Tuesday's vice presidential debate gave Americans a stark contrast between consensus pro-life policies that welcome and respect the tiniest and most vulnerable Americans and the extreme abortion-on-demand ideology so long peddled by the "politically correct" establishment.

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Indiana Gov. Mike Pence Michael (Mike) Richard PenceGardner signals support for taking up Supreme Court nominee this year Biden leads Trump by 12 points among Catholic voters: poll GOP brushes back charges of hypocrisy in Supreme Court fight MORE, Donald Trump Donald John TrumpBubba Wallace to be driver of Michael Jordan, Denny Hamlin NASCAR team Graham: GOP will confirm Trump's Supreme Court nominee before the election Southwest Airlines, unions call for six-month extension of government aid MORE's running mate, proposed multiple commonsense pro-life policies that have broad support among Americans: promoting a streamlined adoption process, ending taxpayer funding of abortions, and prohibiting the barbaric partial-birth abortion procedure.

Sen. Tim Kaine Timothy (Tim) Michael KaineTrump meets with potential Supreme Court pick Amy Coney Barrett at White House Names to watch as Trump picks Ginsburg replacement on Supreme Court Barrett seen as a front-runner for Trump Supreme Court pick MORE of Virginia, hewing to the party line of his running mate, Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonJoe Biden looks to expand election battleground into Trump country Biden leads Trump by 12 points among Catholic voters: poll The Hill's Campaign Report: Biden goes on offense MORE, declined to support even these modest abortion limits.

The most recent Marist Poll from this summer shows that a 53 percent majority of Americans support a strong pro-life policy of limiting abortions only to cases of rape, incest or medical emergencies. An overwhelming 78 percent supermajority support, at a minimum, limiting abortion only to the first three months of pregnancy. Sixty-two of Americans oppose forcing taxpayers to foot the bill for abortions.

In the face of this pro-life mandate from the American people, it is contemptuous of democracy when establishment politicians like Clinton and Kaine retreat into the vague, ambiguous, antinomian mantra of "choice" to describe abortion.

During the debate, Kaine tried in this way to absolve himself from the need to address abortion policy with any specificity, but this tired approach is wearing thin.

"Choice" as a euphemism for abortion has been forever banished from serious public discourse by the words of Planned Parenthood’s own top abortion doctors, caught on camera in the undercover videos I filmed, released last summer by The Center for Medical Progress.

As Planned Parenthood’s senior director of medical services described it, to "crush below" and "crush above" certain parts on an unborn baby in order to harvest intact the most valuable body parts for sale is not a "choice" in any civilized sense of the term — it’s an atrocity.

Americans now see beyond the abortion industry's facade, into the bloody web of dismemberment procedures, late-term abortions and for-profit sale of the body parts afterward, all funded by millions of taxpayer dollars and protected as the ultimate special — and peculiar — interest by compliant political cronies.

Clinton even announced her opposition to the Hyde Amendment, which largely prevents direct billing of abortions to taxpayers, shortly after receiving Planned Parenthood’s endorsement.

When Americans find out that "pro-choice" as a policy position means all of these things — a true "basket of deplorables" if there ever was one — they reject it.

"This is important," Kaine interjected as Pence described St. Mother Teresa's aspiration that America be a country that learns to welcome all people by first welcoming the unborn child.

What is certainly important, and what Kaine never addressed, is that the Hyde Amendment he and Clinton are working to repeal, forcing taxpayer billing for abortions, is estimated to have saved the lives of over 2 million unborn children from abortion, according to the Charlotte Lozier Institute.

It is indeed important that, in the year 2016, there are still some politicians who would put a price tag on human life, and who would marginalize and disregard the lives of these millions of Americans as just a "choice."

Mike Pence spoke well last night when he concluded: "A society can be judged by how it deals with its most vulnerable, the aged, the infirm, the disabled, and the unborn."

Respecting and protecting our unborn brothers and sisters is foundational to respecting and protecting anyone else.

Daleiden is founder and project lead of The Center for Medical Progress.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the views of The Hill.