Whose Life Do You Pro?

In 2016 millions of Americans voted for Donald Trump because he was pro-life (the same reason that for years, they've voted for Republicans generally.) The trope was that Trump was a conservative who'd name conservative justices to the Supreme Court. This might someday create a Court that would overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that declared abortion a constitutional right. For most of these people – in my experience, at least – “pro-life” usually means little more than “anti-abortion.” But there's more to a pro-life outlook than that. (And never mind that Trump is hardly a conservative; he just plays one on TV. But that's another discussion.)

As a Catholic, I'm well-acquainted with the pro-life message. Catholic priests frequently rail against abortion from the pulpit – as well they should because abortion is a horrible thing. (Though I do believe in the constitutionality of Roe.)  But the Roman Catholic Church also states that it's against capital punishment as part of its official pro-life agenda. In my entire life, I've never once heard a priest give a homily decrying the evils of capital punishment. And if one did, you can bet that lots of parishioners would be up in arms about the priest “bringing politics into it.” I suppose it depends on your politics.

There's another life issue that gets precious little play in the noise of the pro-life/pro-choice wars. According to a recent Human Rights Watch report, since 2013 over 200 El Salvadorans have been killed, raped, tortured or otherwise harmed after being deported from the United States. While part of this period is covered by the Obama administration, Donald Trump has made a special point of restricting asylum access to immigrants (especially brown and black immigrants) as part of his xenophobic policy agenda. And one can reasonably assume he doesn't limit to Africa the nations he regards as “shithole countries.”

Many of these people specifically sought asylum in the U.S. because they were fleeing imminent threats in their homeland. And upon their forced return, many of those killed or harmed fell prey to the very people they were trying to escape. U.S. officials know (or should know – and often because the deportees have told them, begged and pleaded with them) that they're being subjected to imminent danger as a direct result of deportation.  Yet American immigration officials callously deport them anyway.

I'd like to ask my pro-life friends, just where does this fall in your calculations when it comes to voting for a president or supporting this one? If it doesn't register, I'd suggest you rethink your calculations. Just as I'd also suggest you recall the notions of love, peace, mercy, welcoming the stranger and the foreigner and that whole load of nonsense that Jesus kept going on about.