Democratic lawmaker says her pro-life views are based on Christianity, not politics
A Democratic state lawmaker from Louisiana explained to a gathering of conservatives in Washington, D.C., that her pro-life views on abortion are not political, they are Christian.
State Rep. Katrina Jackson for Louisiana’s District 16 was part of an all-female panel of pro-life state legislators at the Values Voters Summit on Friday.
When asked how she became pro-life, Jackson responded that “it’s as simple as this for me: God hates the shedding of innocent blood, and so I always said that whatever God hated, Katrina Jackson was going to hate too.”
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“This is not a political issue for me, it was not based on a party, it was based on my Christianity,” said Jackson, calling abortion an “injustice.”
“When I am talking to people who don’t understand that or who don’t identify with the Sovereign God that we serve, I tell them all the time ‘well, someone chose you.’ If you were born after Roe v. Wade, someone chose you. And would you have not wanted us to fight for you?”
Jackson added that she “not only fights for the unborn” but by being pro-life “you fight for yourself as well, because someone had a choice not to choose you.”
“I don’t think there should ever be a time where someone other than God should determine whether or not you are born,” she added.
Later, Jackson also spoke about the need for churches to be more vocal against abortion, explaining that she and others were reaching out to churches to support pro-life advocacy.
“We are reaching out to our pastors and advocating and now they are talking about it,” continued Jackson. “So imagine if that pro-choice person had been sitting in a church since they were 1 and 2 years old and hearing that God hated abortion.”
“I don’t care what party or what race, what religious affiliation, if they had heard that, a party or a political machine would have never been able to convince them that abortion was right.”
Jackson was joined by Rhode Island state Sen. Jessica de la Cruz and North Carolina state Rep. Pat McElraft, both of whom are Republicans, to discuss their experiences regarding the abortion debate.
While Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards signed a bill in May banning abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected, Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo signed a bill in June legalizing abortion up to the moment of birth.
De la Cruz, who fought against the legislation, told those gathered about her efforts to submit an amendment meant to reverse a measure diminishing the ability of the Rhode Island Department of Health to create regulations on the abortion industry.
“So I called the Department of Health and I said, ‘I’d like the last 10 years of inspections for Planned Parenthood.’ And she said, ‘well that’s easy, there are only two.’ But they’re supposed to be inspected every year,” recalled De la Cruz.
“Planned Parenthood’s motto used to be ‘safe, legal, and rare.’ Then it was ‘safe and legal.’ But can we really call it legal if we’re putting language into our legislation that prevents the inspection of a facility that performs surgical and chemical procedures? Can we really say we care about women when restaurants are held to a higher standard of cleanliness?”
De la Cruz went to implore those gathered and watching online to become involved in pro-life activism, even when the political debate is occurring in a progressive-leaning state.
“If you can run for office, run for office. If you cannot run for office, support a candidate that you know is on the right side of life,” she said.
The summit panel on pro-life activism and state-level political debates over abortion came as Planned Parenthood announced a $45 million campaign to support candidates supportive of abortion.
Announced earlier this week, the campaign will center on defeating President Donald Trump and Republican senators in the 2020 election, according to The Hill.
