Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

I am writing in response to a recent column titled “Do your pro-life views reflect in the candidates you support?” It depends on how you define pro-life. To be truly  pro-life, one must embrace all the many facets of life. The unborn is a life that needs to be cared for from womb until natural death. After that child is born, does your candidate then support him or her financially? Perhaps they are born to a poor mother who needs social programs. The child will need education support, medical care and perhaps this child is born with preexisting conditions. Does your candidate support medical insurance for all life? Maybe this child becomes a homeless adult and needs support. Or perhaps this person is mentally ill or physically challenged. A person with special needs requires a lot of financial support through many social programs. But what if this person becomes a criminal? Does pro-life end here? Do we condemn them to die through capital punishment? Who gives us the right to take the life of another, whether they are preborn or aged? Does your candidate support programs for the elderly, and the cost of their care by paying their caregivers a decent wage?

What about the refugee, fleeing a country because of violence? Does your candidate welcome the stranger and embrace equality for all humanity? Many of our ancestors were immigrants from other countries and pro-life means welcoming and caring for them with their many needs.

Our Mother Earth needs to be cared for if you are pro-life. Think about the many ways this earth takes care of you. Does your candidate support environmental issues that protect clean water, soil and air?

The article of Sept. 2 stated “there is a disconnect between what they’re saying they believe and what they actually choose to do.” (They is referring to people who don’t vote like she does, for Republicans.) Those who support a candidate who only believes in one of the ways to be pro-life and ignores the rest, is not truly pro-life. They are wearing blinders to all of the beautiful ways creation has given us life. Again, to quote the writer of that column, “Your vote dictates which direction you want to see this country move toward — a direction where we all value life, or a direction where we destroy life.” Our current administration destroys life by ridiculing people, including the handicapped, women and veterans; cutting programs for the disadvantaged and our environment; and dividing people against one another. He, and those candidates who support him, have no compassion for the many ways that we have been given this gift of life. There maybe isn’t one candidate who supports all of these issues, but I believe the Democratic candidates support the vast majority of pro-life issues. Please consider what it really means to be pro-life when casting your ballot.

Karen Olson

Albert Lea