Pastor Confronts Georgia Legislators with Truth

Pastor Jeff Durbin of End Abortion Now recently defended the Georgia Prenatal Equal Protection Act before legislators at the Georgia Capitol. Watch as Durbin defends life and presents truth in this 10-minute video.

Editor’s Note: The transcript that follows was automatically generated and lightly edited, so please be aware there could be typos or other small errors. The Stream is working toward a transcription service that does fast, accurate, and reliable work; thank you in advance for your patience!

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There’s Jeff Durbin here. Come on up.

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Okay. Go ahead.

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Thank you, honorable representative. My name is Pastor Jeff Durbin with End Abortion Now. It’s an honor to speak to you today.

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Where are you from?

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Oh, Arizona. Phoenix, Arizona. Very simply. Brothers and sisters. Representatives. This bill says what is unassailable. What’s in the womb is human from fertilization. That is a political fact, an unassailable biological fact. And all this bill does is it says what we say we believe as people who believe in life at fertilization, that what’s in the womb deserves equal protection.

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This bill simply says this every human being in Georgia, from the moment of fertilization deserves to be equally protected. That’s the simplicity of the bill. The problem we’re seeing right now is the same problem we’ve seen in history. We did this in the past, our black brothers and sisters. We drew a circle around one group of people and said that I know it’s technically human, but it’s not really a human.

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It’s a black person, and so we can oppress them. And it wasn’t until abolitionists stood up, Christians stood up and said, equal protection for my black brothers and sisters. We abolished slavery in the same way we need to abolish abortion, provide equal protection for every human being. God says in his word, cease to do evil. Learn to do good.

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Seek justice. Correct oppression. Bring justice to the fatherless. I want to call you to do your duty before God. We’re all going to answer to Christ one day for how we how we acted and responded on this very day. And I’m going to call you to be consistent with what you know to be true.

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Thank you. Appreciate it. Be careful on the way back to Arizona. yes. Yes. Hold on a second. Oh. Thank you. Resume now.

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Yes. While I do appreciate, people that are coming from out of state, to support or be against this measure. Is there a way we can prioritize the hardworking Georgians? I’m not sure if they outlined, on the on the notes where they came from. And then I also two. Is there a way that we can ensure we strike a balance so we don’t run through all the time with all the people against that?

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We can get some support, but just go back and forth as well, just for balance.

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Well, let’s see who’s in here from Georgia. Oh, well, I’ll tell you what. You got a question for the witness. Okay. Stay right there, bro.

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Yes, sir.

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Go ahead.

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Hi. I’m good. I’m Esther Panitch, and you’re not from here, so I’ll assume you don’t know, but I’m the only Jewish representative in the state of Georgia. Judaism posits that the life of the mother is more important than the life of an unborn. Are you telling me that I don’t have a right to my religious liberty?

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Well, no. Everyone would appeal to an ultimate authority over all of us. And one of the things that I respect admire about Judaism is that we share the same scriptures the Torah, the Talmud, and not the Talmud. So the Torah and, the law, the prophets, and the Scripture does teach. without question, that from fertilization all human life begins.

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And we are uniquely made by God, created in the womb of our mothers and known by God. And so with that, Judaism as well as Christianity would teach that every human being must be protected and given equal justice. One of the laws of Moses that’s repeated over and over is no partiality. We treat everybody equally. And the point that I was making representative, I appreciate you asking the question was, the same point that can be used in terms of our Jewish brothers and sisters, where there was a time in history where there was a class of people that drew a circle around themselves, the Germans, the SS, and said that we can oppress our

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our Jewish brothers and sisters, that we can treat them, with abuse. We can kill them. My point, representative, was that we’ve had this problem in history many times over, where a class of human beings says to another class of human beings, we can oppress you. We can kill you, we can murder you. And what we’re saying with this bill is that every human being is made in God’s image and deserves to be equally protected.

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So everyone women, men, children.

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I understand that, but Judaism does not posit that life begins at fertilization. It says that it’s like water until 40 days. And the way you know, this is look at Israel. Abortion is readily available and it’s free. So when please don’t mistake what my religion tells me is my duty. If I am at risk, if my life is at risk, I may not only be, it might not only be suggested of me to have an abortion, but required of me to have an abortion, because a life in being my life takes priority over something that is not has not been born yet.

