Contact: Les Riley – president, Personhood Alliance, les@personhood.org
In reaction to the Supreme Court decision today in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, Personhood Alliance president Les Riley issued the following statement.
Praise the Lord! Today, we received the glorious news that the Supreme Court has, indeed, overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade and 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey decisions, recognizing that the question of abortion belongs with state legislative bodies—not the Federal Courts.
“I never believed I’d live to see this,” I told my wife through tears. My immediate response on my personal social media was, “Praise the Lord for giving us a Year of Jubilee after 5 decades of living under the bloody weight of an unjust decree! Now the next phase of the battle to establish justice and mercy begins!”
The Year of Jubilee comparison is appropriate. January, 2022, marked the 49th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision. In Old Testament times, the 50th year was considered the Year of Jubilee—a “Sabbath of Sabbaths.” It was a year of rest, rejoicing, and restoration of liberty and justice.
The overruling of Roe, however, does not mean that abortion across the US will end tomorrow. The legal and political battles for recognition of personhood and equal protection for all will now be fought at the state and local level. In many “red” states, there are already laws in place that will give substantially more protection to the pre-born, which will no doubt face challenges from those who want to see legalized child killing continue. While in liberal states, and at the federal level, we can certainly expect efforts to make unrestricted abortion up to (and even after) birth a fundamental “right.” These efforts will need to be met with strong opposition by defenders of life.
Opportunities will abound for churches, crisis pregnancy centers, mercy ministries, and individual Christians to fight for the pre-born and offer practical help to women and children in crisis, as they have been faithfully doing for decades. Meanwhile, radical pro-abortion groups like Jane’s Revenge have promised to escalate violence against those who would do mercy. Denied the unfettered opportunity to shed the innocent blood of the pre-born, their blood lust will be turned on those who seek to protect them. The threat of violence that Jane’s Revenge released can be found here.
The Personhood Alliance and our affiliates call on all state legislatures to recognize the personhood of the pre-born from their earliest biological beginning, and outlaw abortion once and for all. And we call on the Church to not only be agents of mercy, but to teach their communities all that Christ has commanded in the areas of Biblical bioethics, the sanctity of life, the dignity of the biblical family, and sexual morality. Then, by the grace of God, abortion will become unthinkable—as well as illegal.