Center for Baptist Leadership Press Release
The Center for Baptist Leadership (CBL) does not endorse or oppose candidates for elected office in America. However, CBL unapologetically speaks to critical political and moral issues facing all American Christians, evangelicals, and particularly Southern Baptists.
On April 8, 2024, former President and presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump issued a statement about abortion and the ongoing political fight to defend the sanctity of life for preborn citizens. In light of those comments, the CBL wants to emphasize the imperative role of government in defending human life from fertilization to natural death, recognize former President Donald Trump’s pro-life accomplishments, and insist that further legislative efforts to ensure equal protection for preborn children be pursued at both the state and federal level.
First, CBL recognizes and celebrates the historic achievement delivered by Trump-appointed Supreme Court Justices in the Dobbs decision, which overturned the unconscionable and pro-abortion ruling of Roe v. Wade.
Trump promised to make these appointments when he ran in 2016, and he kept that promise. Unlike so many progressive evangelicals who claim to be pro-life and yet refuse to praise or credit Trump for this achievement, we recognize it and are thankful for it.
In addition to three pro-life Supreme Court Justices, President Trump also appointed hundreds of other pro-life judges across the federal judiciary, including Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, who issued a ruling to suspend the FDA’s approval of the abortion pill Mifepristone, and Judge Kyle Duncan, who challenged Roe before he took the bench.
Furthermore, during Trump’s first administration, he:
- Appointed strong pro-life personnel to key executive branch positions, such as Roger Severino at HHS and Russell Vought at OMB.
- Prevented taxpayer funding for abortion overseas by reinstating the Mexico City Policy and established the expanded Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance program.
- Stopped tens of millions of tax dollars from going to Planned Parenthood.
- Supported states like Texas which redirected Medicaid funds to health providers who refused to offer abortion services.
- Was the first U.S. President to speak at the March for Life.
Other examples could be provided, but it is clear that Trump pursued a pro-life agenda while he served as President. We believe this track record is worth remembering.
Donald Trump was, without a doubt, the most pro-life President in American history.
But there is more work to be done. Much more. The end of Roe has been an abortion “apocalypse” in our nation, revealing just how many Americans, lost in sin, love abortion and hate the preborn. But now is not a time to be dismayed. Rather, we must do the hard and necessary work of both passing righteous laws to restrain evil and convincing our fellow citizens to abandon their idols of sexual immorality and child sacrifice and repent and believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Second, CBL commends Trump’s comments on creating a culture of life in America, promoting healthy families, and defeating the extreme and bloodthirsty pro-abortion position of the radical Left, who support abortion-on-demand through all nine months and even, horrifically, in some cases after birth.
President Joe Biden has repeatedly said that he would gladly make Roe the “law of the land” again and has aggressively targeted and persecuted peaceful pro-life advocates under the FACE Act in ways never before seen in America. Christians cannot in good conscience overlook the depravity of the Democratic Party’s many transgressive and pro-death policies. We should not pretend or suggest that there is somehow a moral or political equivalence between the Republicans and the Democrats on this most crucial issue or many other issues of pressing concern for American Christians.
However, CBL disagrees that on the issue of abortion it must only be “left to the will of the people.” The federal government of the United States has a biblically-mandated (Romans 13:1-7) and constitutionally-required role to play in securing for all of its citizens, both born and preborn, equal justice under the law and defending their right to life.
Therefore, third, and most importantly, we must be clear that true biblical and political justice requires that we seek to secure the equal protection of preborn persons under the law in all fifty states of this nation and at the federal level. CBL exhorts Donald Trump, if he is re-elected, to lead with conviction on this issue and to forsake the advice of compromising political consultants who are unable to call elective abortion what it is: The unjustified, intentional taking of human life; or in other words, murder.
In the few years following the overturn of Roe, it has become apparent that the establishment GOP and many leading figures of the mainstream “pro-life movement” are unwilling or unable to make this coherent moral argument in the public square. Many pro-life lawmakers continue to oppose bills of equal protection in their states. The weak leadership of the pro-life movement has been reflected at the ballot box in every pro-life referendum since the end of Roe, as even red states like Ohio have voted against very modest pro-life measures.
The pro-life establishment in America has not failed because it is too “extreme” but rather because it has not had the courage to make unapologetically moral arguments about the value of life, the culpability of all parties involved in abortion, and the unspeakable evil that is the Left’s fanatical commitment to their satanic sacrament of child sacrifice on the altar of the sexual revolution.
The CBL will continue to advocate for the legal protection of life from the moment of fertilization until natural death (Psalm 139:13-16) and equal protection under the law for the preborn (Exodus 20:13).
We also encourage Christians to fulfill their duty before the Lord and commit to voting in the upcoming presidential election. America needs more Christians, not fewer, involved in politics during these perilous times. We further encourage Christians to prayerfully consider pursuing elected office in order to help establish equal protection for all preborn children.
Finally, we encourage Trump, and other national leaders, to lead by example in making these moral arguments. Evangelicals and Southern Baptists are eager to support candidates who display unflinching courage in the fight against the civilizational suicide of abortion. We exhort Trump to use his position of power and influence to cultivate a true culture of life in America, to listen to those who are committed to equal protection for the preborn, and make it a goal of his administration, if re-elected, to secure and protect their right to life.
