The State of Michigan is poised to repeal of all protection for unborn children – and require Christian businesses and other public accommodations to pay for it.
In moving to completely repeal Michigan’s protections for human life in the womb, legislators do not, as claimed, merely replace Michigan’s law with Roe. By default, their proposed legislation legalizes unrestricted late-term abortion, partial-birth abortion, and infanticide, now possible due to the passage of Prop 2 last November.
By additionally adding abortion to Michigan’s civil rights law, Christian business owners and other public accommodations would also have to pay for the lethal conduct. This legislative action all comes in the wake of the Governor signing legislation amending Michigan’s Civil Rights law to add sexuality classifications for special protection, while refusing to add similar provisions protecting religious conscience. Together these actions significantly diminish the ability of Christian people to act according to their conscience without legal consequence.
No state interest greater than the protection of human life exists. And no life more in need of state protection exists than that of a vulnerable, defenseless pre-born child. The state’s interest is compelling, and this state ought to use its power to protect rather than destroy life. Significantly, scientists no longer disagree on when human life begins. The consensus is that we begin at conception. Even assuming disagreement exists as to whether our life begins at conception, the only moral course is to err on the side of protecting human life, not on the side of destroying it. Advances in science now reveal the remarkable development of a pre-born child from the moment of fertilization. Gone are the days when society can question whether a pre-born child is merely a “clump of cells.”
The Michigan legislature ought to pause their comprehensive repeal and rewrite the legislation in a way that does not, by default, allow late term abortions, partial-birth abortions, and infanticide. And they certainly ought not require Christian business owners and other public accommodations to violate their conscience by requiring them to pay for it. Like those who voted for the fugitive slave act and those who voted against the civil rights act of 1964, this vote is one of those historic votes that defines a legislator and legislature’s identity. They should vote wisely as history will forever hold them accountable.