RINGGOLD, Ga., July 9, 2022 — On Saturday, more than 75 pro-life activists gathered in front of the Catoosa County Courthouse in Ringgold to praise God for the overturn of the erroneous 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and call for a special legislative session to abolish abortion in Georgia with a Personhood Amendment to the state constitution.
By Abigail Darnell / Vice President of Georgia Right to Life
“We are here today to rejoice in the overturn of Roe v Wade and to call on our elected officials to end the Holocaust of abortion once and for all,” said Abigail Darnell Vice President of Georgia Right to Life.
“Part of the proper liberty restored in the Dobbs decision was the ability for individual states to enact laws that protect the unborn without artificial restrictions from Washington,”said Vaughn Hamilton, Elder of Brainerd Hills Presbyterian Church. “Let us give thanks for this opportunity and let us pray for moral clarity and boldness from voters, to legislators to the judiciary and to the Governor.”
The rally featured local church leaders, politicians and activists who have joined forces in an effort entitled Georgians Ending Abortion. They are urging Georgians over eighteen to sign an online petition to Governor Kemp which states:
“Whereas, several thousand pre-born children may be legally murdered in our state before the beginning of the next regularly scheduled legislative session; and
Whereas, innocent Georgians may be legally murdered even if the “Heartbeat” law goes into effect because of the broad exceptions it contains;
Therefore, we urge you to immediately convene a special session of the Georgia General Assembly.”
(https://www.grtlpetitions.online )
The Governors of South Dakota and Indiana have already announced their intention to convene special sessions in their states to strengthen legal protection for the pre-born, and activists are calling on Governor Brian Kemp to follow suit. Organizers of the event contend that abortion is both a sin and a crime and therefore both the church and the state have a duty to take bold, decisive action immediately.
“Why are we meeting at the Courthouse? Because God ordained civil government to administer justice. Not individuals, not the family, not the church,” said Keith Cochran President of Northwest Georgia Right to Life. “What is our grievance? Pre-born children are being legally murdered by their mother and her doctor without any punishment at all.”
The rally commended Chattooga County Commissioner Blake Elsberry who last week signed a Resolution for Life affirming his desire to protect all human life in his jurisdiction. https://allongeorgia.com/chattooga-local-government/commissioner-elsberry-signs-resolution-for-life/ activist Jennifer Tudor read the Resolution.
“This is something I have felt convicted about getting done since first taking office and I feel a heavy burden of sadness that we even have to have this debate in America. Nevertheless, now with this issue coming back to the states, I felt that it was important that our state leadership know that this office supports the right to life for the born and unborn alike,” wrote Elsberry in a statement.
“We are hoping in Catoosa County the Board of Commissioners will step up and do the right thing and sign that resolution as well,” said Ray Blankenship an activist in the Catoosa GOP and leader in the second amendment sanctuary movement.
Activist Charlie Wysong who led an effort to shut down the Chattanooga abortion facility which closed in 1994 said “How does it feel to have a fifty year prayer answered?”
Why not ‘heartbeat bill’?
The rally featured Representative-elect Mitchell Horner HD-3 (R-Ringgold) who likened the pro-life cause to the abolition of slavery. “On March 20th 1854, the Republican Party formed over the issue of abolition. Once again we must form a Republican Party around the notion of abolition – an abolition of killing children…It’s time for Republicans in the state house to have courage and act, said Horner.
“Republicans have had the majority in the House and Senate for twenty years. Why do we still kill babies?” Said Jackie Harling a Walker County activist and former candidate for HD-1.
The Georgians Ending Abortion petition is co-sponsored by many Republican organizations that point to the GAGOP platform which states: “We believe in the right to life from conception, beginning at fertilization, to natural death.”
“We are calling on Republicans to advance the platform they say they believe in,” said Nathaniel Darnell NFRA Director for the Georgia Republican Assembly.
State Senator-elect Colton Moore SD-53 (R-Trenton) spoke out in favor of the effort and described the intense antagonism that was displayed against the ‘Heartbeat Bill’. “I wish each of you could’ve heart the hisses and the growls from the gallery as that piece of legislation finally passed by one vote.”
Georgia’s ‘heartbeat’ law has been challenged in court since 2019 and has not yet been enforced or saved a single life. Currently in Georgia, all babies may be legally murdered up until 20 weeks, before the stage in which it has been demonstrated that babies feel pain. However babies believed to have Down’s Syndrome or other ‘fetal abnormalities’ may currently be killed by abortion after 20 weeks despite the excruciating pain they may experience. This double standard is replicated and expanded in the heartbeat bill which treats children conceived in rape or incest to a different standard of justice than consensually-conceived children, a concept that heartens back to the eugenics of Nazi Germany and Planned Parenthood’s founder Margaret Sanger.
“We as an American society, we believe that we have equal justice under the law – each and every member of society. And when that fertilized egg becomes a new person, it too has equal justice under the law and we Americans must continue to fight for it,” said Moore.
“The Dobbs decision is not the end of our work, it is the beginning,” said Pastor Dan Hocker of Christian Fellowship Assembly in Tunnel Hill.
Dan Hocker referenced the pro-life work of early Christians. “We started this work on the hills of Rome. Back then there wasn’t a pill, there wasn’t even a coat hanger, back then there weren’t doctors that would ‘end a pregnancy’. Back then there were only wolves on the hills to eat those babies. But Christians would watch as they would take those babies to the hills and they would rescue those babies and raise them to have faith in the Lord that we serve.”
What about rape?
“Is it right to take that babies little life because a sin was committed? “There’s no doubt that rape and incest are wrong. But it is still God-breathed life,” said Dan Hocker.
“The only people that really have choices and options, are the people that breathe and walk among us. The unborn they don’t have that option… That female or that male in the womb, they don’t have the option to plead with their mother not to kill them. They don’t have an option or a choice to ask their father to fight for them,” said Blankenship
Georgians who favor abortion vehemently reject the involvement of Christians in abortion law-making. Some Ringgold residents voiced their opposition from their vehicles yelling “My body, my choice” or profanity as the drive by. They often oppose Christian involvement on the claim that it violates the separation of church and state. However, activists at the rally clearly delineated the separate, distinct role of those two institutions.
“We believe in the institutional separation of church and state, but there is no separation between God and government,” said Nathaniel Darnell.
“There is no authority except that which is given of God – received from God with the intent of reflecting the character of God,” said Reagan Marsh, Pastor of Reformation Baptist Church in Dalton as he spoke to Romans 13.
“Government when it positions itself above scripture has no authority… “Government is a restricted authority… they are not to execute or fulfill their own will nor that of the electorate. They are to serve God alone and they will answer to God as surely as you and I will. Just as surely as I will as an elder and as a pastor. God’s word alone determines good from evil, right from wrong, not mere populace or consensus or what is trending on Twitter.”
“We have a duty to see to it and to call our elected officials to the obedience that God’s word requires of them. Because how they govern reflects how people see Him,” said Marsh.
“I’m asking Governor Kemp to stand up and take a stand, as we put these petitions before him… What happens here in the state of Georgia is going to affect America and what happens in America affects the world,” said Edward Torres a Missionary with Amazon for Christ Medical Missions.
