Life does not seem vital and functional when someone is fighting a health challenge and fighting the insurance company at the same time (that is if they actually have health insurance). The largest cause of bankruptcy is medical bills. No one should have to choose between health care and housing or food.
Life does not seem vital and functional when public schools are being underfunded as the taxes are funneled into private schools. If this troubling trend continues, the middle class will continue to disappear. And all that will be left will be two classes of people, the upper class and those who serve them. But then again, maybe that was always the plan.
Life does not seem vital and functional for the 40,000 killed by gun violence each year, while the government officials cozy up to the NRA. The United States of America is the only nation in the world with such statistics. Mass shootings have become the norm. But common sense gun laws could save thousands of lives each year.
Life does not seem vital and functional for the thousands of black men, women, and children caught up in a broken judicial system which gives harsher sentences to black people when the whites get a lesser sentence. This is a part of the larger system of systemic racism which perpetuated slavery and jim crow laws in the past and gave rise to the white nationalist movement today.
There are many other instances where life does not seem vital and functional. And for these reasons, I am pro-LIVES. I am pro-LIVES because I believe in the sanctity of all lives. I believe that the discussion or pro-life and pro-choice should go well beyond the abortion discussion. There have always been abortions and there will always be abortions. The reversal of Roe v. Wade will not change that fact.
Desmond TuTu said, "We need to stop pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they are falling in." Abolishing and criminalizing are not the answer. We need to go upstream.