Randall Terry running for president

Longtime antiabortion leader secured nomination from Constitution Party

Antiabortion firebrand Randall Terry secured the presidential nomination for the Constitution Party ticket. 

Terry was one of the more influential leaders at the height of the antiabortion movement in the 1980s. His tactics included a far more aggressive approach rooted in the theology of Francis Schaeffer, whom I’ve written about before. Terry will run with Founder and Stephen Broden, Senior Pastor of Fair Park Bible Fellowship. 

“We are running for President in the effort to make child-killing by abortion the number one voter issue in America,” Terry said on his website. “We will show the horror of aborted children to the American people and call on Christians to REPENT for having voted for Joe Biden.” 

Terry is the founder of Operation Rescue, which became one of the most prominent antiabortion groups. At the 1988 Atlanta Democratic National Convention and continuing through to the election, 1,200 protestors blocked access to clinics at the behest of Operation Rescue and Terry. 

They crawled on their hands and knees--with bibles in hand. Before doing it in reality, the demonstrators practiced at a church rally the night before while a speaker told them to stop once police touched them. If an officer took his hand off of them, then they were supposed to move again. 

To get them off the streets, police tied demonstrators’ hands behind their backs and carried them with sticks because they wouldn’t stand and walk. The protests angered Atlanta’s politicians because of the expense of incarceration. The city filed racketeering charges against Terry and Operation Rescue. Antiabortion leaders called it the “civil rights movement for the unborn. 

Terry once compared his movement to slavery abolitionists. He described abortion clinics as “fortresses of hell.” 

He has several ads on his website that he hopes to run during the presidential election.