Pro-Life is a Bullshit Statement

Photo by Steve Harrris on Unsplash

“Pro-life” is a completely-bullshit statement. It’s not about protecting children. It’s not even about protecting the fetus. It’s about controlling women’s bodies. The fetus is the excuse. The control is the point.

The same politicians who call themselves pro-life oppose every policy that would keep children alive after they’re born. Every single one. Healthcare. Food. Housing. Education. Gun laws. Environmental protections. Public health. Mental health. Child labor laws. Disaster response. All of it. Opposed. Cut. Defunded. Abolished.

They don’t care about the child. They don’t even care about the fetus. They care about forcing women to give birth.

Watch what happens after the birth.

Sandy Hook. Twenty children were murdered in their classrooms. Six educators killed trying to protect them while the “good men with guns” waited outside. The nation watched. The politicians sent thoughts and prayers. They lowered flags. They stood at podiums and talked about the sanctity of life. Then they refused to pass gun laws. Uvalde. Nineteen more children. Nineteen more funerals. More thoughts and prayers. More flags at half-staff. Nothing changed. The same politicians who demand every pregnancy be carried to term refuse to protect born children from bullets. They protect guns, not children. They protect control over women’s bodies, not life.

The child tax credit expansion reduced child poverty by nearly 30 percent. Children were lifted out of poverty. Families could afford food. The program worked. Then it was allowed to expire. The same politicians who call themselves pro-life let children starve. They feed children in the womb and starve them after birth. School lunch debt piles up. Children go hungry in the richest country on earth. The politician calls himself pro-life. The child is hungry.

Measles is back. Whooping cough is back. Diseases that were nearly eradicated are returning. Anti-vaccine rhetoric spreads. Public health funding is cut. Children get sick and die from diseases we know how to prevent. The politician calls himself pro-life. The child is sick. The politician did nothing to stop it.

Flint, Michigan. Children drank water poisoned with lead. Their development was damaged. Their futures were stolen. The politician rolls back environmental regulations. Calls it deregulation. Calls it freedom. PFAS in groundwater. Air pollution causing asthma. Factories dumping chemicals where children live. The politician calls himself pro-life. The child’s body is damaged. The politician allowed it.

Children separated from their parents at the border and throughout the US. Put in cages. Sleeping on concrete floors. Denied medical care. Some have died. The politician calls himself pro-life. The child is caged. The politician put her there.

Black women die in childbirth at three to four times the rate of white women. College-educated Black women die at higher rates than white women without a high school diploma. Medicaid postpartum coverage is refused. Systemic racism in healthcare is ignored. If the woman dies, the fetus often dies too. The politician calls himself pro-life. The woman is dead. He doesn’t care about life. He cares about forcing birth.

The richest country on earth has some of the highest child poverty rates in the developed world. Children are born into poverty and then abandoned. Social safety nets are being cut. The child tax credit is refused. The politician calls himself pro-life. The child suffers. The politician abandoned her.

Children are homeless. Living in cars. Living in shelters. No affordable housing. Eviction crisis. The politician calls himself pro-life. The child has no home.

Child labor laws are being rolled back. Children are working in slaughterhouses. In factories. In dangerous jobs that adults refuse. The politician calls himself pro-life. The child is exploited. The politician allowed it.

Public schools are defunded. Books are banned. Special education is cut. Children are forced into underfunded schools. The politician calls himself pro-life. The child is denied an education.

Youth suicide rates are rising. Mental health services are cut. Children are in crisis with nowhere to turn. The politician calls himself pro-life. The child is dead by her own hand. The politician did nothing to help her.

Children are tried as adults. Sentenced to life in prison. Put in solitary confinement. The school-to-prison pipeline funnels children into cages. The politician calls himself pro-life. The child is imprisoned. The politician put him there.

Children are killed by drone strikes in Yemen. Syria. Afghanistan. Iraq. Sanctions prevent medicine and food from reaching civilian populations. The politician orders the bombing. The child is collateral damage. The politician calls himself pro-life. The child is dead. The politician doesn’t count her.

Children are abandoned after hurricanes. Floods. Fires. No school. No home. No support. The politician fails to respond. The politician calls himself pro-life. The child is left behind.

This is what pro-life looks like in practice: 

Children shot. 

Children hungry. 

Children sick. 

Children poisoned. 

Children caged. 

Children homeless. 

Children exploited. 

Children uneducated. 

Children suicidal. 

Children imprisoned. 

Children bombed. 

Children abandoned.

Every single policy that would keep children alive after they’re born. Opposed. Cut. Defunded. Abolished.

The label is a lie. The policies kill. The statement is bullshit.

“Pro-life” applies only to the unborn. Once a child is born, the same politicians who demanded her birth oppose every policy that would keep her alive. They don’t care about the child. They don’t even care about the fetus. They care about controlling the woman. The fetus is the excuse. The control is the point.

You can’t be pro-life and kill children in war. 

You can’t be pro-life and refuse gun laws after school shootings. 

You can’t be pro-life and deny children healthcare. 

You can’t be pro-life and let children go hungry. 

You can’t be pro-life and let preventable diseases return. 

You can’t be pro-life and poison children. 

You can’t be pro-life and put children in cages. 

You can’t be pro-life and let Black women die in childbirth. 

You can’t be pro-life and let children live in poverty. 

You can’t be pro-life and let children go homeless. 

You can’t be pro-life and roll back child labor laws. 

You can’t be pro-life and defund public education. 

You can’t be pro-life and cut mental health services. 

You can’t be pro-life and try children as adults. 

You can’t be pro-life and abandon children in natural disasters.

The label is a lie. 

The body count tells the truth. 

Pro-life is a completely bullshit statement.

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  • Matt Stone is an independent journalist and author based in Northern California. His work examines culture, memory, and the moral weight of everyday life through a clear, grounded lens. Stone’s writing currently consists of fiction and poetry, often exploring the intersection of personal experience and broader social currents.

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