"The common outcry, which is justly made on behalf of human rights -- for example, the right to health, to home, to work, to family, to culture -- is false and illusory if the right to life, the most basic and fundamental right and the condition of all other personal rights, is not defended with maximum determination . . . " (Pope John Paul II, Christifideles Laici, 1988)

What if you were told that all your rights were guaranteed and secure, except your right to live? That would be an empty promise, wouldn't it? After all, rights don't do us much good if we're not alive to enjoy them.

That's the problem with candidates who sound good because of all the rights they want to promote, but won't let people be born to enjoy them. That's the problem with the "pro-choice" mentality. To choose to take away a baby's life by abortion is to take away all that baby's present and future rights.

Government has no authority to do that. Government exists, instead, to secure the rights of the people.

The US Bishops have given us important guidance on how to evaluate the issues in electoral races. In both of their documents, Living the Gospel of Life (1998) and Faithful Citizenship (1999), they write, "Abortion and euthanasia have become preeminent threats to human life and dignity because they directly attack life itself, the most fundamental good and the condition for all others" (LGL 5; FC p.16).

We rightly pride ourselves on how we protect our children.

Yet we have failed to protect the 4000 children who are destroyed every day in America by abortion. Every baby whom it was legal to kill in 1973 after the Roe vs. Wade decision can still be killed in America today. How much longer are we going to allow this?

In this year's election, it is time, as the Bishops have said, to "see beyond party politics, to analyze campaign rhetoric critically, and to choose their political leaders according to principle, not party affiliation or mere self-interest" (LGL 34).

If we can't protect little babies from being dismembered by abortion, it is foolish to think we will make any other kind of meaningful progress for building a better society.

When you vote, make sure you know where the candidates stand on abortion, "the fundamental human rights issue for all men and women of good will" (US Bishops, Resolution on Abortion, 1989).