Abortion Is on Your Ballot: What Can You Do?
What is the leading cause of death worldwide for the fifth year in a row? Abortions – 44.6 million in 2023, destroyed three times more human beings than the second place killer, communicable diseases. Even in the U.S., where the Supreme Court found (in June 2022) that there is no constitutional right to abortion, the number of abortions is increasing.1 Now those who insist that each woman has the right to abort her child are trying to place that right in state constitutions. Will you exercise good stewardship of your God-given citizenship to defend those who cannot defend themselves?
Take a drive through any city and you will see beautifully designed murals that brighten the walls of buildings. Drive on into the countryside and you will probably see barn quilts and other signs and murals that beautify farm buildings. As you can imagine, artists (and their teams) spent hundreds of hours planning every aspect of those attractive designs. Then, when everything was in readiness, they carefully executed their plans, paying close attention to the nuances of color and shape.
The next time you see those murals, think of your elected legislators and judges. Spending hundreds of hours, these officials design the nuanced laws that we refer to as legislation (or revised code). These laws are frequently challenged, so judges are called upon to carefully evaluate this legislation by the pertinent state or federal constitution. All of these, working together, have given us a system of carefully balanced laws, many of which have stood the test of time. But now there are those who are attempting to use a sand blaster and harsh chemicals on the beautifully designed murals that we refer to as the laws of the land. They are doing so by attacking constitutions—which constitute us as a people—in order to subvert those carefully nuanced laws. Backed by millions of dollars (from donors who are frequently from out of state or even out of the country), liberal groups are attempting to use a sand blaster on constitutions and to replace them with their own designs. What should believers do when they see these developments taking place? Most believers would agree that they try to honor God in their families and churches. After all, those are God-ordained institutions. But believers often neglect another God-ordained institution: the government. (Romans 13:1–7) But we should not despise nor disdain what God has ordained. We should exercise good stewardship of our God-given citizenship.
Here in Ohio, our state constitution was recently ravaged by the techniques described above. The same state constitution that protects human life (Article 1, Section 1) now codifies the death of human infants on demand (Article 1, Section 22). But do those infants—even those conceived during crimes—deserve a bloody death penalty? Of course not. But liberal groups, using millions of dollars in ads to appeal directly to an uninformed populace, have changed the Ohio constitution—undermining decades of carefully crafted legislation. Now what constitutes us as a people is that people can freely destroy other people, as long as those people are still in the womb. Obviously, we have become a casually murderous society. But here’s the great tragedy: many Christians didn’t even bother to vote to stop this moral atrocity.
This article is not intended to cause you to commiserate with Ohio but to alert you to the fact that well-funded liberals are coming for your state constitution using the same techniques. Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, abortion advocates are working to enshrine that murderous right in each state’s Bill of Rights. According to a recent article by the PBS News Hour, the following states will face these same well-funded attacks in November 2024:2
- A constitutional amendment to enable abortion on demand is already on the ballot in New York and Maryland.
- In Arizona a movement is currently collecting ballot signatures to place abortion on demand on the November ballot.
- Dueling factions are also trying to place abortion on demand on Colorado’s ballot, where it must pass by 55% of those who are voting.
- In Florida groups recently collected 900,000 signatures to place the right to abortion in their state constitution—which would effectively erase all their carefully crafted legislation about the matter.
- Abortion is currently against the law in Missouri. But abortion advocates are seeking to collect enough signatures to enable abortion in the first twenty-four weeks of pregnancy via constitutional change.
- In Nebraska abortion rights advocates are attempting to place their amendment on the ballot.
- In Nevada a ballot initiative will place the matter in the state constitution to make abortion a right.
- Similar moves are underway in Arkansas, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, and Washington State.
- If Ohio is any indication, slick media ads, costing millions of dollars, will bombard the people with twisted half-truths and propaganda. Many have worked to elect good representatives, but this time believers will need to have a “salt of the earth, light of the world” influence on their fellow citizens.
What should believers do?
Get involved. Do not disdain what God ordained. Our government is “of the people, by the people, for the people.” If you are part of “the people,” then it’s time to exercise good stewardship of your God-given citizenship. Get informed and vote according to your values.
Persist in prayer. Jesus taught His disciples via a parable that “men ought always to pray, and not to faint” (Luke 18:1). In that parable a widow made her persistent appeals to an unjust public official who did not fear God. You are confronted with the same kind of public officials today, so it’s time to pray. But you are appealing to the God of truth and justice.
Pray the “Ahithophel prayer” (2 Sam. 15:31). When faced with a well-armed, well-funded conspiracy, David prayed that the Lord would “turn the counsel” of Absalom’s advisor “into foolishness.” Why not pray that way today when you see dark forces taking aim at the laws of your land?
Learn how to reverse “The Abimelech Effect” using Judges 9. Jotham, the surviving son of Gideon, proclaimed to that murderous band, “Hearken unto me . . . that God may hearken unto you” (Judges 9:7). His parable teaches us how to use good stewardship of our citizenship and take leadership—even as we honor God in other areas of life.
It’s time to exercise good stewardship of your God-given citizenship. In our churches and families, we seek to glorify God. Now it is time to do the same thing in the God-ordained institution of government.
Gordon A. Dickson is the author of 12 Ways You Can Make a Difference in This Crazy, Mixed-Up World. He blogs at LiveServeLead.com.
(Originally published under the title, “Shall We Disdain what God Ordained?” in FrontLine • March/April 2024. Click here to subscribe to the magazine.)
Listen to an interview with Gordon Dickson at our podcast, here. In the interview, Gordon discusses two articles he wrote for FrontLine. We discuss this article in the latter part of the interview. The first article will become available to subscribers when published at a later date.
Find the Proclaim & Defend podcast at the link above or search for it on Apple, Spotify, or other providers.
- Claire Cain Miller and Margot Sanger-Katz, “Despite State Bans, Legal Abortions Didn’t Fall Nationwide in Year After Dobbs,” New York Times, October 24, 2023. [↩]
- See Geoff Mulvihill, “Here are the states where abortion access may be on the ballot in 2024,” PBS News Hour, November 8, 2023. [↩]