With the literally terrifying laws being proposed around the United States, like the heartbeat bills which ban abortions at the first signs of a heartbeat, I think it's time to speak out about why being "pro-life" is not the right term. You're anti-abortion if you support these laws, unless you meet several other criteria.
You are not truly pro-life unless you're vegan, you support LGBTQ+ rights, you foster or adopt from the foster system in the United States, you support the Black Lives Matter movement and you do not support "The Wall."
Let's break this all down.
If you're not vegan, you're not pro-life.
Animals have heartbeats, too.
Animals have a right to life and a life without pain. Pro-life implies that you are pro-life, life for all. Animals have feelings. They are conscious. They feel pain. Why force them to endure suffering by eating them and their by-products but go rally about how abortion is murder?
Meat is murder. (Oh, and it's not good for you, either.)
If you don't support the LGBTQ+ community, you're not pro-life.
The LGBTQ+ community is subjected to higher rates of hate crimes and homicides.
If you don't support equality for this community, you're part of the problem.
If you don't foster or adopt from the foster care system, you're not pro-life.
"Pro-lifers" care so much about the fetus while it is still inside its mother. But those fetuses which cannot be aborted are likely to end up in the foster care system.
On any day, there are over 440,000 children in the foster system. In 2017, over 700,000 kids spent time in the system.
Children who age out of the system (there were over 17,000 in 2017) without ever finding a permanent family are more likely to face homelessness, incarceration, and unemployment as adults. They're also more likely to experience teen pregnancy.
Those who are "pro-life" are not "pro-life" once the fetus is born and placed into a home... and nearly one-third of those fetuses-turned-foster-kids will be abused in one of their foster homes.
If you don't support Black Lives Matter, you're not pro-life.
In cases of police shootings resulting in death when the victim is fleeing or resisting arrest, 67% of those deaths were blacks. In cases of police shootings that resulted in death where the cause of the shooting is "undetermined," 77% of those deaths were blacks. Black people are statistically less likely to have confidence and trust in cops, which leads to them wanting to resist the arrest. Still, 77% of "undetermined" causes for shooting is a large amount.
Black Lives Matter is "an ideological and political intervention in a world where Black lives are systematically and intentionally targeted for demise." That is to say, pro-black life.
If you support "the wall," you're not pro-life.
"The wall," and the border patrol enforcements that come with it, are unethical in the detainment of immigrant children seeking asylum in the U.S.
Customs and border patrol officers have been documented sexually, physically and verbally abusing the immigrant children who are crossing the border with their parents and separated upon entry.
The children are being threatened with rape and death, being placed in unsanitary holding cells without food and water, shot with tasers and guns, being run over with vehicles, punched in the head repeatedly, and groped by officials and border patrol agents.
There are so many lives in existence already that need advocates. Stop supporting lives that naturally may never reach viability anyway and start supporting those that are already sentient beings contributing to the world.
- I'm Pro-Life, Just Not In The Way You Think ›
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- Why I Hate The Term "Pro-Life" ›
- Why Being "Pro-Life" is Contradictory ›
- If People Were Truly Pro Life They Would Support All Lives ›
- Alabama's Abortion Ban Is Not Pro-Life, It's Anti-Woman ›
- Being Anti-Abortion Is Not Pro-Life ›
- Why You Can't Be Pro-Life And Pro-Women's Rights ›
- They're Not Pro-Life, They're Anti-Woman - Swaay ›
- Opinion | I Am Pro-Life. Don't Call Me Anti-Abortion. - The New York ... ›
- Elias Khoury: Not pro-life, just anti-abortion | The Michigan Daily ›
- 'If You're a Pro-life Democrat … You Know You're Standing Alone ... ›
- "Pro-Life" States Are Not Pro-Life States ›
- Republicans: You're Not Pro-Life, You're Hypocrites | HuffPost ›