Being pro life means recognizing and respecting the sacred dignity of every human person.

Being "pro life" means defending the lives of

the unborn 

and 

the sick 

the poor

the homeless

the aged

the mentally challenged

the inmate

the refugee

and the person or people you hate.

Being pro life means reverencing  

all human life.

Because it's all from God.

(James Martin, SJ)

The unborn are especially vulnerable and defenseless, so our duty to defend them is paramount. But this does not diminish our responsibility to defend all life. On the contrary, to be genuinely pro life is to be conscious of the interconnectedness of all life (and all of God’s creation, both visible and invisible).

Thomas Merton’s simple but powerful statement says it perfectly:

To say that I am made in the image of God is to say that Love is the reason for my existence, for God is love.

Every human person is an image of God. It’s true that we are all incomplete, often distorted, images of the Love who created us, but that does not take away from our dignity as God’s children. We are all created in God’s image and we are all destined to be one with God in a sacred communion of Love. Each of us has a part to play in the drama of our lives. We can refuse God’s love. We can insist on isolating ourselves from God and from humanity. But we remain worthy of respect and dignity—no matter who we are, where we came from or what we have done—simply because of who we are as members of God’s family.

Nothing is more important than this. Peace and justice, love and goodness, beauty and truth all flow from this magnificent source: God’s inexhaustible, unconditional love.