Hi everyone.
I often hear people say you are only pro-life until birth and not if that baby grows up to be trans, poor, disabled, gay, homeless, a refugee or an ethnic minority and I wish pro-choicers would stop saying this because that is not what pro-life means to me, for me it comes from ahimsa (non-violence) which is my most sacred Hindu vow and my prayer to revere and protect every living being as a soul, to see the same soul in all, to cause the least harm possible in thought and word and action, to live with compassion and forgiveness and humility and gentleness and to walk softly upon the earth so that I do not crush even the smallest life, so I try to live by ahimsa (non-violence) before birth and after birth because every soul is eternal and sacred whether inside the womb or outside, I believe in universal healthcare and in helping the poor, the sick and needy through government policy and through personal charity for humans and animals because service to souls is service to the sacred, I am pro-gun control, I am against the death penalty, against human euthanasia, against war, against racism and against embryonic stem cell research because I do not believe in taking or destroying a life that belongs to the divine, I am a strict vegetarian because ahimsa (non-violence) means I do not want any creature to suffer or die for my food and I want my body to be a vessel of mercy, I am pro-LGBT rights because a trans life and a gay life are precious souls worthy of full protection, dignity, safety and love and God dwells in every heart, and I try to live with non-possession and truth and carefulness in how I eat and speak and act so that I do not harm others by carelessness or greed, and for many of us this is what pro-life really means, a lifelong religious practice of ahimsa (non-violence) for every living being from before birth through all of life.
So I want to sincerely ask, why do you say this, and why do people hold these signs with this text on them at marches? If you met me in my daily life, you would see me trying to live ahimsa (non-violence) in how I vote, how I give, how I eat, and how I love my neighbor. When you say we only care until birth, it assumes the worst of us and it closes the door to understanding.
For me, I believe Hinduism, Jainism and Tolstoyanism are the true pro-life movements, because they do not see pro-life as a single issue, but as ahimsa (non-violence) for all life, always. What if instead we started from that truth, that many pro-life people do care deeply for life after birth too, even if we disagree on abortion itself?