You Probably Won’t Read This Article on Why You Should Vote Pro-Life, But Will You?
I’m always amazed when I hear how many pro-life Americans don’t vote. I’m even more alarmed by the number of life-affirming individuals who have not followed their life-affirming convictions because they’re either misinformed, or they allow less important issues to cloud their judgment.
During a Gallup poll conducted six weeks before the 2012 U.S. presidential election, nearly 45 percent of those surveyed said abortion was one of their top issues. Unfortunately, among the 46 percent of Americans who claim to hold pro-life views, only 21 percent consider abortion to be the deciding factor when determining how they will vote. That’s just four points higher than the national average.
In other words, the right to life was not the preeminent issue for roughly three out of four pro-life Americans in 2012.
The death of an estimated 56 million unborn children since the Supreme Court’s 1973 ruling on Roe v. Wade has undeniably taken a tragic toll on the moral fabric of our nation — weakening families, marriage, communities, schools, and churches. Now imagine what could happen if all pro-life Americans made their voices heard on the right to life. Our nation’s abortion landscape would look significantly different than it does today.
So the following question must be asked: Why is the sacredness of life not the preeminent issue for all pro-life Americans?
Looking at America’s founding documents, we see that the right to life is not only one of the unalienable rights articulated in the Declaration of Independence, but it is the first and most important. For without the right to life, there can be no right to liberty or the pursuit of happiness.
Consider the words of James Wilson, one of just six men to sign both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. He further expounds on this God-given right to life in his essay Of the Natural Rights of Individuals:
With consistency, beautiful and undeviating, human life, from its commencement to its close, is protected by the common law. In the contemplation of law, life begins when the infant is first able to stir in the womb. By the law, life is protected not only from immediate destruction, but from every degree of actual violence, and, in some cases, from every degree of danger.
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Clearly, Wilson, like many of his revolutionary contemporaries, was ferociously protective of the right to life.
Our nation’s Founding Fathers fully intended for a just moral code to dictate the governance of their day and ours. Therefore, it is our duty to speak on behalf of those who have no voice of their own — the unborn.
There are many ways to get involved in the fight to help rescue babies from abortion — from volunteering at a life-affirming pregnancy medical clinic, to sidewalk counseling, to financially supporting life-affirming organizations such as Online for Life — but one of the easiest and most accessible ways for all pro-life individuals to fight abortion takes place inside the voting booth.
We will not all agree on every single issue, yet there are some nonnegotiable issues that we as life-affirming Americans must advance — like the sacredness of human life. And at Online for Life, we believe the right to life at all stages of development is the defining issue of our day.
We must not become part of the silent majority and allow the pro-abortion movement to continue stripping the most basic rights from our nation’s most innocent citizens. Instead, Americans must realize the power that their voices hold to enact social change in our culture.
Pro-life Americans can restore the sacredness of life to our culture by working diligently to protect life at all stages. When we make the sacredness of human life the defining issue upon which our decisions are based, we are speaking up for unborn children who have no voice. And, ultimately, we are advancing our goal of the abolition of abortion in America.
At Online for Life, we believe one of the most powerful ways you can demonstrate your commitment to LIFE is by making decisions based upon your pro-life values. I encourage all pro-life Americans to become a part of the great movement to end abortion in America in our generation — get out and vote today.
LifeNews Note: Author, speaker, and business leader Brian Fisher is the President and Co-Founder of Online for Life, a transparent, metric-oriented, compassion-driven nonprofit organization dedicated to helping rescue babies and their families from abortion through technology and grace.
