SAFE CITIES AND COUNTIES
A three-step, grassroots, Church-led approach to ending abortion and building a culture of life at the local level.
Describing the idea of popular sovereignty—that people had the right to abolish slavery in their states—the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass once wrote: “Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them…The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.” Today, too many moral American communities kowtow to an atheistic, morally corrupt judiciary, while Congress gives away its power and the executive branch oversees a ballooning administrative state.
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And yet, as can be seen from the map below, the majority of America does not believe in the secularized, relativistic worldview of the modern Left. What if these local communities rose up and prescribed limits on the tyrants who insist on devaluing and dehumanizing pre-born children?
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What if all those red towns and counties said, “No more! Not in our back yard!”
Many forget that the United States was the first republic in modern history. Before the founders declared independence from Great Britain, no one thought it was possible for a people to govern themselves. Unfortunately, many Americans have forgotten that self-government is our birthright.
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The Personhood Alliance’s Safe Cities initiative is a movement inspired by self-government and empowered by faith in God—a faith that recognizes there are inalienable rights, granted by God, that no government can take away. It’s time that the good people of America say enough is enough and demand the right to end abortion in their towns, counties, and states.
SAFE CITIES: A 3-STEP STRATEGY
The Personhood Alliance’s strategic, three-step approach promotes long-lasting growth of the movement and protects communities from the legal challenges that burden and often stymie defiance-first and defiance-only approaches. Even more importantly, this phased approach empowers the Church to reclaim charity and share the Gospel, which has inspired the political and cultural changes that have been necessary in ending the greatest injustices in history.
RESOLVE TO PROTECT
The goal of Step 1 is to establish a foundation for future enforcement. The Safe City resolution is the initial step to outlawing abortion in your community. It makes a broad human rights declaration that recognizes the personhood of pre-born humans and the duty of the local jurisdiction to provide equal protection, from conception to natural death. The resolution lays out the legal and moral foundations for why the community is choosing to become a Safe City or County.
ACTIVATE THE COMMUNITY
In this step, you work to build a coalition of local churches, businesses, pro-life ministries, and city/county government to engage in specific, tangible actions that build and sustain a culture of life and create a groundswell for state-level political change. At this point, you begin to protect local authorities and create a plan for mitigating any upcoming legal challenges. The emphasis of Step 2 is education, community-building, and preparing local authorities for the boldness of Step 3.
DEFY THE UNJUST LAW
Once your community has matured in its embrace of a culture of life and is prepared for challenges, it passes local ordinances and statutes that prevent abortions from being performed and/or funded within the jurisdiction. Step 3 requires a strong, educated community that is able to defend its position politically, legally, and morally so it can peacefully defy judicial tyranny and the unjust ruling of Roe v Wade.
On the Ground in North Carolina