Invisible Cuba: Hispanic Reason To Vote

Constituting 15.4% of the US population, Hispanics are in a position to help shape how the US is governed as no other minority in history. They are over ten percent (10%) of the eligible voters in nine states and an even more significant portion in larger states such as Texas, California, Florida and New York. But will they vote tomorrow and in a manner consistent with their traditional values?

According to a Pew Institute report only one-third (32%) of eligible Hispanic voters appear to be intending to vote. If this is true, why is it the case? Surely registered Hispanic voters appreciate the power of their numbers as voters (see table below). Surely they appreciate the price that has been paid by Americans to protect the privilege of a democratic vote and what happens when a people are prevented from doing so (e.g. Cubans). Furthermore, they have a superb reason to vote: helping end abortion in the United States.

Furthermore, the Pew Institute reports that two-thirds (69%) of Catholic Hispanics and almost half (45%) of Protestant Hispanics apparently intend to vote for Democrats, and therefore, I would add, against pro-Life candidates. How can this be? Protecting the family is a preeminent Hispanic value. Surely Hispanics understand that human life begins its path at conception (ask doubters where else it begins if not there?) and that destroying human life, while still legal, is indeed murder. Surely they know that 1.2 million Americans were therefore murdered in the United States in 2009 through an abortion. Surely the vast majority of Hispanics do not support this.

Perhaps it would make a difference if they knew that they have been disproportionately impacted by abortion. According to the US Center for Disease control there are, tragically enough, 13 abortions for every 1000 white non-Hispanic women, but 27 and 49 for every thousand Hispanic or Black women respectively. Why are relatively more Hispanic and black human embryos being aborted?

How many Hispanics know that in Miami, for example, more than 1 out of every 3 pregnant women (over 35%) aborted their child from 2000 to 2007? For all Florida, however, 1 out of every 4 pregnant (25%) women aborted. What is causing the comparatively higher Hispanic abortion rate in Miami? To what extent is this phenomenon characteristic of other regions with a high concentration of Hispanics?

If the number of Hispanics being aborted were proportional to their population in the United States, then around 180 thousand Hispanic embryos are being killed by abortion each year (15% of 1.2 million). But according to the Guttmacher Institute Hispanics account for 22% of US abortions. This means 264 thousand abortions of Hispanic embryos in 2008. Blacks accounted for 37% or 444 thousand abortions. Almost 2 out 3 embryos being aborted in the U.S. (59%) are thus either Black or Hispanic.

How could family loving Hispanics be doing this? Is it the result of heavy advertising by well funded organizations such as Planned Parenthood or the moral indifference to abortion of Univision TV?

I don´t pretend that other serious issues caused by egotism and even hatred towards Hispanic immigrants don't exist. But Hispanics should put aside all other considerations and cast a vote that will help protect the most vulnerable, a vote that will please the educated conscience and God. The quantity of Hispanics killed by abortion incomparably exceeds those that may have been killed by illegal immigration.

What are Catholic and Protestant Hispanics waiting for to vote for a Pro Life candidate tomorrow? What could be more important than this?