Commentary

Back in the dark days of Roe, the Abortion Industry and federal courts made broad use of a “health” exception to inflict untold carnage on babies in the womb.  Despite the scientific fact that abortion is rarely the necessary therapy to treat a woman’s health condition – the legal and medical community continue to use “health” as an excuse to kill babies in the womb.

Idaho Chooses Life has always opposed such “health exceptions” – which is really a license to kill.  Our moral objection to “health exceptions”, no matter how “narrow”, is that it undermines the fundamental principle of the pro-Life movement.  AND JUST WHAT IS THAT PRINCIPLE?  That a baby in the womb is fully human from conception.  It doesn’t mystically become a human being at some later point of development – like a heartbeat or brainwave or “viability”.  The baby is as much a human being from conception as any one of us with the ability to write or read this blog. 

It is one thing to accept that there should a legal allowance for situations – like ectopic pregnancy – when the mother’s life is at legitimate risk.  That is a life-for-a-life circumstance in which the State has no appropriate policing role.  But destroying one life to protect the health of another is a different matter altogether.  Such a license to kill necessarily means that the baby’s life is worth less than the mother’s comfort or happiness. 

One person might need an eye transplant, another a limb replacement.  But hardly anyone would argue that such a person has the right to kill another in order to obtain the desired organ.  We rightfully see that situation as evil and barbaric.  So why do some people have such an easy time holding the belief that it is okay to destroy the baby in order to protect the mother’s health?

We submit that part of the answer to that question is that we have unknowingly ingested some of the thinking and values of the Abortion Industry.  After all – we have been pounded by abortion propaganda for many decades now.  Almost on a daily basis.  And then there is the fact that this innocent life is hidden away in the womb, so that we rarely have to confront the consequences of our decisions.

The God-gift of Life must be vigorously defended from conception.  It is our duty as Christians. We must challenge our friends and neighbors to carefully consider that babies in the womb have a right to live – a right equal to that held by the rest of us.  In fact – if anything – the baby in the womb is entitled to special protections because of its inability to defend itself.

As we come to the end of another dysfunctional year – a silent invasion of our borders, unexplained increases in fatalities, economic instability, the wanton destruction of Ukraine – it is important to focus some serious time on the most extraordinary development this year:  the overturning of Roe.

For some 50 years, the pro-Life movement has beseeched the Lord to deliver us from the injustice and horror that is abortion.  Innocents slaughtered without regard, without apology.  Babies sacrificed on the Altar of Self.

Prayers, marches, letters … more prayer.  As the decades passed, hope faded for many that we would ever see the injustice corrected.  The Supreme Court over many decades repeatedly declared that abortion law was “settled”; that Roe was an inviolable precedent.  It was nearly unthinkable that the Supreme Court would ever find the humility to admit that it had been wrong. 

Still the pro-Life community persisted.  It refused to accept that abortion was a “right”.  It refused to accept an America in which the slaughter of innocents was normal or right.

In 2022, the Lord answered the prayers of the faithful.  Suddenly the Supreme Court found the integrity to admit that it had perpetrated a great fraud upon the American people.  Honestly, it is sometimes hard to really grasp that we have been freed from the bondage that was Roe. It has cast such a large and dark shadow on the land for so long.

Idaho suddenly became a national epicenter of the struggle to end abortion.  Dozens of states joined the Biden Administration in seeking to minimize the impact of our Trigger Law (The Defense of Life Act).

Amazingly, our law has largely been allowed to go into effect.  The impact has been nothing short of miraculous.  We believe that over 500 babies have already been spared death at the hands of Planned Parenthood since August 25^th.  Essentially, abortion has been stopped in Idaho.  Isn’t that amazing?

Please pause to ponder that number:  That represents a large elementary school full of laughing, learning, growing children in less than half a year.  Glory to God.

But we are a long way from victory.  The forces of darkness have been preparing for months to storm the 2023 Legislature – which convenes in just a couple of weeks.  They intend to gut, amend or otherwise destroy the progress we have made through the Trigger Law.  Many will present themselves as helpful angels of light.  Others, like Planned Parenthood, will be more direct about their agenda. You are vital to our hopes for 2023.

