I would like to respond to Bob Venusti’s letter of March 19 in which he asks Father Stokes if he will vote for a pro-life candidate (President Trump) in the upcoming election. I am sure that this letter comes from a deep concern about the loss of human life due to abortion.
I would like to offer my view on this issue. I intend to vote for the pro-life candidate, whether Republican or Democratic, who is in favor of the green new deal which will save the lives of millions of people already born who will die in climate caused wars, in floods and draught and fire.
I will vote for the candidate who advocates for free day care for the poor, universal health care, the continuation of food stamps, and free education through college and the forgiveness of tuition debts. I believe that couples will be more likely to have children with this financial assurance to back them up, and will not resort to abortion.
Under the administration of President Obama, who was very permissive with regards to abortion, but who also provided many financial benefits especially for the poor, who accounted for many abortions, the percentage of abortions in the United States actually declined by 14 percent, according to the Guttmarchen Institute report. Isn’t this decline what most of us pro-lifers really want to see? Although President Trump says that he is pro-life, he is actually dismantling so many of the social benefits that poor parents need in order to raise families.
As Pope Francis states in his pastoral letter “Rejoice and Be Glad”: “Our defense of the innocent unborn…needs to be clear, firm and passionate, for at stake is the dignity of a human life, which is always sacred and demands love for each person, regardless of his or her state of development. Equally sacred, however, are the lives of the poor, those already born, the destitute, the abandoned and the underprivileged, the vulnerable infirm and elderly exposed to covert euthanasia, the victims of human trafficking, new forms of slavery, and every form of rejection.” (paragraph 101)
