebody in the mail, since the Biden administration controls the Postal Service, they're going to try to say that they're going to make abortions available. They're even trying to find federal funding to transport women from one state to another, if abortion is illegal in their state, to another state where abortion is legal. Folks, do you want your federal tax dollars being used to provide a taxi service to ferry women across state lines to have an abortion?

I hope the answer is no, and we've got to take a stand on this. So you need to find out what the laws are in your individual state. As I said in my state of North Carolina, right now, because we have a Republican legislature without a supermajority, excuse me, the future of abortion is unclear, because we have a governor who is very pro-choice, pro-abortion, and he's going to overturn any law that's passed by our legislature. We don't have enough people in our legislature, we've got to change that since November, to have a supermajority to overcome him when he gives a veto of pro-life bills. My joining state, Tennessee, well under their law, they have very strong pro-life laws.

And 30 days after the overturning of Roe v. Wade, all abortion will be illegal in the state of Tennessee. So in your individual states, as you're listening to the station, you need to find out and you can Google and find out right now what is going on in individual states across the country. You can sign up at citizensforamericafoundation.com to learn more. You can go to familypolicyalliance.com to find out what's happening after Roe. There's so many great websites that you can go to to find out what's happening on the issue of abortion across the country right now. So I encourage you to sign up at citizensforamericafoundation.com. It's one of them where you can learn what's going on in your state. We're talking about living in a place where America, stick around, be right back with more on the Christian perspective.

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You're not alone. I'm Connie Albers, author of Parenting Beyond the Rules and host of Equipped to Be. As a mother of five, I understand your struggles. For 35 years, I have been helping families just like yours build lasting relationships. I'd like to invite you to tune in to Equipped to Be and visit conniealbers.com where I share useful tips and proven strategies to help you navigate the seasons of motherhood, faith and life with confidence and joy. Welcome back to Christian Perspective.

I'm Chris Hughes. We're talking about living on a post-war America. A little over a week ago, the United States Supreme Court handed down a decision overturning Roe v. Way. It's in the Dobbs v. Jackson case. It stems from a case that was argued before the Supreme Court this past December where the legislature and the state of Mississippi had said that they were not going to allow abortions after 15 weeks because they believed the baby not only got a heartbeat well before then but would be viable outside the womb after 15 weeks. Now, this went to the Supreme Court because the Supreme Court in 1973 in a case called Roe v. Wade had determined that women had a federal constitutional right to an abortion even though that's not mentioned in the Constitution at all and that abortions basically could not be limited prior to 23 weeks. In the Dobbs case, the Mississippi legislature said not only 23 but we're not going to allow abortions after 15 weeks.

So the Supreme Court heard the decision and just a little over a week ago, they returned a decision in the Dobbs case overturning Roe v. Wade and saying that the United States federal government does not allow under their Constitution a constitutional right for a woman to have an abortion and that abortion is a state's rights issue. So now that that's happened, it's going to be important to fight the battle on a state-by-state basis where about 22 states have trigger laws that will go into effect to try to limit abortion and 28 states are going to be strongly allowing abortion. So the battle will take place as we elect new representatives in the state house, every state house member across the country, no matter what state you're in or up for reelection this November, and many state senate members and many state and district judges and state Supreme Court judges and justices are up for reelection in November. It's going to be incumbent upon us to elect godly men and women to these public offices. So what should our priorities be now as a church and as Christians? I think we have four specific priorities.

One is a policy priority. We need to enact laws that will protect the lives of the unborn. We also have a priority in regards to care for women and babies.

The church has done a good job of this, but we've got to do a better job. We need to make it easier for women when they give up their children for adoption. We need to make it easier for Americans to adopt American babies. I don't know why that's so difficult.

We need to make it easier. We also need to provide systems to take care of women who want to have a baby and to keep their babies and that's a job that the church can do. And every church needs to have a plan for that, I believe, to care for women and babies, not only in their church, but in their own communities. Third, we need to financially support local pregnancy centers. Pregnancy centers are centers regionally across the country and there are several thousand of them across the country right now where women can go to get information on, you know, I'm pregnant, what do I do next? Many of these centers offer sauna grants where the women can see their unborn babies and see that they're moving and kicking and moving around with their bodies and not just some blob that they really are a living human being inside the body of the mother and we need to financially support these local pregnancy centers that provide alternatives to abortion. Fourth, we need to increase restrictions on and regulation of chemical abortions. This is going to be a real battleground as I mentioned before the break right now, there's something called the morning after pill and there are other pills that can be taken later on to cause the mother to abort. Even in states where abortion is illegal, the federal government is trying to say that they have the right to send abortion bills through the mail to women and the other terrible danger for this because there's no oversight by physician or a doctor.

Women have died from these pills and we need to stop it in our country today. And fifth, our priority should be to monitor and enforce current laws. If abortion is legal, we may need to make sure that abortion clinics are not popping up and performing illegal abortions.

What can you specifically do as a Christian? Well, one, you need to register to vote. There are over 40 million so-called Christians in the country today that are not even registered to vote. We need to register to vote. Then we need to get educated on the issues that are out there.

One way to do that is to sign up at citizensforamericafoundation.com to listen to our radio show and podcast every day, but there's so many great resources out there. We need to get educated. Third, we need to let godly men and women to public office. As Christians, we need to get engaged in the electoral process.

It's more important than ever to let godly men and women in public office this November. Fourth, we need to have a plan of action. How are you going to help protect these babies and their mothers?

And fifth, we need to be praying on this issue. One way we can get educated is to understand what is the unborn. We've let the left define that narrative. The entire debate comes down to this question because the left assumes that the unborn are not human. They don't argue about it.

