Abortion Debate Continues as Georgia House Considers House Bill Defining Life at Conception

Over a month has passed since the University of West Georgia hosted the Students for Life organization for its controversial and heated Abortion is Violence event on March 4 featuring speaker Lydia Taylor Davis. The students of UWG passionately shared their perspectives on the abortion issue at this event.

The topic of abortion remains a major talking point among Georgia voters as the House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee conducted a hearing regarding House Bill 441 on March 26. HB 441 defines life as beginning at conception and equates abortion with homicide. This session attracted quite the audience, including both supporters and opposers of the bill.

A number of members from Prays Mill Baptist Church in Winston, Ga. attended both the hearing for HB 441 and a rally in support of the bill on March 3, hosted by G3 Ministries at Liberty Plaza.

“It’s to protect all innocent human life starting at the point of fertilization with the same laws that are already written,” said Brooke Robyck, a member of Prays Mill Baptist Church and Project Coordinator for Georgia Right to Life.

“To put it simply, the laws that protect the born will also protect the pre-born,” continued Robyck.

The members of Prays Mill Baptist Church, along with other supporters for the bill, have a strong faith-based backing for the pro-life position.

“The Bible promotes the idea that life starts at conception.  We’d say it’s a scientific reality and also a biblical truth,” said Robyck. “You look at Psalm:139, David says that God formed him in his mother’s womb, that he’s fearfully and wonderfully made.

“We would really root all of our beliefs back in the Imago Dei, that every human being is made in God’s image and that would include babies in the womb,” continued Robyck. “They have inherent value, dignity, and worth.”
Opposers with the pro-life position often present the circumstance of rape or incest, stating that it is inhumane to force a woman to deliver a child that was conceived in trauma.

“The compassionate answer would not be abortion because the child is an innocent victim just as well as the mother in those cases of assault,” said Robyck. “The child shouldn’t be punished for the sin and crime of the father. The compassionate answer would be providing support for the woman in that situation and not making her go through another act of trauma like abortion.”

Disagreers also argue that it is unfair to bring a child into the world if the child would have an impoverished quality of life due to the circumstances of their world.

“We’d say regardless of the circumstances the child might be brought into, the child still has the right to life and we shouldn’t kill someone just because they may have hard circumstances or live in poverty,” said Robyck. “We wouldn’t do that for any born child who is living in poverty.”

Many disagreers also argue that in situations of a medical emergency, abortion should be allowed to save the life of the mother.

“We would say in situations of medical emergencies, there’s two lives that the doctor should try to save. Sometimes there might be treatment and care work,” said Robyck. “The baby might have to be delivered early or there might need to be a C-section and the baby might not survive,  but the intention of the doctor should still be to save both lives and the intention should not be to take the life of the child. It goes back to how we define abortion, as the intentional taking of an innocent human life.”

Robyck encourages all Christians to care for the issue of abortion and support the right to life.

“God tells us to speak up for the voiceless,” said Robyck. “In our society today, that’s children in the womb. There have been over 65 million babies who have been aborted since 1973 in our nation alone. It’s a huge moral crisis and again, God tells us to stand up for the voiceless. That’s why I would tell other Christians who might feel scared or apathetic that it’s important to get involved.”