The pro-life movement was instrumental in overturning Roe v. Wade and sending the issue of abortion back to the states to decide. However, according to pastor Jeff Durbin, many pro-life advocates are now standing in the way of ensuring equal protection for all human life.
Durbin is a pastor at Apologia Church in Arizona, where he runs a ministry called End Abortion Now to criminalize abortion nationwide through the work of local churches and state legislation. He recently joined "1819 News: The Podcast" to discuss the moral ramifications of equal protection laws and in vitro fertilization (IVF).
Before he devoted his life to Christ and fighting abortion, Durbin used his skills as an avid martial artist working on stunt teams for various productions, including a “Mortal Combat” stage play and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.” It wasn’t until after he hit rock bottom with drug and alcohol addiction that he turned his life around and got into ministry.
“We planted Apoligia church about 14 years ago. And since that time, we've seen thousands of people come to Christ out of drug and alcohol addiction,” he said. “We've seen thousands of people come to Christ out of atheism and many different cults. And since that time, the Lord has raised up some really significant ministries at Apologia Church. One of those ministries is End Abortion Now, where we started going out to the abortion mills and just bringing them to the gospel, calling them to faith, offering to help them and to give them hope.”
Durbin has helped draft equal protection bills in states like Alabama and Louisiana, though some people, including pro-lifers, fear such laws could land women in jail.
“It's important to note that when we say equal protection, it's very simple — equal protection for all humans from fertilization. There's no gender mention there. There's no class mention there. There's not a woman mentioned there, or a man mentioned there. We're talking about conduct,” he said. “You cannot take the life of a human being in the state of Alabama in an unjustified manner. And you are human from fertilization. That is an indisputable fact, a biblical fact, a biological fact. But it reveals something. When someone says, oh, you want women to be punished, it reveals that, oh, you believe that women should be able to kill their children with immunity.”
Alabama’s Supreme Court’s decision on IVF and the state bill that followed brought the issue to the forefront of mainstream politics, with many Republicans pushing for protections on the procedure while otherwise claiming to be pro-life.
“[E]ssentially it gets down to the core discussion is you have to ask questions as to what makes human beings valuable," Durbin said. "I mean, why are we more valuable than snails, rocks, horses, dogs? What makes us different?”
Too often, even Christians are inconsistent with their view of life when it comes to IVF, he said.
“It was the pro-life movement that killed the bill of equal protection in Louisiana, which I know sounds so shocking to people, but it's because the pro-life establishment is fundamentally inconsistent,” Durbin said. “It's fundamentally not Christian. And even they'll even brag about the fact that we're not a Christian organization… [I]f you say that your industry is built on a foundation of human life is valuable, we want to preserve it and protect it to see it through. If you believe that, then you ought to act consistently with that, meaning you shouldn't just create a host of human beings, destroy them, or put them on ice for, you know, 20 years or 30 years. You ought to act consistently with your presuppositions.”
He continued, “What makes the one-year-old, two-year-old, three-year-old, or four-year-old valuable? Isn't it that they're human? Isn't that the point, that it's a human being? And that presses us to, OK, then when does that take place? Well, it's a fact. It takes place at fertilization. There's no way out of that.”
To connect with the story's author or comment, email daniel.taylor@1819news.com or find him on Twitter and Facebook.
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