Because being "pro-life" is now largely considered a
conservative stance, it also has a high correlation with support for
war and
capital punishment and with opposition to
euthanasia and potentially life-saving
stem cell research. Currently therefore, the term is like an ironic joke; for most pro-lifers, life begins at conception, ends at birth and starts again at
brain death.
In a bitter sense of
irony, those proclaiming to be pro-life are often against the very idea of
universal health care. It gets hard to see how someone can truly care about life if their approach to health care for the poor is "Don't get sick, and if you do get sick, die quickly".
[7] It must be added that the Catholic Church, the largest pro-life Christian denomination sees universal health care as part of its social doctrine.
[8] Ironically, this also means that many republican Catholics are doing the exact same thing as pro-choice Catholics they attack: selecting which rules they want to follow (see
Cafeteria Catholicism).
In the
United States,
conservatives who share pro-life sentiments tend to also rail against "
entitlement programs"so while they have no problem with forcing women to give birth to babies, they are opposed to government programs that help
pay for basic necessities such as food, shelter and medical care.
Even better, the abortion rates for those countries that have UHC are all lower than that of the US. This is attributed to making
contraception more easily available, and assuring women that they and their children will have access to medical care.
[9]
An old but well traveled article written by Joyce Arthur (2000) exposes the Right-to-Life's hypocrisy.
[10] Dr.
Warren Hern has publicly stated similar things.
[11]
Pro-life - RationalWiki