If you are, you should be just as outraged about children locked in cages as you are about abortions

The topic of female bodily autonomy was at the forefront of national news this summer, only shadowed slightly by the atrocities taking place within the ICE detention centers. While the two topics may seem entirely separate from one another, the truth is they both surround the topic of basic human rights. If someone who considers themselves to be pro-life can feel impassioned enough to accost a woman who’s visiting Planned Parenthood for a cancer screening, one would think they could also use that “pro-life” attitude to help children and families detained in ICE detention centers.

The arguments made by pro-life individuals seem to focus on the sanctity of life. Here, the value in the possibility of life is considered more precious than the mother’s civil rights over her body. However, it seems those who might be vocal about the need to end abortions are relatively silent regarding the lives of children locked in cages. The concern here is that someone who claims to be “pro-life” is willing to give more attention to an unborn child than a living and breathing one.

Some individuals who remain silent seem to do so out of the belief that children within the detention centers are there because they entered the country illegally, and it is our country’s duty to protect its citizens from illegals. 

Here are a few problems with this line of reasoning. According to the National Immigrant Justice Center, the majority of the 50,000 detainees are from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala. Individuals from these countries are refugees fleeing violence. In these cases families flee to the United States for refuge only to have their children taken away from them, their right to basic hygiene stripped, and their hopes of safety destroyed. What crime have any of these children committed in following their parents’ dream of a brighter future?

According to Time magazine journalist Madeleine Joung, detainees have no access to soap, toothpaste, or water to shower in. Babies drink from unwashed bottles and have limited access to diapers. Children are being denied the rights to adequate medical care, including vaccines. As of now, 24 immigrants have died, including 7 children. 

Those children who have managed to survive do so in squalor, sleeping on concrete floors without knowledge of the wellbeing of their parents. Currently, 30 children have been documented incorrectly and are unable to reunite with their families.

Upon entering a CBP facility, Dr. Sara Goza, President of the American Academy of Pediatrics said: “The first thing that hit me when we walked in the door was the smell. It was the smell of sweat, urine, and feces. No amount of time spent in these facilities is safe for children.”

All of these disturbing details, all of these human rights violated and families destroyed lead me to ask: where are all those individuals who claim to be pro-life? Where is their outrage at seeing human life contaminated? I’ve heard the argument that abortion can cause tremendous psychological and physical stress as a reason for its need to be eradicated. What about the psychological stress of having your children taken from you? What about the physical wear of sleeping on a concrete floor in a room with hundreds of other people?

All of these disturbing details, all of these human rights violated and families destroyed lead me to ask: where are all those individuals who claim to be pro-life? Where is their outrage at seeing human life contaminated? I’ve heard the argument that abortion can cause tremendous psychological and physical stress as a reason for its need to be eradicated. What about the psychological stress of having your children taken from you? What about the physical wear of sleeping on a concrete floor in a room with hundreds of other people?

If you are going to claim to be pro-life, then you must be pro-immigrant lives, you must be pro-non-Christian lives, and pro-lives of individuals who aren’t white. If life is sacred then the negligence of children should be just as appalling (if not much more) than an individual who supports choice. If you’re not appalled then you’re not pro-life.