Arizona pastor doesn't just think abortion is murder: He wants to execute women for it

Pastor Jeff Durbin of the Apologia Church in Mesa, Arizona, is the head of End Abortion Now, an organization he founded.

He hasn’t made a lot of news locally, though he was quoted back in January while part of a counterprotest to the National Women’s March at the Arizona Capitol.

Durbin, who supported the 1864 abortion ban, was quoted by ABC 15 as saying, “What we would like to see take place in the state of Arizona is that we once again value human life, image bearers of God. We treat one another as equals and we actually afford all human beings equal protection.”

He’s also preached election conspiracies and posted videos of himself outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as well as commentary later sympathetic to those who eventually stormed the building.

At that time, signatures were being collected to put the Arizona for Abortion Access initiative on the November ballot. More than enough have been collected to do so.

The measure is meant to restore women’s reproductive health rights that were lost by the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

She needed an abortion.In post-Roe America, it took 21 people and two states to help her.

Pastor says 'abortion should be considered a crime'

On Monday, the second anniversary of Roe being overturned, the Biden campaign posted on X, formerly Twitter, an audio recording of Pastor Durbin, whom the campaign called a “leader of Republican opposition to Arizona abortion measure,” saying women who have abortions should be executed.

In the audio Durbin says, “Abortion should be considered a crime. It should be considered a murder. You’re unjustly taking the life of a human being. And so that’s murder. And what I’ve said is what is the historic position of the Christian church, that if you take the life of a human being, unjustly, then what the state owes you – if it’s proven and it’s true – is capital punishment. You forfeit your right to live.”

I’ll give the pastor this: At least he’s honest about his beliefs. Blunt.

He doesn’t try to temper his true feelings in an effort to make what he actually believes more palatable to conservative voters who aren’t as extreme.

That’s what those who’ll wage a campaign against the abortion access initiative will do. They’ll equivocate. They’ll tell you that those who are pushing for abortion rights are the extreme ones, not them.

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Don't expect initiative foes to be as honest as Durbin

Durbin, at least, doesn’t sugarcoat his beliefs. You know where he and those like him are coming from.

There was a time when Donald Trump wasn’t afraid to dip his toe in those same dark waters.

Asked by talk show host Chris Matthews if he believed women who receive abortion care should be punished, Trump once said, “The answer is, that there has to be some form of punishment. Yeah, there has to be some form.”

Trump won’t say such a thing now. And his people would probably urge Pastor Durbin to temper his remarks. In public, anyway.

But make no mistake, the yes or no vote on the abortion access initiative on the November ballot will be between those who believe in reproductive rights and those who, like Pastor Durbin, believe that if you have an abortion ... “you forfeit your right to live.”

EJ Montini is a columnist at The Arizona Republic, where this column first appeared. Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com