Which Issues to Consider

During recent conversations with two of my co-workers on the subject of abortion I was asked by one, “Are you passionate about anything else?” By this she wanted to know if there were any other issues about which I was passionate. My other co-worker stated that he appreciated my concern about abortion, but he wanted to point out that there are other issues to consider. I find it interesting that both my co-workers felt the need to distract from the issue of abortion. Somehow I cannot imagine that had I been concerned about the war in Iraq that they would question me in this way. If I were passionate about global warming I doubt they would have given it a second thought. But when it comes to abortion it seems people either do not care or they simply do not understand how the issue affects our society.

Pro-lifers are assumed to be single issue voters. As a Pro-lifer I can attest to the fact that this is not true. My second co-worker seemed to think that one must consider many issues when discerning how one should vote. Well, which issues would he suggest I consider? Why do pro-abortion people think they have a right to tell Pro-lifers what the “real” issues are? Now I must clarify that neither one of my co-workers consider themselves pro-abortion. The first thinks that abortion should be legal in cases of rape, incest and the life of the mother. The second has stated that he did not consider his own son to be a human being the day before he was born, but seems to be willing to compromise on the abortion issue to placate some pro-life concerns.

As a Pro-lifer, that is one who believes it is not possible to give anyone the right to take an innocent life, I would ask this question:
What shapes our opinions of any and every social and/or political issue? Whether the issue is the environment, gun control, taxes, health care, war, nuclear weapons, euthanasia, poverty, the death penalty or embryonic stem cell research etc… the answer is: How we view the human being. How we view the human being shapes our opinions of all social and political issues. Simply put all social and political issues affect the human being.

First, every issue deals with the human being, period. No issue, decision or choice is made by any human being that does not affect in some way another human being. Second, what determines how we view of the human being? What actions within our society exhibit how we as a society view the human being?

Gandhi has been quoted as saying, “You can judge a society by how they treat their weakest members.” What single action in our society most directly exhibits how we treat the weakest members of our society? Who are the weakest human beings within our society, who cannot speak for themselves and cannot vote? The unborn are the weakest human beings among us. They live and grow and move. Their hearts beat and they suck their thumbs.

Abortion kills an innocent human being. What better way to send a message to society as to how we should view the human being. When a boy knows that his mother has allowed his brother to be killed through abortion what must he think? How many other brothers and sisters are missing? How does this shape his view of the human being? He knows that his mother could also have chosen to legally allow him to be killed through abortion. How will this boy view the human being as he grows up? As this boy grows into a man his opinions will be based upon how he views the human being.

During an audience with Italy's Movement for Life Pope Benedict XVI recently stated, "We cannot but recognize that, in practical terms, defending human life has become more difficult today, because a mentality has been developed that progressively devalues human life and entrusts it to the judgment of individuals. A consequence deriving from that is lessended respect for the human person, a value that lies at the foundation of any form of civil coexistence, over and above the faith a person may profess."
He goes on to say that abortion,"...not only has not resolved the problems afflicting many women and no small number of families, but it has opened another wound in our societies."

No issue is isolated. Each issue is affected by and affects another. The environment, gun control, taxes, health care, war (just or unjust), nuclear weapons, euthanasia, poverty, the death penalty, embryonic stem cell research all of it depends on how we view the human being. The societal action that most shapes how we as a society view the human being is the action that best exhibits how we treat the weakest among us. That action is abortion. If we can kill the weakest among us where will it end and when will freedom ring. As a Pro-lifer I am not a single issue voter.