"We stand against ... assisted suicide."

"We support the right to life comprehensively, believing that the inherent dignity of humans must be respected and protected in the law."

I don't know if it's your guys' religious zealotry clouding your ability to discern the meanings of certain words, or if being ultra-conservative about social issues necessitates being ultra-liberal about word usage, but a "right" and an "obligation" are two different things. For instance, I have a right to tell you how offensive and backwards the tenets of your organization are, but I am certainly under no obligation to send this email. I chose to exercise my right because I'm a swell chap who stands up for freedom, but if I were forced to exercise this right it would cease being a right to do something and become an obligation to do something, which effectively takes away a right to not do something. You're not advocating for a right to life. You're advocating for an obligation to life, which is really advocating against a right to death. See the difference?

It's also laughably charming that your organization, which alleges to "stand for the right to life of all persons: born or unborn, young or old, healthy or sick, strong or frail," fails to condemn capital punishment in its little mission statement. Conservative nutjobs opposing abortion while supporting capital punishment is nothing new, but it's worth pointing out. At best you care more about a growth in a woman's body than you do about certain human beings, just because they have been convicted of breaking the law; at worst you're simply hypocrites who possess relative indifference to a problem that primarily affects poor communities of color. Take your pick of dubious distinctions, I guess.

I know you ask for "intelligent and respectful" discussion, but you'll only get the former from me. I don't respect people seeking to strip rights from 160 million American women so that we can live in a world more in accordance with their own religious rules. I don't respect religious extremists of any sort, but I respect religious extremists who've had the fortune of a good education and still peddle their brand of exclusion and fear even less. An orphan growing up in war-torn Iraq who joins ISIS has something of an excuse for his misguided sentiments. You don't.

And lest anyone think I'm being too harsh on views held by about half the country, well, frankly, it's the half that's turned America from a nation celebrated for producing some of the greatest innovators this world's ever seen into an international punchline. In any other first world democracy, the views espoused by LSFL would be mocked out of the building. And so they should be. Dearest American friends, if you want this great nation to be all it can be--to reach the potential that so many Americans want it to reach and that so many foreigners (like myself) came here thinking it could reach--then I implore you to call out these extremist views for what they are: antiquated bullshit that has no place in an understanding and compassionate society.