The other day on Twitter, someone complained that she hadn’t seen any Pro-life organizations calling out the atrocities seen at the border.

My initial reaction was as follows:

It would be like me saying I never see pro-choice organizations advocating for other women’s health issues like endometriosis or PCOS. It isn’t so much that these organizations aren’t posting about it (and I imagine there must be some out there that are); it comes down to how I have chosen to fill my social media feeds. It’s one thing for me to be honest and admit I don’t see it because I don’t pay attention to them, but if I were to make such claims broadly, it is on me to first look at what these organizations I’m criticizing have said first. It seems (at least from my perspective) that Ms. Valenti failed to do this.

Here are just a few of the organizations who have issued statements/ made resolutions/ spoke out in some way:

• The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
• The American Solidarity Party
• New Wave Feminists
• Feminists for Non-Violent Choices
• Pro-Life Atheists
• Rehumanize International
• Secular Pro-Life

There’s also this thread that points out all the faith groups calling out Session’s argument and this tweet which identifies faith groups that spoke out (I’m not sure which are pro-life or not, though).

However, to be fair, not every pro-life individual or organization is speaking out about this issue.

Ms. Valenti wants to paint it as though these people and/or organizations simply don’t care. And readers, there is the possibility that this is the case. But I believe this group of pro-lifers who are actually just “pro-birth” is extremely, extremely small.

I think in reality, the situation is that these organization who advocate for the lives of the unborn had to narrow their scope. It isn’t because they don’t care about other life issues; it is because if you want to make a change, you have to be focused on a particular issue.

I really hate to use a comparison that involves animals due to the dehumanizing rhetoric that’s being spewed out, but I think this example helps illustrate my point with the emphatic comment that I am not calling any human being an animal. Let’s consider a humane society. We don’t criticize them for only serving cats and dogs while there are a ton of endangered species. We don’t lament that they are disregarding all the animals in factory farms. We recognize that they have limited resources, and they have to set a focus to make an impact. We instead celebrate that they are making a small piece of the world better, even if they aren’t addressing every animal rights issue.

Ultimately, what I’m trying to say is that before we criticize “the other side,” we first need to get out of our own echo chambers and dialogue before making accusations on lack of caring.

Immigrants Make America Great Photo by Nitish Meena on Unsplash

Barbed Wire Fence Photo by Robert Hickerson on Unsplash