By Baptist Message staff
BATON ROUGE, La. (LBM) – Because of a resolution approved by the Louisiana House during the 2023 Legislative Regular Session, pro-life advocates across the state can mark their June calendars for a month-long celebration of “Sanctity of Preborn Life Month.”
The resolution, which praises Louisiana Baptists’ role in the pro-life movement, notes “the Bible affirms that the preborn child is a person, bearing the image of God, from the moment of conception” and commends “the churches and individuals who worked tirelessly to cultivate a pro-life culture in our state through prayer, spiritual health and growth of our citizenry regarding pro-life matters, and public policy action including the overwhelming passage of the 2020 constitutional amendment, the Love Life Amendment.”
“Be it further resolved,” the resolution concluded, “that the House of Representatives of the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby recognize the month of June as Sanctity of Preborn life Month in Louisiana in celebration of the Supreme Court’s historic ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.”
Rep. Dodie Horton, member of First Baptist Church, Haughton, and Rep. Valerie Hodges co-authored the bill.
Will Hall, director for the Office of Public Policy with the Louisiana Baptist Convention said June is an opportunity for all Christians to celebrate the end of abortion in the state.
“This is an opportunity to reinforce pro-life values in our state and to promote solidarity among like-minded people,” he told the Baptist Message.
He also urged Louisiana Baptists to post a banner to websites and to generate the banner in emails sent in June (see accompanying artwork with this article).
“We can be proud that June is ‘Sanctity of Preborn Life Month’ in Louisiana!” he added.
Louisiana Baptists have helped energize a strong pro-life and religious liberty ethic in the state.
In 2020, LBC congregations worked with like-minded faith groups to pass the Love Life Amendment (a constitutional amendment ballot measure that garnered 1,274,167 favorable votes, the most in Louisiana’s history for either a candidate or ballot measure. It clarified that there is no right to abortion in the state constitution that is not actually written in it.
Then in 2023, Louisiana Baptists again linked arms with other believers to help lead a statewide ballot measure that amended the state constitution to ensure “the freedom to worship in a church or other place of worship is a fundamental right.” The initiative garnered 805,676 favorable votes, the most of any candidate or issue on the ballot.
