This sort of thinking affects the way many Americans see racial minorities, the elderly and disabled, prenatal children, immigrants and refugees, enemy combatants and prison inmates. It also influences our perception of animal and plant life — the “vulnerable, voiceless creatures, pushed to the margins, whose dignity is radically inconvenient for human beings who have power over them,” as Mr. Camosy writes.

A consistent life ethic would urge pro-lifers to defend the vulnerable and voiceless, regardless of partisanship or ease. Being anti-abortion would mean being pro-earth. It would mean fighting waste, abuse and poverty. And it would convey a holistic care for life, both before and after birth.

Pope John Paul II, for his part, argued that the “way of death” was not limited to abortion and infanticide. He included “whatever insults human dignity, such as subhuman living conditions, arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, slavery, prostitution,” as well as the actions of those who “show no compassion to the poor” and do not “suffer with the suffering.” Pope Francis has also included the stewardship of creation in his condemnations of modern consumption, arguing in the papal encyclical Laudato Si’ that climate change “represents one of the principal challenges facing humanity in our day.”

Widening the anti-abortion lens to encompass other important issues of our time is not about ignoring abortion or stepping away from the movement’s primary focus. It is about seeking to cultivate greater consistency in our life ethic in the way we vote, in the civility we bring to our political discussions and in the way we act as consumers.

Some conservatives might argue that philosophical coherency matters little if it does not result in dependable political action. That is why many pro-lifers continue to vote Republican, despite their qualms with the party. It’s why a lot of anti-abortion conservatives and groups have supported politicians like Roy Moore in Alabama, politicians who offer lip service to the pro-life movement but have lived and acted in a way that undermines its integrity.

But considering the deep hostility and division in American politics, it is possible that a consistent life ethic might help advance the cause as much as (or even more than) political legislation. Because unless and until abortion opponents pursue greater integrity in our politics, people are likely to misunderstand them. They are likely to see us as hypocrites and won’t take seriously the passion at the heart of many conservatives who are fighting for life in the womb.

Progressives have convinced many that the anti-abortion cause is fundamentally anti-woman — an attempt to legislate women’s freedoms and physiology, not a movement with human rights and human dignity at its heart. So abortion opponents must demonstrate a passion for the oppressed and vulnerable surrounding them: for the homeless in their community, the single moms in need of support, the unfairly imprisoned and the foster children without a stable home.