More Than a Number.(the pro-life movement finds appreciation among American Hispanics )

Polls, studies, numbers, percentages, party affiliation, surveys - - these are the buzz words we hear as the rapid growth of Hispanics in the United States is analyzed and discussed. Political parties and candidates use this information in an attempt to "shore up the Hispanic vote" on behalf of their candidacies.

We in the right to life movement know that the Hispanic community is intuitively and culturally pro-life. One of the tasks of pro-life citizens is to educate Hispanics about the stands of candidates on abortion.

Pro-abortionists try to hide behind variations of the mantra, "Who Decides?" Pro-lifers know the real question is, "What does abortion do to unborn children and their mothers?"

That is why we never, ever forget the carnage - - the actual lives lost and hearts broken. Randall O'Bannon, Ph.D., director of education and research for the National Right to Life Trust Fund, writes: "While the specter of abortion has penetrated all levels of our society, no group has been more devastated by abortion than minorities."

To underscore his statement he goes on to explain that the most recent figures available tell us that although Hispanic women make up only 12.8% of women of child-bearing age in this country, they account for over 20% of abortions. That doesn't mean Hispanic women are less pro-life or less respectful of life than non-Latin women.

What it does show is that the pro-abortion mindset in this country makes it that much easier for them to do something that goes against their values and their culture: have abortions. As such, we must do all we can to educate Hispanics in general that a living human being is destroyed when an abortion is performed.

Several years ago I appeared on a Spanish language show. The Hispanic media for the most part doesn't pretend to be as squeamish as the American media when it comes to showing pictures of developing babies and children that have been destroyed by abortion.