"You're not pro-life, you're just pro-fetus."
"You're not pro-life, you just hate women."
"You're not pro-life, you're just pro-white lives."
"You're not pro-life. You're not."
You feel indignant with these hateful stereotypes being thrown in your face, don't you? I know; I've heard them. The implication that you're a hypocrite, that you don't value all lives equally, have internalized misogyny, let men think for you, etc. grinds your gears. I've been thinking that since I was old enough to know what an abortion is and why I don't support it.
The problem with stereotypes of any kind is most people who repeat them can provide a couple of examples to "prove" them true. And sometimes, the ~offensive stereotype~ is only offensive because it's rooted in truth. I am living proof that women can't drive, and some of y'all are living proof that many pro-lifers are really just pro-birth.
Please, don't be offended. (I thought we were tired of liberals getting offended by everything? :-).) But really consider if you think every life is valuable and entitled to the same natural rights.
If you defend cops after cases of police brutality; if you would justify the death of an African-American man who was exercising his right to carry a weapon; if you're more offended by Black Lives Matter than you are by the things which sparked that movement; you aren't pro-life, just pro-fetus.
If you're grown and you still publicly shame pregnant high school girls, driving them to regret their decision to keep their babies, you aren't pro-life, just pro-fetus.
If you blame rape victims because of what they were drinking or wearing, driving them to be afraid to bring their attackers to justice, and probably driving many of them to abortions as well, you aren't pro-life, just pro-fetus.
If you think abortion or life in a dangerous foster care situation is better for a child than growing up with two financially and emotionally stable adoptive moms, you aren't pro-life, just pro-fetus.
If you support any sort of immigration ban or mass deportation because you think only white, Christian Americans are entitled to better lives and the rights espoused in our Constitution, you aren't pro-life, just pro-fetus.
If you turn a blind eye to rampant racial bigotry, you're not pro-life, just pro-fetus.
The pro-life movement is rooted in the idea that every single person is equally entitled to life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness, so no, you cannot be pro-life and tolerate any kind of bigotry. Millennials are not "changing the meaning" of the word pro-life because we want to "kiss up to the left." The definition I'm using here is the only intellectually honest definition.
Being pro-life has to mean pro-unborn life, pro-black life, pro-female life, pro-female life, pro-Latino life, pro-LGBT life, pro-Muslim life, pro-disabled life. Otherwise, you really are just pro-fetus.
