Pro-Lifers are often attacked because we vote on just one issue—Life. We are criticized for supporting or rejecting a candidate based on his or her commitment to defend innocent human life. This position, however, is defensible in several ways.
Firstly, the Pro-Life position involves many issues. We believe in the sanctity of innocent human life from the moment of fertilization until natural death. In addition to caring for pregnant women before and after childbirth, the Pro-Life movement addresses not only abortion, but also euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide, tax-payer funding of the abortion industry, cloning, embryonic stem cell research, and much more. Unfortunately, today’s technology has introduced many more assaults on innocent human life than just abortion, and a coherent view of the Life issues recognizes the connection among these threats.
Secondly, Life is so important. Our country was based upon the principles of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Life is the first and foremost of these rights and is certainly necessary in order for one to enjoy any other rights. As the most basic and most essential of rights, it must be defended most arduously.
To those who accuse Pro-Lifers of single-issue voting, please share with them the following example. Imagine that there is one candidate who shares almost all your beliefs, except that this candidate does not believe that women should be allowed to vote or that minorities should be treated equally. A belief such as this should undoubtedly be reason enough not to support him or her! This is also true with the Life issues. Although other issues also carry great value, Life surpasses all.
During all elections, education about the candidates’ pro-choice position or Pro-Life positions is vital. Voters do have a moral responsibility to make an informed decision, because the leaders they choose will make decisions regarding the futures of many of our fellow citizens. Whether they are voting on Planned Parenthood’s budget, a bill such as the Women’s Right to Know Act, even zoning requirements for abortion clinics, or healthcare reform, they are affecting our culture.
Pro-Lifers must support politicians committed to advancing a true Culture of Life. When you are researching candidates for an election, remember this and please vote for Life! (See NRLC to learn what the current presidential candidates have to say about Roe v. Wade, embryonic stem cell research, euthanasia, and partial-birth abortion.)
“Once or twice in a century an issue arises… so far-reaching in its consequences, and so deep in its foundations, that it calls every person to take a stand.”
–John Noonan, former law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and current U.S. Court of Appeals Judge