The National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL), the oldest abortion advocacy group in the U.S., invoked Pope Francis in a series of tweets Monday, claiming that the GOP isn’t really “pro-life” because of the Trump administration’s decision to end the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program which allows some immigrants, who had arrived in the country illegally as minors, to remain without risk of deportation.
You know it's really bad when even the Pope blasts you on your "pro-life" hypocrisy. https://t.co/Da1sJg5xrc pic.twitter.com/lct4xg64Qz
— NARAL (@NARAL) September 11, 2017
“You know it's really bad when even the Pope blasts you on your "pro-life" hypocrisy,” they tweeted, linking to the pope’s recent remarks in which he speculated that ending DACA was not “pro-life” while acknowledging that he had not read much about the policy in question.
NARAL continued their tweetstorm asking what was “pro-life” about “ripping families apart and threatening the safety of 800K young people who call America home” and “refusing refugees and banning Muslim people from entering the country.”
“Very little about the GOP agenda is "pro-life," they conclude.
In his celebrated encyclical Laudato Si, Pope Francis wrote, “How can we genuinely teach the importance of concern for other vulnerable beings, however troublesome or inconvenient they may be, if we fail to protect a human embryo, even when its presence is uncomfortable and creates difficulties?
The pope has always held to the Church’s longstanding position that abortion is murder.
In a new book featuring the pope’s conversations with a French journalist, the pope said, “Abortion is grave: It is a grave sin. It is the murder of the innocent.”
NARAL’s tweet questioning the pro-life stance of the GOP over DACA prompted some pushback.
Abortion doesn't hinge on, "Are pro-life politicians hypocrites?" It hinges on: "Are unborn embryos/fetuses members of the human family?"
— John Jansen (@johnjansen) September 11, 2017
Ask Pope Francis what he thinks about abortion. I dare you.
— The Weekly Hicks (@IUdonger) September 11, 2017
What's pro life about dismembering baby girls & boys & selling their organs? #StopCrimesAgainstHumanity
— Leslie Hanks (@Leslieforlife) September 11, 2017
This is actually the second time NARAL has tried to tie Pope Francis into their pro-abortion, liberal agenda. In 2013, they thanked him for saying in an interview that the Church should not be "obsessed" with issues like abortion but should find a "new balance" to talk about other issues as well. However, Pope Francis issued a statement re-affirming the Church's anti-abortion stance following the interview.