If Not Personhood, What Is the Plan to End Abortion in Kansas?

by Bruce Garren

I have heard the Rev Flip Benham, Director of Operation Save America, proclaim on several occasions that, "Abortion will end in America when the church of Jesus Christ makes up her mind it will end – and not one second sooner." This certainly falls under the heading of bold statements. There are many parts of this proclamation that a person could question, such as how could Rev. Benham possibly know this to be true? Why is it that only the church has the power to end abortion, and how can a claim be made without honestly considering the power of the United States government to influence the outcome? All are good questions I’m sure Rev. Benham would be willing, if not eager to respond to. But I want to focus on another aspect of his claim. I want us to consider the reality that there could truly be an end to abortion in America.

Like many of you, I have been fighting against abortion for what seems like a long time. Also, like many of you, I have applied myself in a number of different strategies. I have voted pro-life, written editorials, contacted legislators, attended rallies, taught classes, held signs, prayed, and fasted. All of which I have found to be worthwhile efforts, but none have succeeded in ending abortion. Until recently, none of these activities were actually part of a plan to end abortion once and for all. Certainly, everything we have done had as its primary goal the end of abortion in America, and the hope was always to save as many innocent lives as possible, but none provided a plan to actually end child killing once and for all.

Although reducing the number of unborn children killed can appear to be a worthwhile interim goal for us, it can never ever be what our efforts lead to. We must not lose sight that reducing abortion is not and cannot be our goal! Even one child legally lost to surgical or chemical abortion would bring as much shame on America as the 1.2 million that were killed last year. I believe that’s what Ambassador Alan Keyes meant when he said, "It's the devil's game – Satan would be happy to end all abortion if only he could get all of us to consent to killing one child."

Our national shame is not from the number of unborn children legally murdered in our hospitals and abortion clinics each day, but it comes from our willingness to permit even one unborn child to be killed without our outrage.

Recently, I was part of a discussion about ending abortion in our state with several high-level government officials. After some time, and after the officials castigated the personhood strategy, I finally relented. I asked a particular gentleman a question that has gone unanswered. "Okay, I understand you don't like personhood as a way to end abortion in Kansas. So, if not the Kansas Personhood Amendment, what is your plan to end abortion during the Governor's term of office?" I couldn't believe what I saw and heard next. He looked stunned and ill prepared for the question. "Well, we are several years away from that still," he said.

After that discussion, I came to realize that our problem is not the disagreement on the Personhood Amendment strategy. The issue is that, among the personhood opponents, there is little hope at all of actually ending abortion in a short time frame. They are preparing to battle for the next several decades.

This same outlook is true of many of our leaders. It has been parroted, often from surprising sources. National Right to Life lead attorney, James Bopp, for instance, once charged that "Wise leaders recognized from the beginning that one of their foremost tasks was to keep abortion alive as an issue." And having compared the pro-life movement to the prohibition movement, he claimed that if we were to pass a ban on abortion, "No one would read [our] literature, attend [our] 'rallies,' or donate to the cause."

In his response to Bopp, Robert Muise, Esq., of the Thomas More Law Center wrote:

The obvious problem with keeping abortion alive as an issue, is that keeping abortion alive means killing the unborn. Each day abortion remains an issue—and the law of the land—is a day in which innocent life is destroyed…If succeeding in reversing Roe v. Wade and ending the slaughter of millions of innocent lives each year means ‘no one would read [NRTL] literature, attend [its] rallies, or donate to the cause,’ then that is the price of victory we should be willing to pay.

If you are like the many Kansans we have talked to across the state who want to see child killing not just reduced, limited, or restricted but ended in Kansas once and for all, and you want to be part of a plan, tell everyone you know that you want the decision in your hands. Tell them you want to be able to vote on the single most critical vote of your life. Tell your family, friends, community leaders, church members, and legislators that you want the Personhood Amendment on the statewide ballot.

Do not leave this vote in the hands of anyone else. Don’t trust anyone to represent your position on child killing. The Personhood Amendment provides you a way to end abortion in Kansas and a plan in which to do it.

Rev. Benham is right, it is long past time for the church of Jesus Christ to speak out boldly about the slaughter of children. We have a way to end the killing in Kansas and it’s called the Personhood Amendment, but it looks like you will have to insist that it be put on the ballot. If you want to be heard by the powers that be in Kansas, you will have to speak loudly, clearly and persistently! Tell them, "I want to vote on the Personhood Amendment because I want to end the killing, NOW!"