Georgia state Rep. Emory Dunahoo (R) introduced legislation in February that would define life as beginning at conception and classify the act of abortion as homicide. House Bill 441, the Prenatal Equal Protection Act, is popular among state Republicans, having secured over 20 co-sponsors in the state legislature. It has also managed to enrage the usual suspects — those alternatively keen on stripping unborn babies of legal protections.
The pro-abortion advocacy group Reproductive Freedom for All, for instance, condemned HB 441, calling it "an extreme and politically motivated measure that would criminalize abortion at all stages of pregnancy by establishing legal personhood at fertilization."
Reproductive Freedom for All and similar radical organizations have found an unlikely ally in Georgia Life Alliance, an advocacy group that claims on its website to be "leading the fight for life in elections, policy, and education statewide."
Georgia Life Alliance recently raised eyebrows with a publicized March 19 letter to the state House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee asking that it refrain from holding its hearing on HB 411 or at least kill it in committee.
The pro-life group's executive director, Claire Bartlett, and its board chair, Bryan Tyson, noted in their letter that while the legislation "appears well-intentioned and partially aligns with Georgia Life Alliance Committee's mission," they "hold grave concerns with the impact, consequences, and outcomes of the bill which conflicts with our organizational mission."
'This is totally false.'
The duo suggested that women seeking to eliminate their babies "require compassionate support, not punitive measures"; criminalizing women "could deter them from seeking necessary medical care and support"; penalties for killing babies in the womb might lead to "unregulated abortions" or dissuade women from seeking medical or mental health care after the fact; and the recognition of the unborn child's personhood in criminal law "would add immeasurable stress to Georgia's already-existing mental health crisis."
While HB 441 clarifies that mothers who get abortions under coercion — where they reasonably believe that the execution of their child is the only way to prevent their own death or great bodily injury — would not be held guilty, Bartlett and Tyson suggested that coercion "extends to intense psychological abuse such as gaslighting, overt devaluation, control, manipulation, and oppression."
"HB 441 changes long-standing Georgia protections for women and does not address or hold accountable the abortionist, the pimp, the sex trafficker, and the irresponsible man who will face no consequence and continue to prey on women and girls for their own selfish gain," wrote Bartlett and Tyson.
Bradley Pierce, president of the Foundation to Abolish Abortion — a national pro-life nonprofit that has championed the legislation from the start — stated that "House Bill 441, the bill that Georgia Life Alliance is opposing in Georgia, would simply protect the lives of innocent preborn children with the same homicide and assault laws that protect the rest of us as born people. This is what God commands and the U.S. Constitution requires."
"[Georgia Life Alliance] claims that House Bill 441 criminalizes only women and exempts abortionists, pimps, and sex traffickers. This is totally false," continued Pierce, whose organization drew significant attention to the letter this week. "The truth is that current pro-life laws in Georgia protect a woman's 'right' to knowingly and willingly murder her preborn child by abortion. House Bill 441, on the other hand, is the only bill that is impartial and would treat everyone equally under the law."
In addition to recognizing the personhood of the unborn and applying the same penalties to the slaying of unborn babies to those on the books for killing a born person, the bill would enable the Georgia attorney general to prosecute baby slayings if local prosecutors fail to and enable parents to pursue legal action for the death of their unborn children.
Pierce added, "It was sad, but it is not a surprise to see a well-established Pro-Life lobby group oppose equal protection of the laws for preborn children in Georgia. We have seen this happen repeatedly across the country."
'Tens of thousands of babies, made in the image of God, continue to be murdered in our state every year.'
Ben Zeisloft, head of communications at the Foundation to Abolish Abortion, similarly blasted Georgia Life Alliance over its characterization of the bill, suggesting with a meme that the pro-life organization might be captive to feminism, secularism, and humanism.
Blaze News reached out to Georgia Life Alliance for comment but did not receive a response by deadline.
