Dang it, Doug.

As we’ve written previously, there are things to appreciate about Doug Wilson’s ministry and we take no joy in criticizing him. But we’re not going to pull punches here. Wilson consistently offers thoughtless input to an important discussion that he needs to take more seriously.

On a February 2nd episode of his podcast, Wilson made the case that abolitionists should thank incrementalists if Roe v. Wade is overturned in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health:

If you’re anti-abortion and an abolitionist and you’ve been fighting to outlaw abortion completely — top-to-bottom — in a place like Oklahoma; if you’re an abolitionist and you have railed against the incrementalists for being compromisers and temporizers and whatnot, maybe there’ll be a rapprochement here. If the Dobbs case goes the way it ought to, and the decision whether to restrict abortion is handed back to the states, it will have been the incrementalists who gave the abolitionists on the state level their opportunity, and I think it’d be nice if the abolitionists were gracious enough to say ‘thank you.’

Pro-Life Obsequiousness Enables the Court’s Tyranny

Since Roe was decided in 1973, 38 abortion-related cases have come before the supreme court. Not a single one of those cases has resulted in even the tiniest rollback of the Roe decision. That includes Casey v. Planned Parenthood in which an 8-1 Republican-appointed majority strengthened Roe in 1992. The lone Democrat on the ’92 court was Justice Byron White, a pro-life dissenter in Roe. The incrementalist faux assault on Roe has obviously — obviously! — been a dismal failure. (Attorney and Foundation to Abolish Abortion Director Bradley Pierce’s excellently explained how  every aspect of pro-life incrementalism has fallen flat in his presentation “47 Years of False Hope.”)

The supreme court gets away with reading a right to murder into the Constitution in case-after-case because of the obsequiousness and idolatry of the Pro-Life Movement. When asked about the Abolition of Abortion in Texas Act, Texas Alliance for Life Director Joe Pojman told the Houston Chronicle in 2019, “We could no sooner ignore SCOTUS than the force of gravity.” Scott Klusendorf said similarly in 2016 that it’s okay to compromise with abortion because “the federal courts have already decided in Roe vs. Wade, the Casey decision, and others, that no unborn children have the right to life. They’ve already dictated that from on high.”

Saying that the supreme court is “on high” and that their authority is akin to the laws of nature are two of the most blatantly idolatrous statements about the court from pro-life leaders, but nearly every pro-life organization believes similarly. It’s one of the biggest reasons the pro-life groups either oppose or remain silent on abolition bills.

The pro-life leaders’ cowardice strikes no fear in the justices. They know they can rubber stamp genocide as many times as they want and the pro-life leaders will never stand up to them. They know there is no line they can cross that would cause the pro-life leaders to bow up.

The pro-life industry’s cowardice and idolatry are why babies are still murdered in every state in the Union. The supreme court’s refusal to repent for the past 50 years has been enabled by the very pro-life incrementalists Wilson would ignorantly credit for Roe‘s prospective reversal.

Abolitionism and Tyrant Defiance Is the Solution

Enter the Abolitionist Movement in 2011, which made inroads into the political realm in 2016 with the introduction of the first Abolition of Abortion in Oklahoma Act. By 2022, we are now organizing into  influential political campaigns and lobbying groups all over the country. Bills to nullify Roe and abolish abortion have been filed in 15 states. Abolitionist challengers are unseating powerful incrementalist incumbents each election cycle. Abolition bills are picking up steam in state legislatures, and have gotten as many as 10 coauthors in some states.

This summer, the Southern Baptist Convention — the nation’s largest Protestant denomination — passed a resolution affirming that “governing authorities at every level have a duty before God to uphold justice asserting their God-ordained and constitutional authority to establish equal protection under the law for all, born and preborn, by intervening, ignoring, or nullifying iniquitous decisions when other authorities, such as the Supreme Court, condone such injustices as the legal taking of innocent life.”

For the first time, an abolitionist amicus brief was submitted to the supreme court. In a 48-page brief submitted in the Dobbs case (which we were happy to sign onto), Pierce explained to the court that the states are going to abolish abortion in defiance of Roe unless the court repents and kisses the Son. (Watch our interview with Pierce about the amicus brief here). Instead of being a part of projects like this, Wilson is an apologist for those who bow down and kiss the ring of genocidal tyrants.

The nullification of the supreme court’s illegitimate, non-binding abortion jurisprudence is becoming an imminent reality and the justices know it. They are on the verge of being exposed as a paper tiger. If Roe v. Wade is finally overturned after 39 attempts, that will be why.

With that said, it remains unlikely that Roe will be fully overturned. Chief Justice John Roberts openly signaled his preference for a 15-week compromise during oral arguments, and Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch have been unreliable on social issues thus far. The 15-week compromise appears to be the likeliest outcome, as explained in this oral arguments recap.

Both for the sake of obedience to Christ and pressuring the justices in the right direction, Christians must rally around abolition bills and have nothing more to do with the ignorant, incrementalist nonsense being peddled by Doug Wilson, The Gospel Coalition, et al.