By Brian Gunter
POLLOCK, La. – Churches and businesses across Louisiana have complied with the Governor’s order to close all non-essential businesses. We are taking this global pandemic seriously because millions of Americans are expected to be hospitalized with COVID-19 and hundreds of thousands of Americans are expected to die. One pastor in the entire state of Louisiana refused to close his church, and yesterday law enforcement issued a summons for him to appear in court for violating the Governor’s order. To be clear, Pastor Tony Spell has been foolish and reckless by continuing to gather large crowds into his church during a pandemic.
And yet one abortion clinic in Louisiana, Hope Medical Group for Women in Shreveport, is still open today and performing elective non-emergency surgeries with zero consequences, eleven days after the Louisiana Department of Health has ordered all such procedures must be postponed! Why aren’t Governor John Bel Edwards and the Louisiana Department of Health equally enforcing their emergency order?
The only thing Louisianans can conclude is that our state intends to unequally enforce the stay-at-home order by closing down churches while allowing an abortion clinic to stay open! This double-standard is absolutely unacceptable. All Louisianans must demand for our state to slow the spread of coronavirus by equally enforcing the Governor’s order and closing the Hope Medical abortion clinic for the duration of the pandemic!
Brian Gunter is pastor of First Baptist Church in Pollock.
