Being pro-life is about more than supporting the act of birth, or at least it should be, says Jesse Ventura. The former Minnesota governor sees a serious intellectual inconsistency in conservative circles when it comes to one of their supposedly bedrock principles: the sanctity of life. If you are going to defend the pro-life position, he says, you must also defend government programs that protect the life of the child after he or she is born. If you don’t, you’re not really pro-life; you’re merely pro-birth.

Jesse Ventura:  What angers me about the pro – and I don’t call them pro-lifers anymore. I call them pro birthers because here’s why. Here’s what angers me. They all want to outlaw abortion and then all these kids come into the world and you have the same people take away welfare and they take away the very safety net that many of these unwanted children are going to need to survive. So if they give birth and then they say well you’re on your own now. Well what’s the odds of these unwanted children becoming successful? I’d say slim to none. So if you’re anti-abortion then you should be pro welfare because somebody’s going to have to take care in many cases not every child is born into your perfect Leave It to Beaver family, you know. People get pregnant and but my belief unequivocally is it’s a women’s right to choose because that woman has to give birth to that child and that woman has to raise that child. Now men play a role too but women play a larger one and it’s certainly their choice to make. And banning Planned Parenthood or stopping money for that is ridiculous because if you’re anti-abortion you should be pro contraception. But yet they’re not, are they. And you should be. If you’re anti-abortion than you should be very strongly pro-contraception. That’s why I don’t call them pro-life anymore. I call them pro birth because they don’t care about them after the birth. There ain’t no safety net from that point.