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So how do I exercise my religious liberty under your bill if it was adopted?

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Well, this answer I thank you for the question, representative, but the answer to to two of those main questions. The first one is that when I was referring to Judaism, the Jewish religion is based upon the Old Testament scriptures that the law and the prophets.

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I am well aware.

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There’s no question that that the view that came later you’re describing is not in the law and the prophets in its later Jewish tradition. That’s just the point I want to make to that. The next point is that this particular bill says nothing towards the case that you’re bringing up, or your life is in danger. This bill is about equal protection for all human beings in the womb.

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It’s about the preservation of life. If your life were in danger because of a pregnancy, in very rare instances, very infinitesimally.

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I’m not just talking about physically, emotionally, psychologically. Those are exceptions to which allow a Jewish woman to have an abortion if they need one.

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If I may respond to. That’s a very good point. we wouldn’t, in our current justice system allow for a woman who murders her six year old child by drowning him in the bathtub to get away with the argument. I was emotionally struggling. I didn’t feel like I could care for this baby.

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You know, that’s not the same thing. I’m talking about things, an unborn child compared to.

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The one I.

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An unborn. Let me finish my question, please. An unborn child versus a life in being. Which would be the mother. Yeah. So under your bill, could I exercise my religious liberty if I felt along, in consultation with my rabbi that I needed a number and my doctor that I needed an abortion for survival, whether that’s physical survival or mental survival.

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And the point I was making to you is that the human being in the womb.

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This is this is something you can answer with a yes or no. Under my hypothetical and your bill to the I exercised my religious liberty.

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We don’t believe that anybody has the right to, with malice aforethought, take the life of another human being in a justified manner. So equal protection for all humans means that no, nobody can say to another human being, I’m going to take your life with malice aforethought in an unjustified manner.

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Okay, so your answer is no, I can’t. If if I believe that.

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I can’t kill your baby. No.

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Okay, so Jews and other religions who don’t believe in your version of when life starts are are screwed under your bill, right?

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All biological science teaches that life begins at fertilization. That’s an unassailable, indisputable fact. It’s incontrovertible. It’s a biological fact.

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But I appreciate the for the sake of, moving on, I think, we both might just have to agree to disagree on, finer points for young crowd calphalon. I respect the member and gentleman from, so.

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I have no problem disagreeing with someone until they try to put their versus their values on me.

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Represent panels.

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Yes, Mr..

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Chairman, I don’t think there’s going to be consensus. I agree, gentlemen, on this. So if you don’t mind we’ll move on.

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Thank you for the question.

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Representative number five, representative.

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Thank you. you mentioned, about your perceived history of, black women and trying to exterminate the black race. Do you identify as being black or African American descent. Do I?

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Yes.

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Well, I think it’s pretty obvious that, I share a different, different amount of melanin.

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Okay. so that that being said, you know, I am African American, and so you know, I respectfully, disagree with your, your assessment and and using our race as, as an argument for.

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I appreciate that. Which part you disagree with. So I can maybe respond.

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Every single bit of.

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You. Do you agree that slavery happened in America, that white people oppressed black people?

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What’s that got to do with abortion?

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My point, representative, thank you for the question, was that in history we draw have drawn circles around classes of people. White people did it to unfortunately and abominably, to your ancestors. White people draw a circle around themselves and said, we will be the humans that will have the rights and equal protection, but we will draw a smaller circle around our black brothers and sisters and oppress them.

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You don’t get to change the narrative, just need to talk about in American stuff to actually okay, yeah.

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I would just say in final words that is that I believe that all human beings have a duty to stand for justice, no matter the size, no matter the level of development, no matter the color of another human being. I believe that what made slavery such an abomination was that human beings deserve to be equally protected and shown no partial ality.

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That’s what’s happening in abortion. It happened, unfortunately, in America with slavery. It happened unfortunately, in the Holocaust it slavery.

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Okay, Rebs candidate. Rebs. Okay, let me have a question and we’ll come back for commentary. thank you sir.

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Thank you sir. Thank you all all right.