Abolishing Abortion Means Revoking Mothers’ ‘License to Kill’

There could be no more deafening silence than that heard on March 10 in Nashville as an effort to secure equal protection for the unborn died without so much as a whimper at a Tennessee House subcommittee meeting.

When the Population Health Subcommittee chair, Republican Rep. Michelle Carringer, brought up House Bill 570 for consideration, the pregnant pause that followed ended as far too many pregnancies now do—with a premature death.

"Do I have a motion?" Carringer asked, puzzled by the lengthy silence.

After several more seconds, someone whispered something about an amendment.

"Well, I need a motion on the bill before we can add an amendment," Carringer replied.

Absent any such motion, she announced the bill's failure and moved on.

The amendment in question was no doubt the source of contention for an otherwise uncontroversial bill about the maintenance of a memorial for the unborn. The measure sought to treat the assault of an unborn child as legally equal to the assault of any other person, allowing the criminal prosecution of women who abort their babies.

Tennessee has already outlawed abortion in most cases, except in situations involving a threat to the mother's life or major bodily functions. But the problem with that law, as with most states' abortion restrictions, is its gaping loophole: It prohibits prosecution of the mother.

🚨 Watch the moment House Bill 570, which would have abolished abortion in Tennessee, failed because zero Republicans on the Tennessee House Population Health Subcommittee had the courage to motion for the effort to be heard. pic.twitter.com/uZoOBhXuzT

— Foundation to Abolish Abortion (@AbolitionistFAA) March 10, 2026

Such permissive laws—coupled with the Food and Drug Administration's lax abortion drug regulations—have made it possible for women in nearly every state to kill a full-term baby in the womb without facing homicide charges, or in most cases, any charges at all.

In Kentucky, abortion abolitionists are now advancing their own legislation to address this problem. The question they face is whether that bill, too, will be aborted or if it will set the standard for pro-life states going forward.

Crimes of Compassion

Pastor Jerry Dorris of Reformation Church in Shelbyville, Kentucky, ministers outside of abortion clinics every day. As a Christian, he sees it as his responsibility to fight for the defenseless unborn. He attributes Tennessee lawmakers' failure to do the same to the pervasive mindset that "the culture's not ready" to treat abortion as a violent crime.

"I think there's the fear of how that looks, and there's just been this narrative that there are two victims when abortion happens: there's the baby, and there's the mother," Dorris told Restoration News, pointing to local pro-life leaders who promote such messaging.

Kentucky Right to Life Executive Director Addia Wuchner, for one, recently penned an op-ed deriding local equal protection efforts as "a disturbing shift" in the pro-life movement.

Like Tennessee, Kentucky has criminalized abortion for providers (with limited exceptions) but precludes the prosecution of mothers. Kentucky's House Bill 714 would change that by treating abortion as homicide.

Wuchner's op-ed, published by the Courier-Journal, charged that passing the bill "would depart from the compassionate and accountable framework that has defined Kentucky's pro-life leadership and legislators for decades."

Dorris fundamentally rejects that argument.

"As a Christian, I can have compassion for someone who's killed their own child, and I can love them, but that's me and them," he said. "The law still must be upheld. Justice is still right, and there's still right and wrong."

Dorris stressed that the law not only serves as a deterrent to crime but also informs society's moral code. "The law is a tutor, and it teaches the culture what we value as a people," he said. "And if we will not have our law code consistent with our values, we're hypocrites. Because if we value life, we should protect all life."

Dorris added that, in his view, treating the perpetrators of crimes as victims is the opposite of compassion because it does them a spiritual disservice.

"How can you seek forgiveness if you were a victim?" he asked. "How can you seek Christ if you've done nothing wrong and you were just manipulated by a system?"

Pastor Clay Hall of Oak Grove Baptist Church in Paducah agreed. He said Christians who truly care about women should want to prevent them from making decisions that "are going to haunt them the rest of their lives" and after.

"And that is what all laws do," Hall added. "All laws help would-be criminals to make wiser choices out of fear of the repercussions."

License to Kill

To date, only one state—Nevada—has a law on the books that allows the prosecution of women for having illegal abortions. Most assign all culpability to the doctors providing the abortion, and abortion abolitionists aren't alone in identifying this massive loophole.

INeedAnA.com, an online directory of abortion providers, assures women that "Self-managed abortion, or ending your own pregnancy, isn't a crime in any state (except past 24 weeks in Nevada)."

Though the website acknowledges that there is still some "legal risk" in having an illegal abortion, it stresses that "many, many people choose to end pregnancies in whatever way feels right to them and no one ever knows about it."

This is sadly true, thanks to the FDA's deregulation of the chemical abortion regimen. In 2023, the agency permanently lifted its longtime requirement that women obtain abortion pills in person from a doctor's office. The result is that anyone can now order those pills online, retrieve them from their mailbox, and then abort their baby at home without anyone ever knowing. This poses a problem for pro-life states that wish to regulate abortion within their borders, especially when the doctors providing the pills live in other states.

