Allie Beth Stuckey and Ginna Cross talk equal protection and the growing divide in the pro-life movement

Registered nurse and mother of six Ginna Cross and her husband are the co-executive leaders of Alliance Family Services — a Christian, gospel-centered nonprofit network of pregnancy-help clinics that offer free medical care, ultrasounds, counseling, and support to women facing unplanned pregnancies. The organization’s stated goal is to “compete directly with big abortion by operating a nationwide network of reproductive health care clinics that are medically exceptional and unapologetically Christian.”

On a recent episode of “Relatable,” Ginna joined Allie Beth Stuckey to discuss a divide in the pro-life community that they believe is hindering the movement.

Ginna explains that Alliance Family Services is aligned with the “abortion-abolition” position.

“That means that we would hold to the reality that in order for babies to be protected, they need to be protected under the law,” she explains.

“The law is actually what informs consciences, informs society of what's good and and not good, and so we would advocate for what we call equal protection laws — giving the child in the womb that same protection that you and I enjoy.”

In practice, this would mean everyone involved in an elective abortion, including doctors and the mother, would be subject to prosecution for homicide under the same laws that already apply to the intentional killing of a born person.

“Among some pregnancy centers, there is an aversion to what you're talking about,” says Allie, noting that she was recently questioned by a pregnancy center for “[signing] on to the statement for equal protection for babies.”

Ginna acknowledges that “so much of the pro-life movement and the pregnancy help movement has taken a staunch opposition to the idea of giving the unborn legal protection.”

For decades, she explains, many pro-life laws have declared the preborn child a human being protected under homicide laws, only to immediately exempt the mother from any criminal liability — leaving consequences solely for the abortionist.

But she argues that doesn’t give the unborn the protection they deserve — especially in an age where “self-induced abortions have become more and more common.”

“Now the majority of abortions, it is the mother who's doing this. It has become very confusing to see why we as pro-lifers who believe that abortion is murder ... wouldn't want to give that child justice,” Ginna tells Allie, calling it “a compassion that has gone too far.”

“It's a compassion that is looking at the mom and the circumstances that she's in and saying, ‘I don't want to add to those circumstances by putting a potential consequence,’ but the flip side to that, the reason why that's not actually compassion is if there was a penalty associated with her taking that action, the most likely outcome is she wouldn't do it in the first place.”

To hear more of the conversation, watch the episode above.

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