Josh Benner

Category: prolife

  • Abortion issues play a significant role in several states

    photo-1522681790129-eacac40ff606.jpegAlabama, Oregon, West Virginia.

    All three states had state ballot issues related to abortion. The ballot issue narrowly passed in West Virginia, soundly passed in Alabama and was soundly defeated in Oregon.

    The Alabama and West Virginia amendments  both included the phrase: “Nothing in this Constitution secures or protects a right to abortion or requires the funding of an abortion.”

    Based on the new state constitutional amendments, if Roe v Wade were overturned by the Supreme Court, there would not be a right within those states to have an abortion. The new law also potentially enables state legislatures more freedom in passing laws that help preserve the life and rights of the unborn.

    These two amendments are based off of another pro life amendment that Tennessee passed in 2014. Writing for the Huffington Post, Marina Fang argues that these laws  “would likely face legal action and would be unenforceable because Roe v. Wade ensures a woman’s right to an abortion.” She goes on to mention that it’s possible that Roe would be overturned.

    But even if it’s not overturned, it’s also not a foregone conclusion that these laws would be judged as unconstitutional. Last month, the Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to the Tennessee amendment.

    The West Virginia and Alabama laws also are set to eliminate funding for abortions.

    In recent years, several states have been active in proposing legislation and constitutional amendments that protect the rights of the unborn.

    These are big wins for the pro life movement and for the rights of the unborn. Many lives will be saved as a result of these new laws. It is important that other states pick up the baton and keep fighting for the rights of the unborn. When states fill to pass amendments, as was the case with Oregon, people need to keep fighting.

    Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear what you think, and don’t forget to subscribe! 

    Josh Benner is the associate pastor at Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church in Fergus Falls, Minnesota and has a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He enjoys writing about faith and culture. He lives with his wife Kari in Minnesota.

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  • New movie looks into Kermit Gosnell and his house of horrors abortion clinic

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    I saw the new movie “Gosnell: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer” about former Philadelphia abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell who was sentenced to three life sentences for delivering live babies and then murdering them.

    For starters, I think it’s a movie that a pro-life person (such as myself) will like. And I think pro-choice people will sit this one out. I don’t know if I really see minds getting changed as a result of this movie.

    Given Gosnell’s low budget, I thought it was very well done. And while it’ll undoubtedly cater to a largely Christian audience, it’s not a family film (it’s rated PG-13). And the subject matter is difficult as it talks about abortion and Gosnell’s lack of regard for the lives of the babies he murdered.

    You have a man arrested for running an abortion clinic despite the fact that he wasn’t board certified, he had staff doing medical procedures who hadn’t been properly trained. He was working in squalid conditions. The end credits show a picture from the initial law enforcement raid with a stray cat inside the clinic. One of the first scenes of the movie features the investigators going through the clinic and finding body parts of babies discarded in various places, such as refrigerators.

    The man was a butcher. Late term abortions. Doing procedures in an unsanitary environment. Inducing labor and then murdering babies who were born.

    One of the things the movie tries to do is capture the inattention from the media regarding the story at the time. Ironically, that is also true of the movie. It’s not like Gosnell was operating 90 years ago. His clinic was raided in 2011 and he was convicted in 2013.

    Writing for the DailyWire, Matt Walsh points out that Rotten Tomatoes has just six reviews of Gosnell. Walsh offers a key reason as to the lack of attention to Gosnell’s story:

    Any case of illegal abortion will inevitably lead to difficult questions about legal abortion. After all, what is the substantive difference between killing a baby moments after it leaves the birth canal and killing it moments before? How can an advocate of unrestricted abortion become an opponent of infanticide? Any argument offered to justify late-term abortion must also apply to post-term abortion.

    -Matt Walsh, DailyWire

    I think Walsh is right on this point.

    How do we view what Gosnell was doing?

    Was he a crusader who was trying to help women in a poor community? That was part of his defense.

    Or was he a murderer?

    Was what he did technically illegal? Delivering baby and using scissors to snap their necks. Was it technically illegal but not really that different from aborting a baby a few inches further into the birth canal?

    Or is it murder?

    I believe that answer is clear.

    It’s a difficult issue within our larger society. When does one have a right to life? It’s a pretty fundamental question.

    I understand that many people are pro-choice but don’t support late term abortion (although it is legal in some states). But I think the distinctions people try to make are arbitrary. That a baby has a right to life once there’s a heartbeat or once the baby is viable and could survive outside the womb.

