Major Pro-Life Orgs Accused of Thwarting Bill That Would Have Recognized Abortion as Murder

After a key anti-abortion bill was voted down in the North Dakota legislature last week, supporters of the bill noted that multiple pro-life groups recently opposed the strategy underlying their approach, contending that such opposition played a role in the death of the bill.

North Dakota Republican state Rep. Lorri VanWinkle proposed House Bill 1373, which would have recognized an “unborn child” — defined as “an individual living human child before birth from the beginning of biological development at the moment of fertilization upon the fusion of a human spermatozoon with a human ovum” — as a “human being.” This, therefore, would have amended the murder and assault codes of the state to make abortion illegal.

According to the Foundation to Abolish Abortion, a Christian nonprofit in favor of the bill, the idea was to “protect the lives of preborn babies with the same laws that already protect the lives of born people.”

But the legislation to establish equal protection of the laws for preborn babies ultimately failed after a floor debate in the North Dakota House last week.

The bill received 16 Republican votes.

In the aftermath of the debate, the Foundation to Abolish Abortion and other supporters of the bill pointed to a letter from several major pro-life groups early last year opposing an effort to call for equal protection by amending the North Dakota Republican Party platform.

Why did Republican lawmakers in North Dakota vote to keep abortion legal in their state last week?

Here is everything you need to know.

Christians across the nation watched last week as Republican state lawmakers voted against a simple bill to protect the lives of preborn… pic.twitter.com/ZdzN7ZGlwD

— Foundation to Abolish Abortion (@AbolitionistFAA) February 17, 2025

The letter, signed by the leaders of groups like March for Life Action, Students for Life, National Right to Life, and Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, opposed the bill because they disagreed with “criminalizing or otherwise punishing women” who choose to have abortions.

“While we understand and support the desire to hold the abortion industry to account for their decades of destruction of human life, spreading lies and confusion, and putting profit ahead of the safety of women and children, turning those women into criminals is not the way to protect the unborn,” they asserted.

The Foundation to Abolish Abortion said that the pro-life groups “effectively discipled most Republican leaders in the state to view equal protection for preborn babies with skepticism.”

“There were sixteen Republicans who voted in favor of the equal protection bill last week, marking the most significant support an abolition bill has ever seen on the floor of a state legislature,” the organization added.

“But the majority of their colleagues repeated the poor arguments and clear misunderstandings handed to them by the Pro-Life establishment when opposing the abolition bill on the floor.”

Kristan Hawkins, the president of Students for Life, has since defended her opposition to criminalizing women who have abortions, sparking a debate on social media about the position.

Hawkins claimed, “It takes serious culture change starting with young people, compassion for women and families in crisis (not casting stones at them), and political savvy, working to advance the most aggressive bill as possible.”

After being told that I single-handedly killed a bill in North Dakota that would have put women in prison for having abortions, which I do oppose, I was flattered, but then I tried to figure out how I accomplished a feat that I had no idea was even happening.

The…

— Kristan Hawkins (@KristanHawkins) February 14, 2025

But other pro-life conservatives and Christians disagreed.

Allie Beth Stuckey, the host of Relatable, wrote on social media, “If we believe that someone who plots the murder of a toddler should be prosecuted, but someone who hires a hitman to murder an unborn baby shouldn’t, then we’re assenting to the pro-choice position that unborn babies are less-than.”

“The pro-life argument is that babies in the womb have the same value as you and me and thus should not be murdered,” she noted.

“That means they should have the same legal protections against murder that we do, which means that everyone willfully involved in their murder should be held accountable,” Stuckey continued. “I don’t see any logical way out of this argument.”

The pro-life argument is that babies in the womb have the same value as you and me and thus should not be murdered. That means they should have the same legal protections against murder that we do, which means that everyone willfully involved in their murder should be held…

— Allie Beth Stuckey (@conservmillen) February 18, 2025

Megan Basham, a culture reporter for The Daily Wire, concurred with Stuckey, saying she is “willing to deal with the political realities of incremental steps” toward ending abortion “on the road to total equal protection,” but she added that there is “no getting away from the fact that everyone who participates in abortion is morally culpable.”

“And unless she’s forced against her will, that includes the mother. Just laws would reflect this,” Basham added.

I’m willing to deal with the political realities of incremental steps (I think we should save all we can on the road to total equal protection) but there’s no getting away from the fact that everyone who participates in abortion is morally culpable.

And unless she’s forced… https://t.co/YTgi9n7bTZ

— Megan Basham (@megbasham) February 18, 2025

The Foundation to Abolish Abortion, which has produced research showing that self-managed abortion remains a major issue in Republican states even under their purported abortion bans, in large part because the laws in such states allow women to legally murder their babies via abortion, said they have faced similar opposition in other states across the country from major pro-life groups in recent years.

“Christians in our nation must understand that in many states, the main opposition to abolishing abortion does not come from the pro-abortion activists, but from the very same Pro-Life establishment which claims to want and end to abortion,” the group warned.

“The only way to fully abolish abortion, including in conservative states where self-induced abortion remains a major issue, is to make sure that murdering anyone is illegal for everyone, a reality that can only be achieved with equal protection of the laws for preborn babies.”

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