The most important foundational teaching and principle of Catholic social teaching is that every human life is sacred from conception to natural death, because every man and woman is created in the Image of God. Further, there is a fundamental right to life, which is confirmed in the natural moral law, the Sacred Scriptures, and the unbroken Tradition of the Catholic Church. Every civil law must respect that fundamental human right to life, or such a law is an unjust law.
Every human person is created in the Image of God. Because of that, they have an inherent dignity — at every age and stage of their lives. This truth is what informs our respect for every human life whether that life is found in the first home of the womb, a wheelchair, a jail cell, a hospital room, a hospice, a senior center, a soup kitchen, or on a refugee boat.
However, the right to life position is, in one sense, not about an “issue” at all. Nor are those who hold it “single-issue voters.” It is the pre-eminent moral mandate. The pro-life position is also worldview, a lens through which we should view every political, cultural, social, and economic issue. It should inform every aspect of our participation in society, especially the exercise of our citizenship.