On September 30, an important petition was filed with the U.S. Supreme Court. Louisiana, Alabama, and Arkansas are suing New York, Massachusetts, and California over their abortion shield laws, which protect providers who mail abortion pills into pro-life states in violation of those states' laws—not to mention the longstanding federal prohibitions of the Comstock Act.
In their petition, the plaintiff states make their case with extraordinary force:
The “seriousness and dignity” of Plaintiff States’ challenge to these shield laws are unquestionable. Through their shield laws, New York, Massachusetts, and California have sought to violate virtually every sovereign and quasi-sovereign interest held by Louisiana, Arkansas, Alabama, and other pro-life states. This would be an all-out “casus belli if the States were fully sovereign.”
The U.S. Supreme Court must now decide whether to hear this case.
When Bound4LIFE and JHOP DC began in 2004, God gave us a powerful prophetic dream—a stern warning that shaped our prayers for years to come. I want to share that dream with you because I believe it provides a vital foundation for understanding the seriousness of this new petition, Louisiana v. New York.
The Dream
In the dream, we were moving through a large building filled with courtrooms, going from one courtroom to another. We came to a long hallway that led to a large courtroom called the “Appomattox Room.” Inside, preparations were being made to hear the Roe v. Wade case.
The Lord spoke through this mysterious dream: “Either you deal with Roe v. Wade in your courts, or I’ll deal with it in Mine.”
His court was called Appomattox.
The warning of that dream profoundly shaped our prayers through the years. It established an intense focus on the courts and our intercession for the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
But what is Appomattox?
The American Civil War—a war between the states—effectively came to an end when General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House. It marked the beginning of the end of the bloodiest crisis this nation has ever faced. At the center of the conflict was the shedding of the innocent blood of the African through slavery.
God was pulling extraordinarily serious historical language out of our nation’s past and dropping it into a prophetic dream for a new generation.
You must understand the urgent prayer and cry that arose from this revelation: “Mercy, O God! We don’t want to be driven back to another Appomattox!”
Appomattox represented God’s judgment and discipline upon America. Abraham Lincoln knew it and said as much in his Second Inaugural Address:
Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until…every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword…it must be said “the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”
The dream made it clear to us that what we were dealing with carried the highest possible stakes—on the scale of God’s judgment through civil war.
The Parallel We Could Not Ignore
“Oh, you’re being too dramatic,” people would dismissively say to us through the years. Or worse, they would accuse us of conflating abortion with slavery.
But this wasn’t a clever idea we invented. It was a parallel God Himself had revealed through a prophetic dream.
We understood from its interpretation that God regarded these two atrocities similarly because both involved the shedding of innocent blood—something He hates.
There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers. (Proverbs 6:16–19)
Slavery checked too many of those boxes. So does abortion today.
God Confirmed It
Imagine our shock on June 24, 2022, when Roe v. Wade was triumphantly overturned.
Justice Clarence Thomas—the only African American on the Court at the time—wrote in his concurring opinion:
In Dred Scott v. Sandford, the Court…announce[d] that Congress was powerless to emancipate slaves brought into the federal territories. While Dred Scott “was overruled on the battlefields of the Civil War and by constitutional amendment after Appomattox,” that overruling was “[p]urchased at the price of immeasurable human suffering.” Now today, the Court rightly overrules Roe and Casey…after more than 63 million abortions have been performed. The harm caused by this Court’s forays into substantive due process remains immeasurable.
Think about that!
The parallel between slavery and abortion appears in writing in the case that overturned Roe! Not only that, but “Appomattox” is IN the Dobbs ruling!
I cannot overstate how profound that moment was for us. There, in black and white, was the very language of our prophetic dream and the prayers we had prayed for nearly two decades.
We received it as a stunning confirmation from God that the prayers shaped by that dream were exactly what He had wanted us to pray.
Is There Casus Belli?
Now, this new petition filed directly with the U.S. Supreme Court hearkens back to the language of our prayers throughout the Roe years. And it has grabbed my attention.
This would be an all-out “casus belli if the States were fully sovereign.”
Casus belli is Latin for “cause for war” or “occasion for war.”
Historically, casus belli describes an act or circumstance that a sovereign nation considers sufficient justification for going to war against another sovereign nation.
This is far stronger than describing a political disagreement, a diplomatic dispute, or even a serious violation of another nation's interests. The phrase invokes the idea that a sovereign has suffered an injury so grave that, in the absence of a peaceful legal remedy, armed conflict could be justified.
Consider what these pro-life states are saying.
They are arguing that pro-abortion states are perpetrating violations of their sovereignty so serious that, under different circumstances, they would constitute sufficient cause for war.
Specifically, the plaintiff states point to approximately 2,000 abortions occurring each month within their collective borders through abortion pills supplied under other states’ shield laws.
The pro-life states are NOT calling for war between the states. Rather, they are invoking the gravity of such a conflict to argue why the U.S. Supreme Court must intervene.
Their position is that the Court should exercise its original jurisdiction, hear this dispute between sovereign states, and declare these abortion shield laws unconstitutional.
This is precisely why the deliberate use of casus belli is so striking.
For more than two decades, we have carried a prophetic warning involving the Civil War, the shedding of innocent blood, the courts, and Appomattox. Now, after the overturning of Roe, we find states invoking the language of war in a Supreme Court petition over the continuing destruction of preborn children.
I cannot simply dismiss that convergence of history, prophecy, and current events.
The overturning of Roe v. Wade was a monumental victory, but it did not end the battle for LIFE. The abortion pill has opened a new front, and shield laws have created an extraordinary conflict between states over the protection of preborn children.
We must not lose sight of the warning embedded in that original dream. Our cry must still be for mercy upon America, for righteous judgments in our courts, and for the shedding of innocent blood to cease.
The language of war in this petition is serious. I believe it demands our urgent spiritual attention.
We must fully engage in prayer right now.
Louisiana v. New York must be heard. Abortion shield laws must be declared unconstitutional and fall.
PRAYER POINTS
Pray for the U.S. Supreme Court to agree to hear Louisiana v. New York.
Pray for abortion shield laws to be declared unconstitutionaland fall throughout America.
Pray for divine restraint to stop the mailing of abortion pills into pro-life states.
Cry out for God's mercy upon America, that the shedding of innocent blood would cease and our nation would not be driven into another season of devastating judgment.
