American Family News has reported that passage of the Heartbeat Act went mostly unnoticed by the public in May until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Sept. 2 it would not hear an appeal seeking to stop the law. That announcement set abortion supporters on fire: Texas lawmakers were compared to the Taliban, and software company SalesForce announced it would relocate workers from the state if they felt unsafe.
The abortion-supporting U.S. Justice Dept. also filed suit for what it called the “open defiance of the Constitution, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi denounced the court for a "cowardly, dark-of-night decision."
And those were some of the milder reactions.
According to LifeNews.com, authorities in Payne County, Oklahoma have arrested Austin Wendell Lund, 20. He allegedly made direct threats to Texas lawmakers by name on Reddit, where he threatened to “end each one of you.”
The state lawmakers were first alerted to the threat by the Texas Dept. of Public Safety.
“Authorities rightly flagged this as dangerous and pursued the individual,” says Schwartz, whose own pro-life group has been harassed and threatened, too, after the court ruling angered abortion supporters.
According to the pro-life activist, the other side is filled with angry, hurting people whose feelings are demonstrated in their threats and comments.
“So maybe that's something that this man experienced,” she observes. “But there's healing for everybody. There is always healing at the foot of the cross.”
