Every child a wanted child

As the Republican platform includes a platform "No abortions, under any circumstances,"  I reflect on the punitive cruelty of the American people. 

Americans are haters, Americans are punishers.  Americans say, "I got mine." 

America is drunk with maudlin sentimentality, but we're not a caring society. 

I lifted the following remarks from a discussion about abortion.  Replace the phrase "If you are really Right to Life..." with the phrase "If America were a caring society..."

"Yuh know, I could find it in my heart to sympathize with pro-lifers if they were truly pro-life. But people who proclaim loudly their sanctity for all life, then prove how little they care about fetuses once they are born and become real people just drives me 'round the bend.

If you are pro-life, then care about the housing, nutrition, healthcare, education that that child will receive for the rest of their life.

If you are really pro-life, then you must support helpful, honest, realistic sex education and access to contraception for everyone, regardless of age so we can prevent unplanned pregnancies that drive women to seek out abortions in the first place.

If you are really pro-life, then you must support full access to excellent prenatal care for all women, including access to housing and nutrition, not just healthcare.

If you are really pro-life, then you must support programs that offer a high quality of life to those with any and all disabilities, including genetic disabilities, so that women can be assured that their child can have the best possible outcome.

If you are really pro-life, then you must support paid maternal/paternal leave, ideally for the first year of life.

If you are really pro-life, then you must support access to affordable quality daycare.

If you are really pro-life, then you must support universal healthcare.

If you are really pro-life, then you must support a basic minimal access to housing and quality nutrition for all.

If you are really pro-life, then you must support quality K-12 education for all, no matter what the income level of the area that any child resides in.

If you are really pro-life, then you must support access to affordable post-secondary education for all.

Lack of any of these life necessities may cause a woman to contemplate not going forward with a pregnancy, so you really must make sure that these are available to all, right?

If you call yourself pro-life and don't support all this, I may choose to respect you as a person, but I will have nothing but utter contempt for your political beliefs."

"The moral test of a government is how it treats those who are at the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the aged; and those who are in the shadow of life, the sick and the needy, and the handicapped." - Hubert Humphrey