equaldefense.org
The Equal Defense Project
Holding public officials accountable to the equal protection of every human life.
The problem
Every year, tens of thousands of children are killed by abortion across the United States. Existing pro-life organizations publish voter guides and scorecards that evaluate politicians on general pro-life votes and activities. None evaluate politicians against the standard of equal protection: the principle that the same laws prohibiting the intentional killing of born persons must apply equally to preborn persons.
The largest pro-life organizations have not merely declined to adopt this standard. They have actively opposed equal protection legislation at the state level, pressuring legislators to block bills from reaching a vote. (See the documented analyses of the Foundation to Abolish Abortion.) Christians who hold the conviction that equal protection is the biblical and constitutional standard have no voter-facing resource to determine which politicians share that conviction, which have opposed it, and which have refused to make their position known.
The standard
Equal protection of the laws for every human life from fertilization. This is grounded in two sources of authority: the right to life foundational to the American legal order, and the biblical mandate that civil government exists to punish evil and protect the innocent. Any law that creates a class of persons whose intentional killing is permitted or regulated rather than prohibited violates this principle. Abortion is not a gap in the law. It is a violation of law already on the books.
Scripture speaks to this across multiple genres: the image of God in every person (Genesis 1:27), God's sovereign formation of life in the womb (Psalm 139:13-16), equal origin as the ground of moral obligation (Job 31:15), legal consequence for harm to the unborn (Exodus 21:22-25), and the civil magistrate's charge to bear the sword as God's servant (Romans 13:1-4).
The test is not whether a bill reduces abortion. The test is whether it upholds or undermines the legal personhood of every preborn child.
What this project does
Every politician evaluated under this standard is placed in one of three categories, and the evidence for that placement is visible on their profile.
- Defender of Equal Protection A verifiable public record of active support through legislation or unambiguous advocacy.
- Opposed Equal Protection A verifiable public record of opposition through votes, procedural obstruction, or public statements.
- Record Not Established No verifiable evidence yet exists. The project makes direct, documented outreach to every official in this category and publishes the response, or the fact of non-response.
Evidence is the argument
This project will not publish any claim it cannot substantiate with verifiable, public evidence. Every politician's profile will display the specific evidence underlying their categorization: what the politician did or said, when, and from what source. Nothing will be hidden behind a label.
People change. Politicians who previously opposed or failed to support equal protection and who subsequently take verifiable action in support of it will be recategorized. Their full record will remain visible. The path to Defender of Equal Protection is always open.
What is available now
The rubric is published. The first politician profiles are in preparation and will be released beginning with a state pilot. Additional states will follow.
Questions, corrections, or inquiries from officials responding to outreach: ken@equaldefense.org.