    What is it about those stages that inherently confers a right to life?

    From the moment of conception, a baby is distinct from both of the parents and a separate life.

    Gosnell did a little over a million dollars in this opening weekend. I would think the audience was overwhelmingly people who are pro-life. As the Los Angles Times movie review said “The film never loses sight of the choir to which it is plainly preaching.”

    Will this movie be a turning point in the national conversation on abortion? I doubt it.

    But it is a movie that shows these abortions for what they were: murder.

    Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear what you think, and don’t forget to subscribe! 

    Josh Benner is the associate pastor at Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church in Fergus Falls, Minnesota and has a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He enjoys writing about faith and culture. He lives with his wife Kari in Minnesota.

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  • Oregon conviction shows arbitrariness of abortion laws

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    I was listening to the BreakPoint podcast today and they told the story of an Oregon couple who was just sentenced to six years in prison for the death of their daughter, Ginnifer.

    The baby was prematurely born at 32 weeks and died several hours later of complications which were treatable. The parents are members of a Pentecostal church that relies on praying and faith healing and did not seek medical attention.

    This is truly tragic. This little girl should be alive today. The parents were rightly prosecuted and that they acted immorally and inappropriately.

    In the BreakPoint commentary, John Stonestreet sums up the frustration well:

    Now let me be clear, the Mitchells were rightly prosecuted for allowing their baby girl to die, even though they prayed for her to live. But had they wanted to kill Ginnifer, they could have driven to the nearest abortion clinic an hour before her birth—and get this—the state of Oregon would have paid for it.

    This is the issue. Ginnifer was born March 5, 2017. Her parents could have had her aborted earlier in that day. As Stonestreet points out, it would have been paid for by the state and would have been perfectly legal.

    Why do babies so often have no rights until they’re born?

    The hypocrisy and irrationality of these standards carries over into states that have feticide laws (laws in regards to legal recourse when a person’s actions result in the death of a fetus). 38 states recognize situations where a fetus is killed as homicide (unless it’s aborted and then it’s legally allowed).

    Josh Benner is the associate pastor at Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church in Fergus Falls, Minnesota and has a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He enjoys writing about faith and culture. He lives with his wife Kari in Minnesota.

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  • Tomi Lahren swings and misses on abortion

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    Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons @Gage Skidmore

    Life is bigger than politics.

     

    This weekend, Fox News pundit Tomi Lahren (a woman who’s generally conservative-libertarian but who happens to be pro choice) argued that abortion isn’t a battle worth fighting.

    In her argument, Lahren says that conservatives lose on social issues. I think this is part of the failure of her argument. The life of an unborn baby is not a “social issue.” It’s a fundamental right that the child has.

    She argues that a challenge on Roe vs Wade is unlikely to succeed. That might be true. But does that mean it’s not worth trying?

    I don’t think Lahren gets it because she’s. not. pro. life. She’s pro choice and she’s also looking at the issue from a political perspective, what’s expedient, what’ll help get votes.

    The argument I find most troubling is that Lahren argues that “it’s not the government’s place to dictate.” It’s not the government’s place to dictate? The government necessarily has to dictate some things with this issue. For instance, for Miss Lahren, at what point is an abortion no longer justified? And who decides that?

    If she feels like it’s not the government’s role, wouldn’t a better answer be to leave it up to the states? It’s not like a reversal of Roe would make abortion illegal or dictate to everyone what they can or cannot do.

    But I return to my point that the lives of the unborn are worth fighting for. Political popularity doesn’t dictate what’s moral.

    Josh Benner is the associate pastor at Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church in Fergus Falls, Minnesota and has a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He enjoys writing about faith and culture. He lives with his wife Kari in Minnesota.

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  • Planned Parenthood on the defensive, another video released

    The Center for Medical Progress has released another video of a higher up with Planned Parenthood discussing sales of fetal tissue.

    With the first video, Planned Parenthood’s president, Cecile Richards was quick to dismiss the footage, attacking the organization. She states, “The allegation that Planned Parenthood profits in any way from tissue donation is not true.”

    Since the release of Richards’ statement, that has been largely accepted. People argue this video is taken out of context. Planned Parenthood is merely selling fetal tissues, which is legal. The only reason they’re discussing money is to cover storing and sending the materials. (more…)