Land said, “I am so grateful that God allowed me to live to see the death of Roe. Now, the real battle begins. The Supreme Court has finally returned this issue to the people where it belongs. Now, we the people need to safeguard the right to life of as many of our fellow citizens as we possibly can. Government ‘of the people, by the people, for the people’ has been restored. May God grant us victory in the struggle to save our unborn.
“I am grateful beyond words to the younger generations of pro-lifers who have pledged to continue the fight until God gives us total victory.”
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— Shannon Royce, a life-long Southern Baptist, has served as a pro-life, pro-family advocate in multiple roles in Washington, D.C., for 34 years. Currently president of the Christian Employers Alliance (CEA), she was the ERLC’s legislative counsel and director of government relations for four years, legislative counsel to Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, for six years and director of the Center for Faith and Opportunity Initiatives at the Department of Health and Human Services from 2017 to 2021.
“I am overcome with joy, grateful for the courage and fortitude of the justices, and mindful of the work and ministry before us,” Royce told BP in written comments. “We can and should love both the mother and her unborn child.”
In a written release from CEA, she said, “While there have been significant theatrics and intensified media coverage in recent weeks, the day-to-day reality in our communities remains the same: The unborn need protection, and their mothers need help and hope.
“We urge Christian business leaders to continue to engage in the work of their local pregnancy care centers through financial and practical supports, and to stand for life in their state legislatures. While society actively seeks the destruction of life, Christians are uniquely equipped to share God’s life-affirming message of hope and healing to all.”
— Larry Lewis was pastor of Tower Grove Baptist Church in St. Louis when he wrote and defended from the platform as a member of the 1980 Resolutions Committee the first pro-life resolution approved by messengers to the SBC’s annual meeting. After his election as president of the Home Mission Board (now North American Mission Board) in 1987, the board inaugurated the same year under his leadership the Alternatives to Abortion Ministries to help churches and associations establish crisis pregnancy centers.
He is “delighted” the Roe v. Wade ruling has been overturned, Lewis said. “Roe v. Wade is probably the worst decision ever rendered by the [U.S.] Supreme Court, with the possible exception of Dred Scott,” the high court’s 1857 opinion that said free and enslaved Black Americans were not U.S. citizens, he said.
“Never in the history of our republic has any court ever found in the Constitution a right for a mother to kill her children, either born or unborn,” he wrote in a statement for BP.
“Of course, reversing Roe v. Wade doesn’t assure the right to life for the unborn but simply transfers the issue to the states to fashion whatever laws they think appropriate,” Lewis said. “Fortunately, there are several states that will likely prohibit or strictly regulate abortion except for extreme circumstances, such as where the life of the mother is seriously threatened. Unfortunately, many others will freely allow abortions with few or any restrictions.
“[W]e have a ‘fight for life’ on our hands! We must fight hard to assure our state legislatures fashion strong ‘right-to-life’ legislation. We must fight equally as hard against those who will undoubtedly seek to amend the Constitution to assure the right to abort is constitutional. Instead, we should seek to amend the Constitution to assure the right life, already clearly embedded in the Constitution, applies to the unborn as well as to anyone else.”
— Carol Everett was an abortion clinic owner when she was converted to Christ and left the business in 1983. Since going public as a pro-life advocate in 1985, Everett has spoken, written and worked in defense of preborn children and in support of their mothers. A member of a Southern Baptist church for more than 20 years, she founded The Heidi Group in 1995. The Texas-based organization seeks to meet the physical and spiritual needs of women with unplanned pregnancies, especially by starting pregnancy resource centers.
