Which Lives Are You “Pro” And Can My Grandma’s Be One Of Them?

After all, there are “more important things than living”

You’ve gotta hand it to them, right-wing political movements know how to create a brand. All Lives Matter, Pro-Life, Make America Great Again, America First. No matter how you feel about the movements behind them, these are all genius catchphrases that are catchy, bold, and clear in their message. “Pro-Life,” and “All Lives Matter” are particularly clever, immediately they invoke feelings of inclusivity, compassion, and humanitarianism. All the things the liberal snowflakes claim they don’t have.

“Pro-Life” is almost exclusively used as a cudgel against liberal arguments in favor of abortion, who wouldn’t want to be “Pro” when it comes to life?Without delving too deeply into my personal moral and policy stances on abortion, I will say that I truly appreciate that for the most part, compassion is what motivates people who associate as “Pro-Life.” Most people who are “Pro-Life,” I believe are genuine in their care for human life and protecting the vulnerable, even if I believe this can be misplaced or we have philosophical or policy disagreements.

My question, and a question that I believe is becoming increasingly pressing, is where does all of this compassion, and passion for human life, go once the fetus is born? The strangest thing seems to happen to so many “Pro-Lifers” after a child is born, suddenly life doesn’t seem that important anymore. An alien who came from a different planet and observed our society would probably assume from the “Pro-Life” movement that “Life” only and exclusively refers to the nine-month gestation period in which a fetus resides in the womb of its mother.

And for those of you who do identify as being “Pro-Life” and who don’t appreciate the candor of the above paragraph, may I offer a simple examination on what lives you are, indeed, “Pro.”

When the three-year-old Syrian refugee Alan Kurdi’s body washed ashore on a Turkish beach in 2015 after his family’s boat capsized trying to escape prosecution and violence did you advocate for increasing assistance to refugees or did you disregard it as a sensationalized media report? Were you “Pro-Life?”

When León Gutiérrez, Jakelin Caal Maquin, Felipe Gómez Alonzo, Wilmer Josué Ramírez Vásquez, Carlos Hernandez Vasquez, Mariee Juárez and Darlyn Cristabel Cordova-Valle, all children ranging from ages 2–16, died in Border Patrol custody did you blame their parents for risking their lives, or were you more concerned about why we have a system that kills children who are fleeing violence and seeking asylum? Were you “Pro-Life” then?

When Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his one-year-old daughter Valeria were photographed embraced in each other’s arms face down on the shore of the Rio Grande, having drowned attempting to escape violence from El Salvador, did your mind first go to how you could justify the President’s hardline immigration policies or deflect blame onto the opposing political party, or did you go out and vote for individuals who would give people like them a country that welcomes them and not a horrifying death in a river? Were you “Pro-Life”?

When young, unarmed Black men are shot and killed and no one is held accountable are you “Pro-Life” then, or would you rather point out that “if he just did what he was told he’d still be alive”?

Do you like to mock movements like Black Lives Matter, complain about how selfish they are or become irate when people like Colin Kaepernick kneel during the anthem because he’s sick of Black people being killed, or do you question why it is that Black people in this country feel so scared or threatened around law enforcement? Are you “Pro-Life”? You would think a movement talking about lives mattering would be exactly the type of movement someone who is “Pro-Life” would be all about.

When children are slaughtered in schools by assault weapons are you more concerned about how “the libs are politicizing the tragedy” or are you worried about the lives of children all across the country? Again, are you “Pro-Life”?

There are nearly half a million children in the foster care system in this country, a system that is rife with abuse, mismanagement, and exploitation, are you “Pro” those lives? Or is it sad but not your problem?

There is another half a million people in this country living on the streets, are you “Pro” their lives and support providing housing, opportunity, and support for them or is that socialism?

LGBTQ youth contemplate or attempt suicide at alarmingly higher rates than their peers, are you “Pro” those lives, or again, is it a sad thing but do you need to make sure no one is pushing their agenda in the schools?

How many lives, out of the few examples I stated, were you “Pro”? If you need to re-brand your position as exclusively “Pro-Fetus” I understand, I’m not even saying don’t support what you believe in, but maybe you aren’t as “Pro-Life” as you thought you were. And, maybe, and hear me out, if you aren’t pro-refugee lives, pro-black-lives, pro-homeless-lives, pro-Muslim-lives, pro-immigrant-lives, pro-queer-lives, pro-elderly-lives or pro-post-birth-children-lives you were never really “Pro-Life” after all.

Now, the Coronavirus pandemic has consumed the world, and people like the Luitennent Governor of Texas, have claimed that “there are more important things than living,” hundreds have gathered for protests toting AR-15s, waving confederate and Nazi flags because they want haircuts or ice cream, putting hundreds of more lives in danger.

So, maybe we can all just call it what it is. You can stop the obnoxious virtue signaling on facebook of posting things like “If you are considering an abortion I will adopt your child” every time a new abortion law is passed or it comes up in the national media (I have kept track and so far no one I have seen post that has adopted anyone, and yet there are still hundreds of thousands of children who need to be adopted. Weird.) and truthfully say exactly which lives you are “Pro” and which ones you are indifferent about.

These incidents beg the question, which lives are you actually “Pro”? And, please, can my Salvadoran-immigrant-elderly-retired-hospital-working-grandma be one of them, because it seems like a pretty exclusive group to be in.