The Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment states: Nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. Within the abortion debate, the main question is: “Are preborn children ‘persons’?” The answer is incontrovertibly yes because every human being is a person, and we know with scientific certainty that human life begins at fertilization. To remove personhood from any human being is to remove the inherent value of a fellow image bearer of God. Throughout human history, this type of dehumanization has taken place in the hearts and minds of those who seek to justify the oppression, subjugation, and murder of certain classes of people. One of the most egregious examples in American history was the Supreme Court’s ruling in Roe v Wade which denied the personhood of preborn humans, and in turn, paved the way for the genocide of over 63 million -and counting - preborn children.

The Dobbs decision overturned this unconstitutional and immoral ruling, but the Supreme Court fell short of their duty to invoke the 14th Amendment and remind states of their obligation to apply equal protection of the laws to all persons, including the preborn. Letting states decide how, when, where, and why preborn children could be murdered was deemed as the reasonable course of action, and pro-life states quickly began to implement laws that restricted abortion access. However, not one state can accurately claim that it has banned abortion because every single pro-life law in the nation still allows abortion in certain circumstances and gives pregnant mothers legal permission to self-induce their own abortions at any stage of pregnancy and for any reason. Americans sacrifice well over a million preborn children every year, and the vast majority of those abortions occur by means of the abortion pill which is easily accessed online and 100% legal for pregnant mothers in every state to ingest.

Every pro-life law in the country carves out a special legal right for one class of people (pregnant mothers) to deny the right to life of another class of people (their preborn children). Why? Because the pro-life establishment believes that all women who choose to abort their babies are victims of a “culture of lies”, and therefore should never be held accountable for the direct and intentional killing of their child. According to the doctrine of the pro-life movement, victimhood status trumps the unalienable right to life, and the best we can do is to reduce the number of abortions taking place by implementing as many restrictions as is politically possible. In contrast, those within the abolition movement believe that murdering anyone should be illegal for everyone.

Pro-life legislation that exempts the pregnant mother is akin to making slavery illegal for everyone except landowners. Slavery was rightly abolished and not simply regulated with the hopes of reducing the number of slaves. Like those who paved the way before us, modern day abolitionists fight for what both God’s Word and the U.S. Constitution demand: equal protection and equal justice under the law for all people. This simply means that the same homicide and assault laws that already protect the lives of born people should be extended to preborn people. Those who oppose equal protection either believe that preborn humans are not persons, that they are somehow subhuman, or they simply choose to violate both God’s Law and the U.S. Constitution when it suits them politically or personally.

North Dakota lawmakers had the historic chance during the 2025 Legislative Session to pass a bill of equal protection and ban abortion completely, but it failed despite a significant Republican majority in the House. As we wait for the next legislative opportunity to establish justice for the preborn, Equal Protection ND is committed to building support across the state for the abolition of abortion, all to the glory of God alone.