We have a few days here, as we close out 2022, to give thanks, to rest with our families and to count our blessings.  But the People of God must also be in prayer for the intense struggle which will take place at the Statehouse this winter.  We must gird our loins for battle.  The lives of thousands depend upon it. The soul of Idaho will be tested.

We are thrilled by the announcement by Rev. Bill Roscoe that the Boise Rescue Mission has expanded its ministry to create a special focus on pregnant moms who may need help in dealing with the challenges of an unplanned pregnancy.

During the course of the Roe era, Idaho witnessed the annual slaughter of some 2,000 babies.  Our estimate is that some 98,000 preborn children lost their lives to the Abortion Industry.  With the historic implementation of our Trigger Law on August 25^th , those days are over.

Now we must meet the challenge of loving and helping those girls and women who cannot turn to Planned Parenthood to solve their immediate crisis by killing the baby.  Churches, pregnancy centers, non-profits and the State of Idaho must step up to expand the services available to meet a dramatically increased need.

The great people of the Boise Rescue Mission have grandly answered the call by creating a new “Cradle of Hope” program.  They are now ready to provide temporary shelter and care for girls and women who need a safe place to stay during their pregnancy or afterward.

We have long known that many women choose abortion because of coercion from a boyfriend or family members.  Many are threatened with homelessness if they do not get abortion.  Boise Rescue Mission has provided an answer: We will give you shelter.  If you are a mother with other children – we will help care for them as well.

This is Christ in action.  May the Lord richly bless this effort and the great people working at the Mission.

Nor are they alone.  Soon, a shelter/housing program will be available in Nampa.  The Lifeline Pregnancy Center is soon to open a home for pregnant women.  It is called “The Nesting Place”, and is another example of the Body of Christ answering the call to demonstrate, in very concrete terms, the love of our Savior.

Idaho is better than an abortion.  And these first steps in showing the world that Life is better, that we can find a better way than killing our own future, are very encouraging. 

Yesterday marked the day that industrialized slaughter of preborn babies ended in Idaho.  We are still suffering the death throes of the old regime – but make no mistake: Idaho has entered a new era with the Abortion Ban (the “Trigger Law) going into effect.  As the Abortion Industry and their allies in the Democrat Party, the state’s Media and the Medical Establishment fight a rear-guard action to persuade Idahoans that we should keep killing our own children – it may be hard to appreciate this historic moment.  That would be a shame, because August 25^th is a unique and glorious day in Idaho history.  It is the day that the War on Babies ended, at least in Idaho. It is the day that the Law provided legal protections for all babies, from conception to birth. It is the day that Idaho welcomed preborn children back into the human family.

Never again will Idaho allow abortion to be normalized as “health care”.  Never again will abortion be used as a casual birth control method. No matter the thrashing, fear mongering or propaganda efforts launched by Planned Parenthood and the Medical Establishment  – Idaho has forever turned its back on elective abortion.

A friend sent us a photo yesterday of an empty parking lot at Planned Parenthood’s Meridian office.  That is an image of silence – the day the shelling and killing stopped. The day that living began anew.

Glory to God! 

And thanks and praise to all those faithful heroes of the pro-Life movement who fought over these past five decades to bring that day of peace into being.  Many of those heroes aren’t with us any longer.  Others have faded into quiet retirement from public life.  But giants they remain, and upon their work we were able to build a path to getting the Trigger Law passed in the 2020 Session of the Idaho Legislature. May the Lord bless them all for their faithfulness and sacrifices. 

As wondrous as August 25^th is – the work of the pro-Life community has just begun.  We must diligently and patiently work to persuade our neighbors that the Abortion Ban is the correct policy for Idaho.  We must show our neighbors that Life is a better answer to our problems than Death.  We must open our hearts to those moms and babies and welcome them into our homes and communities.

And we must stand courageously, doggedly to answer the lies and attacks launched by the Death Merchants at Planned Parenthood. 

