In an exchange with Senator Thom Tillis about Planned Parenthood, the reality of the pro-life lobby struck me as never before. Particularly in light of yet. another. mass. shooting, it is painfully obvious.

Planned Parenthood Action sent a letter around to which many of us applied our names. Tillis was one of the lawmakers who responded. Here is my final response to him. There is just no reasoning with people who think the way “pro-lifers” do.

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Mr. Tillis,

You responded to a recent letter I sent you about Planned Parenthood with what is obviously a form letter. Normally I would let it pass, but I feel the need to reply.

The fact that you and other so-called pro-life legislators focus your ire on Planned Parenthood’s supposed profit around abortion is appalling and disgusting. They do not “profit” by this funding, and their federal funding does not pay for abortions. Full stop. They barely stay afloat, serving otherwise deeply underserved communities, and they do so much more than merely abortions.

You’re not pro-life at all; you’re pro-birth, and the babies whose lives you’re so adamant about saving are forced to be born into families that cannot afford to feed them, or become the living reminder of a rape, because you refuse help to them once the little precious things arrive in the world. Your self-righteous posturing around religious freedom is exactly antithetical to the intent of religious freedom as codified in the Constitution. You are making a statement in favor of a specific religious dogma that is irrelevant to many of this country’s people and has no place in government; it is absolutely not your place to legislate Christian morality. Especially when that moralism isn’t especially Christian, but merely controlling.

Put your Bible away, or if you must cling to it, remember that Jesus said to feed and care for the poor, and placed no conditions around such charity.

Gutting Planned Parenthood’s funding does irredeemable harm to the health and well being of families who cannot afford healthcare. Cancer screenings, basic health checks, emergency care — these are only a few of the things you’re eradicating by cutting their funding.

Add to that your continued support of the NRA, and your hypocrisy is complete: you’re not pro-life at all.

Face it.

You’re pro-death.