The Columbus Ledger-Enquirer reported that the state House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee hearing, which Georgia Life Alliance tried to torpedo, ultimately took place, but the bill did not clear the state House before day 30 of the legislative session. The bill is, however, not dead. It will remain active for reconsideration through the next legislative session.
Republican state Rep. Dunahoo said during the hearing, "Tens of thousands of babies, made in the image of God, continue to be murdered in our state every year, all within the bounds of the current law. That must be changed," reported the Georgia Recorder.
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The Satanic Temple offers an "abortion ritual" for the purpose of "cast[ing] off notions of guilt, shame and mental discomfort" associated with the extermination of an unborn baby. The devil-branded anti-Christian group is not, however, the only game in town when it comes to normalizing and ritualizing the wholesale slaughter of the innocent.
Two days after Christmas, the New York Times detailed the work of certain supposed clerics to "show that religion could be a source of support for abortion rights."
The Times noted that Katey Zeh, the CEO of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice who performs her activism in the guise of an ordained Baptist minister, was joined this past fall by a Jewish cantor and a Presbyterian minister, both women, for her "ritual blessing" of an abortion clinic in rural Maryland.
"You all are blessings to those who come to you for care during some of their most vulnerable and sometimes painful moments," Zeh stated in the waiting room for the abattoir.
According to the RCRC, their abortion rituals often involve prayer, the burning of sage, "abortion storytelling," music, poetry, singing, and dancing. The Times indicated that Zeh's organization has held 10 blessings at abortion clinics since 2017.
Zeh stated in January, "It has been my sacred call to share in as many places as possible the truth that abortion is a blessing — it has the power to save lives and bless them, too."
'Christians know that Satan cannot create life — he only destroys.'
The RCRC website links to the "Abortions Welcome" page, which contains a hodgepodge of "meditations, rituals, stories, and scripture curated for different parts of the abortion process," along with witches' spells. Like the Satanic Temple, there is also an abortion ritual; however, it is not characterized as a "destruction ritual" but instead wears the skin of a Jewish ceremony and is aligned with the new moon holiday Rosh Chodesh.
The RCRC — which claims to be rooted in an "antiracist movement" despite the disproportionate extermination of black babies by the abortion regime — also provides a pamphlet containing alleged prayers of blessings from various clerics, including a self-identified Catholic priest, a Protestant minister, a Unitarian Universalist minister, a rabbi, and others.
The supposed Catholic blessing, which asks God to bless the woman getting the abortion but not her child, comes from Chris Tessone, who is not recognized as a priest in the Catholic Church, which has from the first century affirmed "the moral evil of every procured abortion."
The Catechism of the Catholic Church explicitly states, "Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life."
Despite the Catholic Church's clear moral teaching on abortion, the RCRC claims that "Catholic teachings on reproductive health topics are both more complex and simpler than the ones commonly thought of as the singular Catholic worldview."
The Protestant prayer, from Marvin Marsh, a retired Baptist pastor who served as board chair of Planned Parenthood Southeastern Pennsylvania, asks that the Holy Spirit seize upon the abortion as an opportunity to confer new gifts upon the mother. The RCRC notes on its website that "views on abortion vary widely among the 30,000+ Protestant Christian denominations," but only provides two examples defending abortion.
The activist group, which affirms the personhood of the pregnant woman but not the child growing within her, has repeatedly emphasized that it regards abortion as "sacred."
"I don't think Jesus would join the protesters outside the abortion clinic," Zeh told Newsweek in 2022. "I think that he would be accompanying patients inside, caring for them and holding their hands. That is the Jesus that I know."
"The Satanic Temple and other movements that promote abortion rights in the name of autonomy are in fact beholden to an anti-freedom," Blaze News' Kevin Ryan noted in a recent op-ed. "Christians know that Satan cannot create life — he only destroys. He may offer seductive ideas cloaked in equality or liberty, but his goal is always to eradicate the value of human life, which stands at the core of God's creation."
