The pro-life movement and its supporters (pictured above) are self-righteous. Claiming to care about keeping children alive, they advocate for actions that inconvenience humans after birth, such as the removal of Planned Parenthood (Elvert Barnes/Creative commons).
Following the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court, abortion has once again come under fire. The pro-life movement continues to gain strength through support from national figures, such as President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, but when many conservatives talk about being “pro-life,” they are really trying to say they are pro-fetus.
The term “pro-life” was coined to shame women for abortions. They want women to feel as though they are killing children, not fetuses; although they stigmatize abortion, conservatives provide little to nothing for children once they are born.
If individuals in the pro-life movement were as concerned for children as they are for fetuses, they would first address the countless number of children living in poverty and in foster care. Failing to do so demonstrates the movement’s hypocrisy.
Nearly 400,000 children are currently in the foster care system and more than 250,000 children are put into foster care every year in the United States, according to the National Foster Youth Institute.
For their supposed love of children, Republicans continue to propose budget cuts for foster care and youth programs, according to the Child Welfare League of America. This behavior puts hundreds of thousands of children at risk.
The pro-life movement similarly does not care for refugees or families seeking asylum. When immigrant children are ripped from their parents and forced into cages, those in the pro-life movement remain quiet. Their supposed “family values” are nowhere to be found in these cases, but when a woman wants a safe abortion, attacking abortion clinics is up their alley.
People who are pro-life bully women seeking abortions into keeping a pregnancy they do not want. Once the baby is born, however, the pro-life supporters are suddenly nowhere to be found.
Budget cuts for foster care are not the only threats to children and their mothers. Considering the individuals in the pro-life movement concern themselves with fetuses, one would think that they would also care about mothers, but conservatives want to permanently close Planned Parenthood.
While Planned Parenthood provides safe abortions for those who want them, they also provide affordable prenatal care for mothers and their children.
Conservatives continuously want to make the decisions for pregnant women, but it is the sole body and responsibility of the woman. They are not the ones who have to carry the child to term. They are not the ones who have to spend thousands of dollars on prenatal care and thousands more for the birth of the child.
It is a privilege to be pro-life. To care for a child is a privilege and many women do not have the financial means to care for a child. Pro-life should include all children, not just a fetus.
Conservatives who are pro-life do not seem to care about women who live in poverty, victims of rape or women who simply do not want children. They do not care about life, they care about preventing a woman’s choice to her body.