During the session, Leatherwood prayed for each of the nine justices by name.
Chelsea Sobolik, the ERLC’s director of public policy, lamented abortion as she prayed with the Supreme Court building in the background.
“I ask for Your grace and Your mercy and Your love to permeate hearts … people that have had abortions, people that have helped aid abortion, people that have performed abortions, Lord,” she said. “I pray for each one of those people that there would be someone in their lives to share the Good News of the Gospel and that they would be able to trust in You and in Your saving love and grace.”
RELATED: Pro-Life State Legislators Preparing for Post-Roe Era
Willie McLaurin, the SBC Executive Committee’s interim president, prayed for fathers, petitioning God “that just as You have modeled to us what it means to be a Heavenly Father, that so many men would look to You and would turn to that whole and healthy model of what it means to be a father.”
He asked that “vibrant, abundant kingdom life would be a reality for so many fathers today. “
Victor Chayasirisobhon, president of the California Southern Baptist Convention, prayed that God “would help us to be strong and courageous” so “we can speak up for You, Lord Jesus, and create a culture of life.”
If a majority of the Supreme Court follows through in its final opinion by overturning Roe and the 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey ruling that affirmed its 1973 decision, the action would return abortion policy to the states.
About half of the 50 states will have laws prohibiting abortion at some stage if Roe is overruled, but other states already have laws protecting abortion rights and will become destinations for women seeking the procedure.
Elizabeth Graham, the ERLC’s vice president of operations and life initiatives, told the online audience before the prayer session, “[W]e must work alongside Southern Baptists in those [destination] states as they’re seeing an increase of women coming across state lines to receive abortions – to resource them, to ensure that they have support both in terms of pregnancy, adoption, foster care, helping moms to address the systemic drivers for why they choose abortion.”
This article originally appeared at Baptist Press.