But for now – we ask that you spend time giving thanks to a gracious God.  In His kindness, He has given us a new opportunity to savor and humbly accept His great gift of Life. 

The Biden Administration’s attempt to impose its will on Idaho will be heard before Judge Lynn Winmill on Monday.  This lawsuit alleges that the “life-of-the-mother” exception for abortions is not wide enough to accommodate health concerns for pregnant women.  The Biden Administration is trying to use a provision of the Medicare Act to re-nationalize the abortion debate in the wake of Roe’s reversal.

It may surprise you to learn that the State of Idaho is also facing a concerted effort by about 20 liberal states to force Idaho into liberalizing its abortion law.  States like North Carolina, California, Minnesota, Oregon, Illinois, Washington – have filed a “Friend of the Court” brief with Winmill, urging him to rewrite Idaho’s abortion policy to accommodate their dark politics.  The Attorney General of North Carolina claimed that he was intervening in our business because a North Carolina mother might conceivably travel through Idaho some day and require an emergency abortion. Good grief.

Beyond the evil they seek to impose on the people of Idaho – it is rather outrageous to imagine that liberal politicians in places like Massachusetts believe they have a right to impose their immorality upon Idaho.

We are also under assault by a variety of liberal, pro-abortion “medical” associations.  Groups like the American Medical Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) have filed “Friend of the Court” briefs with Winmill as well.  They are here to support the pro-abortion agenda of Joe Biden and Planned Parenthood, while hiding under the guise of “women’s health”.  The simple fact is that many of these national medical clubs have been sorely compromised by abortion politics during the decades of Roe.  Many doctors have convinced themselves that killing helpless babies in the womb presents no great moral or ethical challenge to their role as well-paid health care practitioners.  Scary business.

(In the face of such moral blindness, aren’t you glad that we imposed a legal duty upon these health care providers to save the baby, if possible, even in those rare cases where an abortion is allowed under the Trigger Law?)

There is good news, though.  A group of pro-Life states are also seeking an opportunity to file a separate set of arguments before Winmill.  States like Texas, Utah, South Dakota and Wyoming clearly understand that Idaho is just the first test-case of Biden’s dubious legal strategy.  They appreciate that Planned Parenthood and their White House lackeys will use the Idaho case to re-take control of abortion policy across the nation.  Thankfully, our cousin states have no intention of standing idly by to wait for the federal hordes to arrive at their door.

The great national struggle over abortion has begun, and it has begun in Boise, Idaho.  States and communities have begun to choose sides.  The fate and character of a nation hang in the balance. We ask for your prayers on behalf of Monday’s hearing and our deputies attorney general who are working to defend the Trigger Law from an extraordinary national assault.

The US government filed a lawsuit against the State of Idaho yesterday in a desperate attempt to maintain federal control over Idaho’s abortion policy.  Having just been freed from the bondage of Roe – this development is particularly galling. 

Since the fall of Roe, Planned Parenthood and abortion cheerleaders like Pelosi, AOC and Harris have demanded that Joe Biden “do something!!!!”  Attorneys in the Department of Justice have obviously been busy trying to concoct some new legal claim that allows the federal government to continue imposing the lawful murder of innocent babies upon the people of Idaho.  Forget the 10^th Amendment.  Forget the Constitution’s guarantees of limited government or the self-determination of the People.  What they cannot secure through the free process of republican government – the Left seeks to impose through the aristocracy of the federal courts.

We were delighted by Governor Little’s blunt public response yesterday to the lawsuit: The Supreme Court has restored the rights of the states to regulate abortion. “End of story”.  This legal battle is not only about protecting preborn children – it is a fight to restrain the federal government’s noxious drive toward tyranny. 

Still, there is reason to be concerned about this suit.  Idaho is one of about a dozen states with a Trigger Law.  Our law was enacted in 2020, and is scheduled to stop 99% of abortions in a matter of weeks.  It is significant that the federal government chose Idaho as its first victim, its first test case of their new legal theory.  The choice to sue Idaho first was, no doubt, carefully considered.  The DOJ’s hopes of reimposing Democrat control over the entire nation’s abortion policy depends upon winning this first case.