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A baby boy was discarded in the hallway of an apartment complex in South Bend, Indiana, just days before Christmas 2000. Gene Eyster, one of the police officers who dealt with the case and did his part to provide the boy with some comfort while in the hospital, long wondered about the child's fate.
A few weeks ago, the now-retired police lieutenant was not only provided with an update but with an outstretched hand. The boy he had helped, now a man, had done more than survive. He thrived.
The South Bend Tribune reported on Dec. 23, 2000, that a newborn baby had been discovered in the hallway of a Park Jefferson apartment building after midnight. A nearby resident, Christian Rowe, heard the child crying.
"I looked down the hallway and saw a box sitting there," said Rowe.
Rowe indicated he and his friend found a newborn shivering inside a small box, wearing a sleeping outfit and wrapped in blue-green blankets.
"I didn't know what to think," said Rowe. "We brought it inside the apartment to keep it warm."
Rowe and his friend called police, who rushed to the scene with an ambulance in tow.
"It's a heartbreaker for us," said then-Sgt. Ian McQueen of the SBPD's Major Crimes Unit.
According to the SBPD, responding officers roped then-Sgt. Gene Eyster into the investigation, who immediately began seeking answers for the following questions: "How did the baby get there? Was he kidnapped? Was it intentional? Is anyone looking for him?"
Eyster told the Tribune, "Initial examination indicated it may have been a home delivery."
"I want to find the mother and make sure she's OK," said Eyster. "After that, we'll let the chips fall where they fall. ... The priority is care and concern for the child, then the mother, and lastly if there's any criminal intent."
The SBPD indicated that Eyster worked with local media outlets to spread the word about the boy, often referred to in reports as "Baby Boy Doe."
"'Baby Doe' sounded so cruel," said Eyster. "So ... I started calling him 'Baby Jesus' since it was so close to Christmas."
With the hunt underway for answers about the boy's origin, Eyster went out and bought a teddy bear to keep the child company in his hospital crib.
Eyster recently told CBS News that the bear was "just a symbol to let everyone that walked past know that he was cared about."
A subsequent report indicated the baby was found to be in good health and was believed to have been between three and seven days old when left in the entrance to the apartment building.
The mother who abandoned the child after a home delivery later turned herself in to police.
After the boy's medical examination, police indicated he was released to Child Protective Services whose division director at the time indicated there would be some kind of foster-care placement.
In the decades that followed, Eyster wondered what had become of the child, especially whenever he would pass the Park Jefferson apartment complex. There was no finding out, however, since the records were sealed.
According to SBPD, Eyster, who recently lost his only son, received a call from Officer Josh Morgan last month.
"Gene," said Morgan. "You aren't going to believe this."
Eyster indicated that he remembered virtually everything from his time on the force, especially the case of the abandoned baby at Christmastime.
"He's sitting next to me right now," said Morgan. "He's my rookie!"
"Baby Boy Doe" evidently grew up to become SBP Officer Matthew Hegedus-Stewart.
The department indicated that Morgan pieced together parts of the puzzle after his rookie had mentioned his adoption in infancy and his abandonment when responding to a call regarding a similar incident.
Morgan pulled the thread further, tracking down the original case report, then identifying Eyster as the lead investigator.
On March 22, Eyster met Hegedus-Stewart, noting, "You're a little bit bigger now."
CBS News indicated that Hegedus-Stewart now wears the same uniform Eyster did and patrols the exact same neighborhood.
The SBPD suggested that the rookie "has to wonder if, even subconsciously, this experience motivated him to want to pursue law enforcement."
The rookie told the retired lieutenant in person, "Thank you for everything you did for me."
Hegedus-Stewart told CBS News it was a "full-circle moment that hit home."
Eyster noted that the timing of the reunion, just months after his son's unexpected passing at the age of 36, "couldn't have been any better to help fill a void that I've had to deal with."
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