They simply assume it. 48 hours after President Biden was in office, he said, this is a quote from him, reproductive health care is good for everyone and we should celebrate it. Folks, that's just simply not the case. They assume that the unborn are not human and we've got to call them out. Here's our argument. Number one, abortion, excuse me, number one, it is wrong to intentionally kill innocent human beings. It is wrong to intentionally kill innocent human beings. Number two, abortion intentionally kills innocent human beings. Number three, therefore, abortion is wrong.

I want you to take notes and listen to that. So I'm going to say it again. Here's our argument. Number one, it is wrong to intentionally kill innocent human beings. Number two, abortion intentionally kills innocent human beings. Number three, therefore, abortion is wrong. Simply assuming that the unborn is not human is not going to fly anymore. For 50 years, the church has allowed that to fly.

It's time for us to stop that right now. Nobody claims that you should be able to kill a five year old because of privacy. Nobody claims that you should be able to kill a teenager because they cause economic hardship. So listen, they do.

Goodness, I've got two of them. My son leach out of house and home. He creates an economic hardship that I'd be put in jail today if I tried to kill him because I said he was costing me money. They only use these arguments against the unborn because they assume that the unborn are not one of us. We'll answer this. We can answer this with science and embryology. From the earliest stages of development, you were a distinct living and whole human being from being a one cell stage.

A friend, as I've mentioned, Scott, Scott says, yeah, pinch your hand right now. 200 little cells right there. Each one of them has your entire DNA coding it. Did you just commit a mass homicide?

No. These cells are part of a human being. They are not distinct and a whole human being the way that you were when you were an embryo. Many of you bought the idea that abortion is a preference issue like choosing chocolate over vanilla ice cream. Here's our argument again. It is wrong to intentionally kill innocent human beings. Abortion intentionally kills innocent human beings.

Therefore, abortion is wrong. Another thing that we have to understand is value. What makes us valuable as human beings? What makes us equal? Our culture is obsessed with equality.

If Planned Parenthood is right that they can destroy a human fetus because it's not developed as you as me, if physical development is what makes us valuable, and you have more of it than me, or you have a greater right to life than me, then you could kill me outside the womb. We all have a human nature that determines what we are, and that human nature bears the image of its creator. There's a guy named Stephen Schwartz, and Stephen Schwartz has a system that he calls sled, S-L-E-D, that says that there's a difference of size, level of development, environment, and the decree of dependency. Body size does not determine our value. How does your development determine your value?

You don't reach an intellectual peak until you're in your mid-40s environment. How does where you are determine what you are? How does traveling seven inches down a birth canal suddenly transform you from not being a human being and from something that we can kill to something we can't kill?

You don't get there by changing your address. You depend on your mother and father for survival. Y'all heard of those Siamese twins?

I think they were the Henschel twins, the two girls that are joined together. They depend on each other for life. If you separate them from each other, they're going to die.

Listen, size, level of development, environment, degree of dependency, none of those are good reasons to kill an innocent human being. So what role does the church play in the pro-life movement in America today? Here's what we've learned in 50 years of legalized abortion. Number one, abortion decreases 90% among married women.

You hear that? 90% among married women. Marriage is important. Number two, abortion decreases 50% if you affiliate with a religion. And finally, abortion decreases 75% if your church takes the Bible literally. We have too many churches in America where pastors don't preach the whole word of God or believe in the literal word of God.

So what does that study tell us? That tells us that if you remove marriage, if you remove God, if you remove the Bible, then we're going to have more abortions in America. If we want to stop abortions, we need to improve the opinion of marriage in the country. We need to get people back in the church and we need churches that preach the whole word of God. The best way to prevent abortions remains changing the hearts and minds of the people having them.

No law, no majority opinion or political compromise is really needed. We just need the truth of the word of God. So again, what can we do? We need to care for women and children. We need law and public policy that defends lives. We need to elect godly men and women in public office who take a stand on life.

We need to educate ourselves on these issues and we need to take direct action. So what's our duty as Christians? Our duty is to love our unborn neighbor. We need to defend our unborn neighbors. We need to communicate the truth of the Bible.

We need to, as my friend Scott Klusenor says, we need to put a pebble in the shoe of the other side. We need to give them something to think about. We have a political duty and that duty is to limit evil and to promote good. And we need to save the ones that we can't. We need to master the logic of the pro-life view. We need to pray for our pro-life legislators. We need to be good citizen lobbyists and folks, we need to get horrified about abortion. And we need to be broken hearted about the number of babies that have been killed in America today.

Listen, if you're someone listening and you've had an abortion, I want you to know that there's hope. It's not a greater sin than any other sin that lies, cheating or stealing or killing, but the Bible tells us that all of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The Bible tells us that the wages of sin are death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Bible also tells us that if we confess our sins, that God is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us for all unrighteousness. If you've had an abortion today, turn that over to God. God loves you. He loves you even though you've had an abortion. Confess that sin. Don't have any more abortions. Turn away from sin and dedicate your lives to making Jesus Christ the Lord and Savior of your life.

If you believe the Bible says that Jesus died on the cross and He rose again for you 30 days later, if you commit to following Him and to repent your ways and turn from the way you were living before, then you can spend an eternity in heaven with Him one day. God loves you and I love you. Church, it's time for us to take a stand on life.

The battle is going to be greater than ever before. Now let's get out there and invite the culture for Jesus. Thank you for listening. The Christian Perspective with Chris Hughes. Learn more about impacting the culture for Jesus. Visit CitizensForAmericaFoundation.com