So why Idaho?

We happen to have a very “special” federal judge in Idaho – Lynn Winmill. While on senior status – he continues to lurk around the federal courthouse.  Winmill has been a patron of Planned Parenthood and the Abortion Industry throughout his tenure on the federal bench.  We don’t believe he has ever denied a request from Planned Parenthood in any of the cases he has handled during the past 25 years.  So the DOJ is likely judge-shopping.  And then there is the advantage of a liberal 9^th Circuit which also has a very long history of abusing its authority to impose Planned Parenthood’s agenda across the West.  No doubt they will back Winmill’s last attempt to preserve the slaughter of the innocent. 

We must, however, resist any temptation to despair or even frustration.  Some folks thought that passage of the Trigger Law was the end of our work.  And that the overturning of Roe was a final victory.  But it was never going to be that easy to clean up the huge mess we have been making over the past five decades.  We are in a long struggle against the forces of darkness who will not quietly return to the shadows. 

And, in the immediate term – let us pray that, somehow, Lynn Winmill does not get control of this case.

We knew all along that Roe couldn’t stand forever.  America is better than the barbarity of abortion.  Yet it is really overwhelming to see this day finally arrive.

We truly live in Biblical days, as our Father in Heaven continues to intervene in the affairs of men.  The blood of the innocent cries out to Him.  The prayers of His people, lifted up year after year, have ascended to His ears.  And He has brought about a mighty change.

The Lord has freed us from the shackles of Roe, from the oppression of a Supreme Court imposing its corrupt will upon the American people.  Now we have the freedom to rescue those babies threatened by abortion; now we have the great opportunity to extend the love of Christ to women and girls in need.  The overturning of Roe does not mean all these precious lives will magically be saved.  That work remains ahead us. 

But blessed be the Name of the Lord!  We now have that chance!

There are many people who deserve thanks and praise for bringing this historic moment to pass.  President Trump is to be honored for making sure that his nominees to the Supreme Court were people of integrity.  Mitch McConnell is to be remembered for keeping Garland off the Court; and GOP senators, including Risch and Crapo, are to be commended for making sure that Kavanaugh, Barrett and Gorsuch were placed on the Supreme Court.

But one man comes to mind as deserving of special recognition.

Justice Clarence Thomas has mightily stood against the tide for more than a generation.  His scathing dissents have inspired and taught many law students about the frailties of Roe and its abuse of the Constitution.  In fact, one can imagine that his powerful writings played a critical role in forming the intellect and practical morals of Justices Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett long before they arrived on the Court.

There are many challenges ahead, to be sure.  This historic moment will shake American society to its core.  Christians and the pro-Life movement will be tested. Corruption will be exposed in various institutions – including the establishment media.  And it will take time for people to reorient their expectations and behavior.

But for today, we shall glorify the Name of the Lord for His great mercy and passion for justice.

In a stunning development, Idaho Planned Parenthood has shut the doors on its flagship abortuary clinic on Boise’s State Street.  This was the largest facility Planned Parenthood operated in Idaho, and the only one where they performed surgical abortions.

Signs on the shuttered facility direct potential customers to contact their remaining offices in Twin Falls and Meridian.

The State Street facility has been in operation for well over 15 years.  Thousands of babies have been slaughtered within its walls.  It is hard to imagine how any other business could take up the lease to do business on its blood soaked floors.

We praise God for this shrinkage in Planned Parenthood’s Idaho presence.  Clearly the Lord is moving and the Abortion Industry is on the defense as we await the overturning of Roe and implementation of our Trigger Law later this summer.

But we must acknowledge the diligence and faithfulness of area pro-Lifers in bringing this dramatic victory to pass.

For many years, faithful Christians have been praying in front of that facility – begging the Lord to stop the killing within its walls.  We have participated in those prayer vigils, led by 40 Days for Life and Respect Life groups from various Catholic parishes in the Treasure Valley.  Those prayers have wrought a beautiful fruit.

