Editor’s Note: This article contains mention of gun violence.

The term pro-life generally marks a person who has taken a staunch opposition to abortion. However, if you are going to claim that you value human life, why not carry it through in other aspects post-birth? The same people who claim to be pro-life have stood idly by while countless kids have died in school shootings. 

In 2024, there were 83 school shootings. In 2023, there were 82. The year before, 80. This is preposterous. What Republican politicians are conveying through their lack of action is they can force women to give birth, but they couldn’t care less what happens to the baby after. 

In 2022, following the Uvalde mass shooting where 19 kids and two adults were brutally murdered, Former President Joe Biden went on record saying, “Why are we willing to live with this carnage? Why do we keep letting this happen?” 

Biden said at the White House, “It’s time to turn this pain into action. For every parent, for every citizen in this country, we have to make it clear to every elected official in this country: it’s time to act.” What has happened since this? Nothing. 

One of the main problems is that U.S. citizens can’t come to a consensus on if they support stricter gun laws. One would think the answer should be glaring if people are being killed for just being in the wrong place at the wrong time, but it isn’t. 

In 2021, a poll showed that only 52% of U.S. residents supported establishing more gun laws, which is the lowest since 2014 despite the number of mass shootings significantly increasing. In June of 2024, it was cited that 56% of U.S. residents would support stricter laws. None of this matters if nothing is actually put into fruition. 

Jan. 22 marked the first school shooting of this year, cementing that the new year would bring nothing different. The shooting took place at Antioch High School in Nashville, Tennessee, where the teenage gunman was able to shoot 10 rounds in the span of 17 seconds. This resulted in one dead, one injured and the death of the shooter at his own hand. 

Since the Antioch shooting, people rallied together on the steps of the Tennessee State Capitol to hold a protest over ending gun violence. Young students held signs that read, “Am I next?” “If I die in a school shooting, put my body on the steps of Congress,” “Pro-life but you won’t fight to protect ours” and “I want to attend graduations not funerals.” All of these sentiments are words that should never have to be uttered. 

What the right does, or doesn’t do, directly contradicts being pro-life. If anything, they’re pro-power. Alongside their denouncement of abortion, policymakers are also attempting to restrict access to birth control and contraceptives. 

This makes absolutely no sense as they don’t want people to end pregnancy, but they also don’t want them to prevent it either. These actions instead reveal some agenda to force those with female reproductive systems to be child bearers whether they like it or not. 

Additionally, there is intention to minimize access to in vitro fertilization, a process commonly used by couples in the LGBTQ+ community and those who struggle to conceive naturally. This unmasks a distaste for non-heteronormative family-making that is frankly, ridiculous. 

On Jan. 23, Vice President JD Vance told a crowd in Washington, D.C. “I want more babies in the United States of America; I want more happy children in our country and I want beautiful young men and women who are eager to welcome them into the world and eager to raise them.” 

This statement is disturbing in a myriad of ways, eliciting an almost “Handmaid’s Tale” like sentiment. Instead of having a creepy fixation on bringing more babies into the world, the government should be focusing on helping the 369,000 children in foster care, as reported in 2022. Likewise, the government needs to cease attempts to defund crucial education and healthcare funding. 

Lastly, an important topic that has commonly been mishandled by conservatives is immigration. The amount of dehumanization that has been expressed towards people of other racial and ethnic backgrounds is heinous. Since entering the office again, President Donald Trump has waged a war on immigrants and has devised a plan to shut down refugee and asylum protections, increase unchecked detention and deportation, and have an over-militarized border. 

Even Pope Francis has openly criticized Trump’s approach to immigration, stating mass deportation is a violation to the “dignity of many men and women, and of entire families,” and that he “followed closely the major crisis that is taking place in the United States with the initiation of a program of mass deportations,” and a system based on fear and force “begins badly and will end badly.”

The minute individuals start viewing people from other countries as less of a person is the minute they fall incredibly short in morality. With Trump egging people on in their fear of immigrants, stating absurd claims like in the presidential debate where he said Haitian immigrants were eating pets, is only making things infinitely worse. 

With all the problems in society, the presence of hard-working immigrants should not be on the forefront. Immigrants are humans; they are parents, children, sisters, brothers — they matter. 

So if individuals and politicians are going to make the claim that they are pro-life, they need to put their money where their mouth is. Society needs to focus less on hating people and instead on helping them. The world has the potential to be a beautiful tapestry of diverse people and ideas but Americans are too intent on tearing it to shreds; this can still change.