Letter to Legislators Regarding HB 1212
A plea for equal protection against murder for the preborn
Updated Feb. 5, 2026 - This bill was killed by the House Health & Human Services committee today (including by local Rep. Halverson), on a flurry of emotional manipulation and bad biblical exegesis.
The law is a teacher, and it will continue to teach, in this case, that preborn babies aren’t quite people.
Updated Feb. 4, 2026 - I have added an additional middle paragraph to my letter and submitted it as testimony to the House Health and Human Services Committee, which is scheduled to hear this bill the morning of February 5th. Rep. Halverson who I wrote initially is on this committee, but other members of the committee received the revised version as well.
It came to my attention today that House Bill 1212 has been introduced in the South Dakota Legislature. If passed, this bill would afford preborn persons the same legal protection against murder provided to other persons. To my knowledge, this is the first such equal protection bill to be proposed in the state, and it has already drawn the ire of at least one ostensibly pro-life representative, Fred Deutsch, who objects to the application of homicide laws in the murder of preborn children and imposing criminal penalties on the women who procure it.
I firmly believe that key to eradicating the scourge of abortion in America and the West is calling it what it is and treating it like it is (the willful mass murder of human beings created in the image of God). This hits even harder now with the recent birth of my first child. Reason and biblical morality demand that we live and act according to the truth on this issue, and not the manipulation and emotional blackmail that often prevail.
In light of this, I have sent the following letter to my district’s state representative (Jim Halverson) and senator (Mykala Voita). I would urge my fellow South Dakotans to do the same in their own districts, and residents of other states to advocate similar legislation.
I am writing as a Christian minister, father, and South Dakotan to urge your support in the passage of South Dakota House Bill 1212, An Act to revise provisions in order to strengthen protections for unborn children.
While I am grateful that South Dakota has some of the strongest laws in the U.S. against abortion, a weakness of them is that they do not provide the same degree of protections against murder to preborn children that are afforded to other persons, namely the protections of their lives by the force of homicide statutes. While it has been a common argument of ostensible pro-life advocates that the women who procure abortions are victims of abortion, their moral agency in the act cannot be so readily excused. The vast majority of abortions are procured by women who willfully and knowingly decide to kill their children. Furthermore, in contexts not involving preborn persons, cases where a homicide is coerced, hired, done unintentionally, attempted unsuccessfully, or merely conspired are still punished as crimes under our laws. If preborn children are persons, killing them is murder and they should be afforded the equal protection of the law. To fail to do so is to functionally deny their human dignity and perpetuate injustice.
(Paragraph added for committee testimony) My wife and I welcomed our first child, a daughter, Adelaide Joy on January 18th (a photo of her is attached to this testimony). She was born approximately three weeks early (thankfully, by God’s grace, she is healthy, strong, and at home). This means that even as I write this she has not passed her original due date (February 9). Under the current laws of South Dakota, the question of her human dignity and protection is merely one of location. As our now 39-week post-conception daughter has been born, my wife would rightly be punished to the fullest extent of the law if she did our daughter harm. Yet, if our 39-week post-conception daughter was still in the womb, my wife could kill her and under current South Dakota Statute 22-17-5-2 she not only would not be charged but, in fact, could not be charged (thankfully, my wife is a godly woman who would never consider such a thing, but having a child of such age in the house very much drives the logic behind HB 1212 home).
Not only does reason demand support of this law, but protecting persons from murder and violence is a most essential function of the civil government given by God. In Genesis 9:6, God declares, “Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed; For in the image of God He made man.” As preborn children are made in God’s image, God commands they be protected even by the use of proportional force, up to and including capital punishment. Romans 13:4 states, “For he (the governing authority) is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.” The bearing of the sword by the civil magistrate is a mandate for the proper use of proportionate and retributive force against those who do evil, especially those who would shed innocent blood. Therefore I urge you, as one to whom this God-given power has been committed, to steward it according to God’s will. Please support HB 1212, in the interest of justice and the equal protection of the lives of all South Dakotans.
Sincerely,
Pastor Andrew Smyth
Hamill, SD