Guest Column: Pro-Life Groups Divide the Cause for Life

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by MARK CORRAL

South Carolina lawmakers are considering what would be the strongest anti-abortion legislation in the country. One may think that every anti-abortion group in the state is zealously supporting the effort, but some of them have shockingly opposed this legislation.

Senate Bill 323, introduced by South Carolina Republican Senator Richard Cash, would codify criminal penalties for all parties involved in abortion, including the pregnant mother who willfully takes the life of her pre-born baby.

While S. 323 is a huge step in the right direction, Equal Protection South Carolina does not support the current version and suggested amendments to ensure it established true equal protection of the laws for pre-born babies beginning at fertilization. That being said, criminalizing abortion for all parties involved would close the loophole in South Carolina law keeping abortion legal for women.

The chaotic hearing for S.323 made state and national headlines earlier this month, especially as hundreds of pro-abortion activists descended upon Columbia to oppose the legislation, in some cases disrupting the hearing with vile outbursts. The news coverage of the hearing also featured opposition from major pro-life groups, which sorrowfully threw cold water on the abortion criminalization effort.

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South Carolina Citizens for Life issued a memo denouncing criminal penalties for women who willfully murder their preborn babies. Palmetto Family Council released a statement the day of the hearing to oppose the criminalization element of the legislation. Students for Life Action, a prominent national pro-life establishment group led by activist Kristan Hawkins, also published a letter claiming the bill would harm “mothers who are often the second victim of the predatory abortion industry.”

These organizations have needlessly divided the cause for life, as well as enabled the self-induced abortion crisis in South Carolina, on the basis of these errant claims.

While there are indeed some women forced into abortions by abusive male partners or family members, such cases represent the minority of abortions, and S.323 would not penalize such women. S.323 would instead criminalize the vast majority of women who willfully initiate or participate in their own abortions.

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Those who insist that all women are categorical second victims of abortion should watch the hearing testimony of Mark Baumgartner, who leads a sidewalk ministry (A Moment of Hope) at the Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Columbia. Baumgartner told several harrowing stories of women not only willfully murdering their own babies, but even brazenly delighting in such murder. Such examples included women shouting “we already killed it” or “I love abortions” while leaving the facility, telling staff to “go f—k yourself,” or even performing cartwheels in the parking lot.

The pro-life groups which insist on protecting loopholes in South Carolina law providing blanket immunity for this conduct should sincerely consider the consequences of their stance.

Beyond clinic-based abortions, data from sources like the Guttmacher Institute and the Society of Family Planning show that thousands of abortions in South Carolina occur annually by means of abortion pills obtained through the mail from shield law states. This practice is explicitly protected by our abortion laws preventing prosecutions for women who willfully obtain abortions.

Because some pro-life organizations are using their influence to subvert legislation that would criminalize abortion, the murder of preborn babies remains completely legal for women in South Carolina. In other words, certain self-described pro-life conservatives are protecting legalized abortion in our state, thereby carrying water for the pro-abortion leftists.

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RELATED | S.C. SENATE SCHEDULES ANOTHER ABORTION HEARING

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The only consistent position toward the legalized murder of preborn babies is establishing equal protection of the laws beginning at fertilization for all image-bearers of God. This is also the only stance compatible with the Fourteenth Amendment principle found in the platform of the South Carolina Republican Party.

We must not only criminalize abortion for all parties involved, but also extend the laws already protecting born people from murder to protect preborn people as well.

South Carolina Citizens for Life, Palmetto Family Council, and all other pro-life groups opposed to criminalizing abortion must reconsider their stance and how it keeps abortion legal and thriving.

Equal Protection South Carolina, along with Personhood South Carolina, would be honored to host a summit for anti-abortion groups so that we can exchange ideas and come to a unified stance against the murder of preborn babies in our state. We would humbly encourage all of the aforementioned groups to reconsider their position and be open to discussing this vital issue. Preborn babies are being murdered daily in South Carolina, and it’s time that we all start acting like it.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…

Mark Corral is the president of President of Equal Protection South Carolina, a newly formed organization calling for the immediate end of legalized abortion, without exception and without compromise. Mark also serves in pastoral leadership for Grace Covenant Church in Rock Hill, S.C.

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