One of the most popular “clap backs” to pro-lifers and pro-life activists these days is the charge that they aren’t really pro-life.

If they were really pro-life, the argument goes, they wouldn’t simply oppose abortion. They would also support government programs designed to help mothers and babies thrive once the baby is born. By opposing abortion without also supporting social welfare policies, most pro-lifers reveal themselves as only caring about babies before they are born. They aren’t actually pro-life; they are pro-birth. They are either not thinking through the implications of their pro-life convictions, or they are failing to put them into practice.