#393 Should Christians Support Equal Protection for the Preborn? A Friendly Debate with Scott Klusendorf
The Alisa Childers Podcast
Alisa Childers
4.8 • 5.4K Ratings
🗓️ 23 July 2026
⏱️ 71 minutes
🔗️ Recording | Apple Podcasts | RSS
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Summary
Equal protection for the preborn has become one of the biggest and most divisive debates in the pro-life movement. Everyone agrees abortion ends the life of an innocent human being. Everyone wants to see abortion end. The disagreement is over how Christians should get there.
In this episode, Alisa sits down with pro-life apologist Scott Klusendorf for a thoughtful and friendly debate about whether pursuing equal protection legislation right now is the best path forward.
Scott argues that while equal protection is the right destination, pushing for it today could actually undermine the pro-life movement and cost lives. Alisa, who supports equal protection, challenges his position while seeking to understand the strongest case against it.
Topics include:
What equal protection actually means
Incrementalism vs. abolition
Should women ever be prosecuted for abortion?
Lessons from William Wilberforce and the abolition of slavery
Why worldview—not just politics—is at the heart of the abortion debate
Whether pursuing equal protection now is wise or premature
Next week, Ginna Cross joins the podcast to make the case for equal protection and explain why she believes it is the only consistent application of justice for the unborn.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | If you've spent any time in pro-life circles over the past couple of years, you've probably heard the phrase equal protection for the preborn. |
| 0:17.6 | In fact, it's become one of the most significant and often contentious debates within |
| 0:22.0 | the broader pro-life movement. So over the course of the next couple episodes, we're going to be |
| 0:26.5 | discussing the case for and against equal protection and the best ways that Christians can go about |
| 0:32.1 | ending abortion in our lifetime with two well-qualified guests. Now, this episode is brought to you by Brave Books, |
| 0:38.8 | which is a Christian Children's Entertainment Company. You can go to bravebooks.com slash Childers |
| 0:43.8 | and use the code Childers for 20% off your first order. All right, before we jump in, |
| 0:49.6 | I think it's important to say what this debate is not about. So this is not a debate over whether abortion |
| 0:55.8 | ends the life of a human being. Both sides affirm that life begins at conception and that every |
| 1:02.4 | unborn child bears the image of God. Both sides want to see abortion come to an end. Both sides |
| 1:08.4 | are committed to defending the unborn. In fact, I respect people on |
| 1:13.0 | both sides of this debate. So the disagreement is about how we should pursue that goal. So what is |
| 1:19.4 | equal protection? Equal protection is the idea that if preborn children are human beings, |
| 1:25.6 | then they should receive the same legal protection against intentional |
| 1:28.8 | killing that every other innocent human being receives. So advocates of equal protection, of which |
| 1:34.3 | I will lay my cards on the table and say, I am one, we would argue that laws should recognize |
| 1:39.9 | preborn children as persons, as people deserving equal protection under the law, and that |
| 1:46.1 | abortion should be treated consistently with how the law protects every other innocent life. |
| 1:52.1 | So others within the pro-life movement agree with the goal of protecting pre-born children, |
| 1:57.0 | but they would argue that pursuing equal protection acts right now is strategically unwise, or as in |
| 2:02.9 | the case of my guest today, they would actually harm pro-life efforts. So that's the conversation |
| 2:08.4 | we're going to be having over the next couple of episodes. I want to just define a couple of terms |
... |
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