If the political American right loved children as much as they preach that they do, the world might actually improve. However, the pro-life movement is steeped in scripture and sanctimony. Supporters seem enamored with the biblical idea of a fetus, rather than helping the children who are suffering in the world today.
As more and more atrocities are highlighted to the public, I cannot help but question the minds of the protesters outside of Planned Parenthood, berating a rape victim to change their mind while holding up bible verses. So, it confuses me when, in 2025, there were 233 school shootings at K-12 campuses in the United States, according to the K-12 School Shooting Database, and yet these same people are silent, or thankfully, offer “thoughts and prayers” when any form of action is asked of them.
In 1973, the Roe v. Wade decision was passed by the U.S. Supreme Court, which protected a pregnant person’s right to choose to have an abortion. Before this, abortion was extremely dangerous, especially for low-income women of color, due to it being illegal for the most part. According to National Public Radio [NPR], in 1930, abortion was listed as the official cause of death for almost 2,700 women in the United States, though there were likely many more deaths that did not get recorded.
However, once Roe v. Wade was passed, the issue became heavily polarized in the political sphere, particularly by evangelical conservatives. The anti-abortion movement began utilizing euphemistic titles such as a “rights campaign” and often compared the action to a genocide. Once this was capitalized on by the Republican Party, politicians like Ronald Reagan utilized the charged movement for election purposes.
In 2022, the decision was overturned, which triggered harsh abortion restrictions to go into effect in multiple states. According to the Gender Equity Policy Institute, mothers living in states that banned abortion were nearly two times as likely to die during pregnancy, childbirth or soon after giving birth, compared to mothers living in supportive states.
A direct quote from Americans United for Life is “How many future presidents, sports stars or cultural icons have been aborted? We will never quite know the impact of the reality of abortion because our potential as humans is so infinite.” Besides the fallacious nature of this argument, the ironic lack of empathy for tangible human life has become more apparent as the pro-life movement dotes on fetuses with a shaking bible in hand. But, let those fetuses be replaced with one of the 64,000 children who have been killed or maimed in the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, 2023, according to UNICEF, and all of a sudden that heartbeat vaporizes into statistics and “unfortunate collateral damage” while they have the privilege to go about their day.
The empathy of the pro-life movement stops at American borders, where screams can’t be heard; where the existence of a woman’s bodily autonomy is debatable. It is devastatingly hypocritical to evangelize the “sanctity of life” when it comes to abortion while standing by when children are being shot in your own backyard and others are buried under rubble.