Message to California's pro-life political organizations: Can we please drop Escondido Councilwoman Marie Waldron from the list of "pro-life" politicians?

As someone who is opposed to abortion, the death penalty, assisted suicide, experimentation on humans still in embryonic state and other assaults on human dignity, I'm a bit flummoxed as to how Waldron of all people can get a perfect 100 percent score from the California Pro-Life Council.

Have the group's leaders not been watching Waldron's shameful but exuberant leadership role in the council majority's campaign against the homeless in our town?

Surely being "pro-life" entails more than merely opposing abortion. It means - or, at least, ought to mean - supporting policies that will make it easier for women with unplanned, perhaps even unwanted, pregnancies to carry their babies to term. It means conducting oneself in a way that places a higher value on protecting human life - all human life - than on short-term political gain.

Saying that one is against abortion is a useless gesture if one then embraces policies that make abortion appear a more viable option than carrying a child to term.

And when a City Council majority votes to deny the Salvation Army permission to open a homeless shelter because it might give the city a bad image? What kind of message about the value of human life does that send to a woman or girl with an unplanned pregnancy?

If a woman knows that if she has her baby she might have to give up a job and school in the short term because the father is who knows where, and that giving up her job will make her an undesirable in her hometown, how likely is she to take that route? Knowing her own city will offer no assistance while she is jobless and possibly homeless, not so much as a welcome? And that the city's leaders will do everything in their power to stop others from helping her?

Seeing that the elected leaders of the city she lives in place zero value on the lives of the homeless (not to mention on the lives of those who are here illegally), how much value is such a person going to be able to place on the life of an unborn child?

It's this interconnectedness of human dignity issues that led the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin to call the pro-life movement a "seamless garment" - those who claim that political (and philosophical) position have a lot to live up to.

Marie Waldron, who proudly claims her endorsement from the California Pro-Life Council, thinks very little of the value of the lives of those who are poor, who are destitute, who suffer from mental health issues or drug addiction. Her voting pattern and harsh rhetoric make this clear. Given her hostility to the very existence of those members of our community who are in a bad spot, how on earth can we believe she values the life of an unborn child being carried by someone in similar circumstances?

Waldron may have the support of a majority of Escondido's voters, may be a good conservative, perhaps even an ideal Republican bound for higher office.

But what she is not is pro-life, and pro-life organizations should stop endorsing her.

"Pro-Lifers Against Marie Waldron"?

Sign me up.

- Contact staff writer Jim Trageser at (760) 631-6628 or jtrageser@nctimes.com.