How I Got Pro-Life-ing Wrong

I've always identified as a pro-life Christian, from womb to tomb.  All of life is sacred and precious. I hate that abortion exists.
This election cycle + a lot of reading has led me to a deeper sense of what it means to be pro-life.
Unborn babies are very vulnerable. They have no voice and cannot stand up for themselves.  It is absolutely a Holocaust of innocent life.
Today there are many other holocaust's going on in our world; where groups of people have no voice, rights, and are treated as sub-human. The holocaust of refugees and migrants. The holocaust of women and children trafficked and sold into sexual slavery. The holocaust of the death penalty. The holocaust of children around the world who die from not having enough food to eat or basic sanitation and they die of diarrhea. 
These are also people too, who in a similar way to victims of abortion have no voice and no rights. 

I guess I feel frustrated to be honest.
I am frustrated that it seems (to me) political parties use abortion as a bargaining chip to win over a certain vote. It feels like the problem of abortion is treated as chess game with politicians sometimes.
I get angry when crazy voices say "You have to vote for Trump because he is pro-life and if you don't it is a mortal sin." And putting an aborted baby on the altar where the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is celebrated and honored? Don't even get me started.  Last time I checked, our job is not to judge people for how they vote but help others make an educated vote by the light of their own conscience. 
I get frustrated when Christians (who have good intentions I do believe) only speak about abortion. It is all they talk about, all they focus on, especially in an election year. They understand and are passionate about the slaughter of millions of babies in abortion, but are they equally aware and educated about the children who suffer from malnutrition globally or sold into sexual slavery as young as six years old? 
I'm really not trying to condemn people, I guess it is pent up frustration being verbally expressed. #yayblogging ;)
The issue of abortion is critical when it comes to our voting as believers. I am not saying it doesn't matter. It plays a huge role in voting responsibly, and is a primary issue. It mattered to me in how I personally voted in this crazy election. And I couldn't stomach either of the candidates.
I used to think being pro-life was just about abortion. But being pro-life is more than that to me now.
A pro-life ethic should carry and apply to all area's of culture, global issues, and people. 
I want to be an advocate not just for the unborn, but for the overturning the death penalty too. I want to be an advocate for the dignity of women and children treated as if they had none. I want to understand the pain and suffering of refugees or undocumented workers fleeing their homes. I want to better understand why the world has enough food and resources to end world hunger, but we don't.
To be a pro-life Christian in 2017 looks different for me than it used too. To be pro-life as a Catholic Christian means to live and apply all the principles of Catholic Social Teaching. That is not a liberal or conservative attitude. It is what the Church teaches. 
Now does the dignity of the human person trump the responsible care of the environment? Yes. But respect for the life and dignity of the human person I believe includes many, many people.
For me, it means to be educated and aware (as much as possible) of the many holocausts affecting a variety of people with no voice. And there are so many today.
And they all matter. They all need a voice, and they need us to be that voice.
Unborn lives matter so much. But so do, the other voices of people who cannot speak for themselves.
It doesn't matter how you voted in 2016 or what your political leanings are. 
But maybe enhancing a pro-life view in this way can bridge greater unity and effectiveness in our Kingdom work?
Maybe it will help build greater dialogue with people across the aisle whom we may not agree with?
I like to think and hope it would help. And if that happens we make the world a little more just and less cold like Pope Francis has said.

And who wouldn't want a world where there is more mercy?