Stanton Healthcare is also due specific credit.  About ten years ago, they opened a life-affirming clinic right next door to Planned Parenthood’s killing factory – giving women and girls a last chance to change their minds about ending the life of their preborn child.

Praise God!  Stanton is still standing, saving lives.  Next door – the killing has stopped.

Today is a special day in our society, as the sons, daughters and husbands of women everywhere pause busy lives to focus on honoring the women who have chosen to give us life.

I went to pick up a card for my wife yesterday.  I was struck by the traffic jam in the greeting card aisle, as men, women and children searched for the perfect card to convey feelings of love, gratitude… appreciation.  There are a lot of forces at work in our culture seeking to denigrate and devalue motherhood; it was heart-warming to see the card racks mostly depleted as people continue to recognize the great blessing mothers are to us all.

Motherhood is a sacred role, as the act of creating and nurturing a new life is a seminal moment in any woman’s life.  It is a moment of cooperating with the Creator to bring a new human being into existence, a new life full of rich possibilities.

The imminent fall of Roe promises, among many blessings, a new respect in our society for the power and grandeur of motherhood. 

Lord bless the mothers of our land on this special day!

In a shocking development, the DC press leaked a draft opinion circulating in the chambers of the U.S. Supreme Court which lays waste to the evil charade of Roe v. Wade.  While many have thought it possible, the reality that the Court might actually be ready to discard a “right” to abortion is causing grave consternation for many.

And one can be allowed some compassion for people who have been lied to for generations.

We, on the other hand, are overcome with exhilaration and a different kind of emotion.  The reality of this sea change is almost too grand to believe.  And, yet, it makes perfect sense given the fact that the Court made it clear from the beginning that it took the Dobbs case to look at one issue: viability.  This is the core legal fabrication of Roe, like a Jenga piece in the middle of the stack.  Pull that piece out, admit that this is legal and moral garbage … and the stack falls.

Through God’s grace, Idaho Chooses Life was able to file an amicus brief in the Dobbs case.  Our brief focused its fire on this key concept and conclusively demonstrated that the Supreme Court sullied itself by relying upon such a falsehood in order to sell the American people on the idea of killing preborn children as a matter of constitutional right.  The integrity of the Court, and our entire legal system, has been grossly compromised over the past half-century in order to prop-up the idea that human babies can be protected (somewhat) by the law only after they achieve some magical state of “viability”.  It defies reason and science.  It chafes the conscience. Babies don’t become human beings at “viability”, any more than they become a human being at birth.

Of course, we have not yet seen the actual reversal of Roe.  There are stories that the Supreme Court once before arrived at this point – in 1992, when deliberating the Casey lawsuit.  At the last moment one justice changed his mind.  That forced O’Connor to redraft the opinion, resulting in the mish-mash that is Casey. 

No doubt the clerk who decided to undermine the highest court in America by publicly releasing this draft was motivated by the belief that he/she could force the majority to reconsider its drive to overturn Roe.  We must be in earnest prayer that the majority resists any temptation to pander to the angry mob now gathering on the front steps:  Let the rule of law be defended, and the Constitution be restored to its grandeur!

The wisest course is for the Court to expedite its ruling and uphold the integrity of its deliberations.  Get on with it and let the earthquake hit the American culture with full force so that we can begin the long road to rebuilding a more just society.

Thankfully, Idaho is already well-positioned to defend preborn babies and their families.  In 2020, the Idaho Legislature passed our Trigger Law (SB1385).  That bill was signed into law by Governor Brad Little.  It will criminalize almost all abortions from conception – within 30 days of the final certification of a Supreme Court decision.  We may see a summer of LIFE in Idaho! Abortionists will face prison time – not just lawsuits – for destroying innocent lives.  The law allows for very narrow exceptions – rape, incest and life of the mother – but lays a legal burden on the abortionist to do everything possible in those cases to save the baby.  In the case of rape and incest, the abortionist cannot proceed without first obtaining legal documents proving that formal cases have been opened with a police department or the Idaho Department of Health & Welfare.

May God bring us the victory over evil so long desired by His people.