As voters in ten states decided on measures that would enshrine abortion into their state constitutions, three of those measures failed, while the other seven were successful.

Various leftist foundations poured millions of dollars into campaigns for ballot measures to add a purported right to murder preborn babies into several state constitutions, mostly in states dominated by Republicans. The amendments failed in Florida, Nebraska, and South Dakota, yet passed in Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, and New York.

Amendment 4 in Florida, which marked one of the most heated ballot measure battles in the country, received 57.1% of the vote, falling a few points short of the 60% needed to amend the Florida state constitution. Tom Ascol, the senior pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Cape Coral, Florida, said in comments to The Sentinel that he was thankful for the result but observed that a majority supporting the measure means believers in the state must reach their culture.

“I praise God for the defeat of the attempt by leftists to change the Florida constitution to make abortion even more readily available than it already is. Governor DeSantis and his team, along with many faithful churches and other citizens of good will, rallied to help educate the electorate to see how diabolical that proposal was,” Ascol remarked. “Despite its defeat, 57% of the voters voted for it. That is a sober reminder that Christians in Florida, especially pastors, have much work to do in teaching people what God’s Word says about the sanctity of all human life.”

Ascol continued that Christians in the state must “work for the equal protection under the law for all people, from the moment of conception and fertilization to final breath,” and added that “by God’s grace, I hope to live to see Florida take such a righteous, loving stand.”

The state of Nebraska meanwhile had two competing ballot amendments: Initiative 439 would have enshrined abortion into the Nebraska state constitution, while Initiative 434 would limit abortion in the second and third trimesters, with the exception of rape, incest, and medical emergencies. Initiative 439 failed with 48.7% of the vote, falling short of the 50% simple majority required to pass, as Initiative 434 was meanwhile approved with 55.3% of the vote.

Bradley Pierce, the president of the Foundation to Abolish Abortion, noted that while the successful Initiative 434 does not prevent lawmakers from advancing protections for preborn babies in the first trimester, during which the vast majority of abortions occur, the passage of the measure “almost completely destroys” any argument that the existing equal protection clause in the Nebraska state constitution should be interpreted to protect preborn babies at that stage.

Proposition 139 in Arizona decisively passed with 61.4% of voters approving the measure, easily surpassing the 50% threshold required for amending the Arizona state constitution. Zachary Conover, the communications director of End Abortion Now, told The Sentinel that fellow believers in the state are mourning the passage of the amendment “with heavy hearts.”

“Arizona will now enter the bloodiest season of its participation in the American holocaust to date. Although we grieve that the rights of children in the womb have been trampled, we remain undeterred in our course of action to fight for them,” Conover commented. “Proposition 139 is dead on arrival because it violates the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution and the law of God. Therefore it is to be treated as null and void.”

Conover added that the church in Arizona must “work to denounce the failures of the mainstream pro-life lobby, Republican leadership, and its apathy in engaging the political realm with the gospel of the Kingdom.” End Abortion Now had been critical of morally ambiguous messaging from pro-life establishment campaigns, contending that a failure to center their appeals on the humanity of preborn babies would cause losses similar to those in other states.

“Judgment begins at the house of God,” Conover continued in his remarks. “We pray that the Sovereign Lord of history will use this great evil to galvanize Christians into the fight as never before so that we love our neighbors enough to establish justice on their behalf.”