While many are lauding the appointment of Southern Baptist congressman Mike Johnson as the newly elected speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, noted activist group Abolitionist Rising has revealed that “well-produced content that’s been in the works for months exposing what Johnson did to keep abortion legal in Louisiana last year is about to be released.” They explain further:
For those who’ve been following popular narratives around Johnson, this news may surprise you. You may have seen that he was a lawyer for Alliance Defending Freedom, a leading pro-life legal group, and that he has an A+ rating from SBA Pro-Life America.
The reality is the more connected to the pro-life leaders somebody is, the more they often militate against the abolition of abortion. Johnson pulled out every stop he could to keep abortion legal in Louisiana last year when there was a bill to abolish it.
Notably, prior to the overturning of Roe v Wade, abolitionists in Louisiana succeeded in getting a bill to immediately abolish abortion passed committee, the first in any state in the nation. Louisiana lawmakers advanced a historic bill that would not only criminalize abortion but classify it as a homicide. HB813, or the “Abolition of Abortion in Louisiana Act of 2022″ was voted by a committee 7-2 to give it a vote in the House of Representatives.
Though many initially pledged to support and champion it, the bill was defeated after an amendment was adopted that absolutely gutted the bill and rendered it useless and toothless.
How is it that politicians who were championing it were now voting against it? They’d been getting pressure all week not only from pro-choice groups, which was to be expected but from pro-life groups and pro-life colleague as well.
Ultimately, the bill’s fate was sealed when earlier in the day, over 70 ‘pro-life groups’ like National Right to Life and their state subsidiaries, along with the ERLC, released an open letter opposing the bill, disparaging it for going too far in its efforts to abolish abortion.
Why?
Because it amended the Louisiana homicide codes to define “unborn child” as “an individual human being from fertilization until birth,” and “person” as “a human being from the moment of fertilization.” These redefinitions would classify abortion as homicide by including preborn children among those protected by the laws against murder, and therefore women who kill their babies in the womb would be subject to the same fines and punishments as those who kill their babies out of the womb. Equal protection under the law. Equal justice. Either it’s a baby, or it’s not.
Mike Johnson, then a congressman, played a significant role in defanging the language and preventing abortion from being abolished, taking a leadership role in making phone calls to key state legislators telling them to oppose the bill.
Despite being a member of the House Freedom Caucus and self-described “grassroots conservative,” Johnson does not want to see abortion abolished and has demonstrated that he will actively fight against any legislation before him.
Pray that he repents:
