By Bob Allen
Southern Baptist leaders in Oklahoma joined other clergy and lawmakers seeking to revive “personhood” legislation shelved by Republicans in the state’s House of Representatives.
Representatives of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission planned to gather with Catholic leaders and others April 24 to demand an up-or-down vote on SB 1433, which extends rights and privileges of citizenship to unborn children “from the moment of conception until birth at every state of biological development,” according to a press release by Oklahomans for Life.
The bill, passed by the state senate in February by a vote of 34-8, stalled April 19 when Speaker Kris Steele announced the House Republican Caucus had voted behind closed doors not to take up the measure this year.
The Baptist General Convention sent an action alert calling the decision by legislators “unacceptable.”
“Oklahomans are pro-life and they need to hear that from Oklahoma Baptists TODAY! Let them know that you support the pro-life Personhood Act, SB 1433, coming to a vote and ask it be heard immediately on the house floor,” the alert said.
Oklahoma Baptists adopted three pro-life resolutions last fall at their annual meeting. One stated that life begins at conception and encouraged laws “that acknowledge the full personhood of the unborn.”
Based on that, Heidi Wilburn, ethics and religious liberty consultant with the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma, called in February for legislators to support SB 1433, the Personhood Act authored by Sen. Brian Crain and Rep. Lisa Billy.
The Oklahoma law is one of a handful of bills proposed around the country to curb abortions by declaring the fetus a person, thereby equating elective abortion with homicide.
Opponents say personhood laws could outlaw in-vitro fertilization and some kinds of birth control. Brian Hobbs, editor of the Oklahoma Baptist Messenger, said in an editorial April 19 that isn’t true, at least in Oklahoma, because the proposed measure includes an amendment saying that nothing in the bill shall be construed to limit contraception or in-vitro fertilization.
But not all opposition is from outside the pro-life movement. While personhood’s ultimate goal is to give the U.S. Supreme Court an opportunity to overturn its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing most abortions, some pro-lifers fear it could backfire if the court opted to strengthen, rather than reduce, abortion rights.
Rob Chambers, a consultant with the Christian Action Commission of the Mississippi Baptist Convention -– a group that lent strong support to a failed personhood amendment to the state constitution last fall -– said April 21 on the “Richard Land Live!” radio show that one problem he faces in his state is lawmakers who are “pro-life in name only,” meaning they run for office pledging to oppose abortion but fail to deliver after they are elected.