Pro-Life Leaders High on Georgia 'Personhood' Bill
by Rusty Pugh and Jody Brown
January 12, 2007
(AgapePress) - - Nationally prominent pro-life leaders are lending their support to a proposed bill in the Georgia Legislature that would define personhood as beginning at conception. They see the measure as a major step toward the landmark Roe v. Wade decision being overturned. If passed, House Bill 1 (HB1) would make history, say pro-lifers, because it would answer the question that has been at the crux of the abortion debate for more than 30 years. The measure would establish that every human life begins at the moment of conception, eliminating any gray area that currently exists surrounding the definition of "personhood." Read twice before a committee in the Georgia State House earlier this week, the bill now awaits consideration.
Judie Brown, president of American Life League (ALL), explains the significance of HB1 as it pertains to the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion on demand in America. "When Justice Blackmun wrote [for the majority in] the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, he said that if personhood is ever established, the Supreme Court's decision would fall," she notes. "And a bill like the Georgia bill would make it possible for the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade in such a way that every single abortion in the United States would end immediately."
In other words, she says, if the bill passes and ultimately makes it to Supreme Court on appeal, it will force the high court to "answer the question they've never answered -- and that is, whether or not the innocent child in the womb is a human being, a person, just like you and me."
Flip Benham with Operation Save America appears as enthusiastic as Brown about the legislation. "[W]ithout a doubt, [this is] the very best bill that any state has brought before its legislative body yet," he says in a press release. "It is truly an all-out declaration that human life begins at conception and therefore is due protection under the color of law."
According to Benham, the only thing HB1 does not do is quote the Word of God -- yet he still calls it a bill that "true Christian lawmakers" can support. "It certainly encapsulates the principles of Scripture," he states. "We are seeing a definite move from the foolishness of the 'incremental approach' [to abolishing abortion] to an all-out stand on stand on God's Word."
ALL's Brown expounds on the critical nature of determining, once and for all, that an unborn child is indeed a person. "Establishing personhood for the pre-born child is the most fundamental step in reversing the decriminalization of abortion ...," she says. And for that reason, Brown adds, her organization is "eager to lend support" to the proposed legislation.
"Thousands of children are literally dying every day in this country from surgical abortion," she laments. "It is crucial to champion proposals that will help to bring this tragedy to an end." She concludes by saying just as ALL supported pro-life efforts in South Dakota and Michigan last year, so shall ALL do all in its power to help HR1 succeed.
"This is truly the only way we will see an end to the violent act of abortion in America," says the stalwart pro-life activist.
