Josh Hawley
Role at the time: United States Senator for Missouri, at the first Missouri Prayer Breakfast in the Russell Senate Office Building and in a subsequent official press release
Statement summary
Six months after his bill stalled in committee, Hawley unveiled a four-page "Declaration for Life" drafted by more than 30 pastors, which calls on Congress to ban mifepristone on the grounds that state abortion restrictions cannot stop the drug being mailed across state lines. He said he would ask officeholders and candidates in both parties to sign it as a commitment to end chemical abortion, and renewed his request for a vote on his legislation.
“This Declaration for Life, written by pastors, is calling on everyday Christians across America to stand for life and confront the scourge of chemical abortion.”
The primary record of the Declaration for Life, the pledge Hawley is asking officeholders and candidates to sign. The declaration states that the abortion drug is "nearly always fatal to the unborn child and frequently injurious to the mother," that mifepristone "can now be mailed into every state and city in America, regardless of local rules," and calls on Congress "to ban the chemical abortion drug mifepristone."
Why we used this label
The case's fixed reference point is Hawley's proposition that Congress should ban mifepristone by revoking its federal approval. Here he not only restates the proposition but attaches a loyalty mechanism to it, asking candidates to pledge support for the ban. The closest competing label is mixed_or_conditional, because the statement is addressed to Christians and churches rather than to legislators and could be read as a cultural appeal rather than a legislative demand. That loses because the declaration's own operative request is that Congress ban the drug, and Hawley paired the unveiling with a renewed call for a vote on his bill.