Louisiana ran into this very issue when a New York-based abortionist allegedly mailed abortion pills to a Louisiana mother to coerce her pregnant teenage daughter into having an illegal abortion. Louisiana tried last year to extradite the abortionist for prosecution, but New York Gov. Kathy Hochul blocked those efforts, citing her state's shield law protecting doctors who facilitate abortions in other states. Although the teen's mother is now facing prosecution, the fact that anyone is being held to account is a rarity.

Authorities only learned of the Louisiana case because the teen suffered life-threatening complications from the abortion drugs. Despite a near-total ban on the procedure, some 900 children are aborted every month in Louisiana. As blue states refuse extradition and mothers can't be charged, hardly anyone is ever prosecuted.

In Kentucky, more than 300 chemical abortions take place each month, yet few cases go before a judge. One recent exception is the case of Melinda Spencer, 35, of Campton, whom prosecutors say chemically aborted her son and then buried his dead body in "a shallow grave" in her backyard. Spencer allegedly told staff at a local clinic what she had done on Dec. 31, and the clinic then alerted police.

Initially, Spencer was charged with fetal homicide—until prosecutors realized state law barred them from pursuing that charge and were forced to drop it. They are now moving forward with the lesser charges of abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence, and concealing the birth of an infant.

Hall said he and his fellow abortion abolitionists were unsurprised by the change.

"We predicted that they would drop the fetal homicide charge, and they did the very next day," he said. "I don't know if the remaining charges will stick or not."

Hall said the case exemplifies how his state's current law effectively grants women "a license to kill." Yet passing House Bill 714, he said, would make women "just as criminally liable as every other person involved in the abortion," and would treat all human lives as equally valuable.

The Church's Role

Pastors Hall and Dorris look to the Bible to inform their views of abortion and the dignity of human life. While at one point, that might have gone without saying, in today's world, it's a necessary distinction.

Videos circulating on social media have shown multiple progressive pastors speaking out in favor of abortion—and twisting scripture to do so.

In one viral video, Presbyterian Rev. Rebecca Todd Peters likens Jesus to an abortion clinic escort or an "abortion doula" before declaring: "If Jesus were giving his sermon today, he might also have said: 'Blessed are those who end pregnancies, for they will be known for their loving kindness.'"

Peters went on to disclose that she had aborted two of her own children—decisions she described as "sacred" because "they reflect the moral responsibility of reproductive power."

"Blessed are those who end their pregnancies"

Because it's being shared around again, here is the fuller version. PCUSA 'pastor' says Jesus would have been an abortion doula and reveals she's had two abortions herself. pic.twitter.com/NNmrfEbgpF

— Protestia (@Protestia) February 7, 2026

An Episcopalian pastor proclaims in another video that "the decision to terminate a pregnancy can be a moral and loving decision for yourself and for your family." She adds that she feels "sad" that her daughters may not have the option of "a safe and legal abortion."

With such shepherds leading the flock, it's no wonder so many have gone astray. The truth, however, is that abortion and Christianity are incompatible.

"Jesus said, 'I have come not to abolish the law but to fulfill it,' so Jesus would have supported all of the Old Testament law," Hall said. Pointing to Exodus 21:22-25, he noted that the lives of the unborn were treated with equal value under the law of Moses, "and Jesus certainly would have supported that."

The Old Testament law also forbids partiality and the use of unequal weights and measures, Hall added. "And showing partiality towards the mom and against the child is a violation of the law of God."

And then, of course, there's the Sixth Commandment: "Thou shalt not kill."

Despite the Bible's clarity on the sanctity of life, many Christians have begun to view their faith through the lens of their politics, rather than the other way around. For that, Dorris said the Church has no one to blame but itself.

"I just think we have so many cowards in pulpits right now—not just on this issue, but on every issue," he said. "We've just become feckless, and . . . I think many pastors are immobilized by the fear of man and fear of losing their paycheck."

That spinelessness has, in turn, produced weak Christians who bow to political pressure, prioritizing public opinion over the opinion of God.

Witnessing such cowardice in action is what led Hall to start speaking out more forcefully. "It was like the Lord impressed upon me, who is going to fight for truth if Christians don't?" he said.

The solution, Hall said, is for Christians to proclaim the Gospel and submit themselves to God's Word.

Kentuckians can start by supporting legislation that acknowledges abortion for what it really is: premeditated murder. As for so-called "pro-life" leaders and policymakers, they would do well to get out of their own way—and God's—and follow suit.

FIGHTING FOR THE RIGHT TO LIFE:

     WATCH RESTORATION SPOTLIGHT: The Return of Big Abortion with Doug Truax

     TAKE ACTION: Finish the Job: Defund Planned Parenthood for Good

     COMMENTARY: DOUG TRUAX—Time to Face the Truth about Mifepristone

     REPORT: Abortion is Skyrocketing in America Due to the Abortion Pill

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