Consider all human life

Don’t you just love single-issue voters?

They are Catholics and evangelicals who vote to restrict abortions, but not deadly weapons, and see no contradiction in that. Despite professing Christ, they turn a blind eye to Trump’s toxic racism and to “Moscow” Mitch McConnell’s saying no to election security, no to gun safety, and no to voting on everything.

Catholic radio and CatholicVote.org go against the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishop’s official voting guide, “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizens,” which discourages single-issue voting. The following are blind spots in Pharisee Republicans’ “pro-life” calculations.

“Thou shalt not kill” (otherwise known as murder), applies to all human lives, not just the unborn. Compare the lowest abortion rate since Roe v. Wade (958,000 under Obama) to CDC deaths by year: guns (40,000), gun suicides (22,000), vet suicides (22 a day), farmer suicides (638 in 2018), mass shootings (253 in 2019, more than one a day), hate crimes where Trump holds rallies (up 226%).

In Matthew 25:315-36 (How God will judge us), Jesus says, “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat … I was a stranger and you invited me in … I was sick … I was in prison and you came to visit me.”

Undernourished (40 million), homeless (3 million), opioids (70,000), no health insurance (44 million), prisoners (2.3 million, more than Russia and China; 37% black, 26% Hispanic), immigrants imprisoned (34,000), children in cages and families raided by ICE (2,000), serious medical deportations, migrant deaths (6,195), climate change disasters (150,000). Heart disease, cancer (1.2 million). Lung cancer from air pollution (2 million world-wide).

I ask single-issue, pro-birth voters, how is your vote a net gain for the sanctity of all human lives?

Mike Kraft

Spokane