As more and more states pursue bans on abortion, some conservative legislators are citing the protection of infant life as the basis for their proposed legislation. In fact, Georgia’s recently passed restrictive fetal heartbeat law was based on that purported virtue.

Meanwhile, a fifth migrant child has been reported to have died in U.S custody after journeying across the southern border. His death follows a disturbing trend in the Trump administration’s attempt to crack down on immigrants arriving mostly from Central America and Mexico. Following a widely criticized child separation policy that was ended last year, one is left to wonder if Donald Trump himself — an avid opponent of abortion — truly values the lives of children.

Is a young life worth protecting only when the mother is a U.S citizen? Or does the right to life start at six weeks inside the womb, only to end a few years outside of it? The youngest migrant child to die after being detained by U.S customs officials was only 2 years old.

These questions require answers from Trump and from conservative legislators who pass draconian abortion laws. There is an embarrassing contradiction in passing drastic abortion bans while ignoring — or worse — supporting Trump’s heinous immigration policies that cause preventable child deaths.

It is time for conservatives who remain silent on Trump’s immigration agenda to abandon the pseudo-righteous stance they have adopted on the abortion issue. Their response, or lack thereof, to preventable migrant child deaths proves a lack of consistency and credibility.

Yaw Anoff, Lewiston

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