What is "Pro Life" Anyway?

This subject occurred to me, totally apropos of nothing, completely separate (as far as I know) from anything in the news this weekend. It's certainly not an original thought, but one I've never seen answered adequately.

Namely, why is it that people who consider themselves "pro life" are only actually pro life as it occurs in very narrow circumstances? As far as I know, the only "life" they seem to be concerned with is 1) fetal life, 2) persistent vegetative-state life, and 3) stem cell blastocyst life.

The pro life group seems to be, in contradiction to their name, 1) pro war, 2) pro death penalty, 3) pro guns, and 4) unconcerned with what happens to babies who were not aborted--they just don't want any tax dollars to go to them. They also tend to be against universal health care, which should surely be covered by the "pro life" banner, if anything should.

To clarify my position, as a gay man, I have no dog in the abortion fight, and never will. So I don't get overly animated about the issue. The people who do, however, on the pro life side, seem to be the very same people who are also against gay rights issues. I guess we aren't "life" either.

The point is, how can we expect honesty and consistency out of our politicians, when we can't even get it out of voters. The pro life crowd is probably only one group of many different constituencies that is all over the map on issues they think they're consistent on. In my opinion, we as citizens need to start thinking of "life" and everything else as more than just bumper-sticker slogans. We need to start thinking, period.

End of rant.