Richard A. Sokerka
After a contentious election cycle, Americans cast their ballots and made clear their decision on the person they wanted to be the next President of the United States.
The choice made by voters was not so much of one political party over the other — but one for life. Election Day’s main story, which was strikingly overlooked by the secular media, was all about a victory for life, from the voiceless in the womb to the outcast elderly and those suffering from terminal illnesses who have been told that their only choice was to accept “death with dignity” by lethal injection.
When Pope Francis spoke to the U.S. Congress in his visit in 2015, he said, “All political activity must serve and promote the good of the human person and be based on respect for his or her dignity.”
Thanks to America’s voters, respect for the dignity of life from conception to natural death is also the mindset of our newly elected governmental officials.
They, as those who voted them into office, are committed to nominating pro-life justices to the U.S. Supreme Court; signing into law the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would end late-term abortions and making the Hyde Amendment permanent law to protect taxpayers from having to pay for abortions. The newly elected majority is also opposed to the non-consensual withholding of care or treatment from people with disabilities, including newborns, the elderly and infirm and they oppose euthanasia and assisted suicide. They have also vowed to oppose the use of public funds to perform or promote abortion or to fund organizations, like Planned Parenthood, so long as they provide elective abortions or sell fetal body parts rather than provide health care.
As we prayed before Election Day for Catholics to vote with an informed conscience, let us continue to pray in the days ahead for President-elect Trump that he unites our nation from all its divisions and promotes the good of the human person, never forgetting those in the womb and society’s outcasts.