In North Dakota there has emerged a 28-year-old candidate, beautiful by worldly standards, whose inspiration for running is the ugliness of wanting more babies to die. Euphemisms such as “reproductive health” (after human reproduction has already occurred) are really about ending a human life.

Miss America 2018, 28-year-old Cara Mund, announced that her independent bid for North Dakota’s at-large U.S. House seat is prompted by her concern for abortion. She told the Associated Press that when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, saying there was no right to abortion in the Constitution, it was “just a moment where I knew we need more women in office.”

Mund, who recently graduated from Harvard Law School, is running for office in a state where every statewide office is held by Republicans. North Dakota has a trigger law that would prohibit nearly all abortions now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned. Abortion providers could face a maximum of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. 

But there has been a delay. The sole abortion provider in the state, the Red River Women’s Clinic, filed a lawsuit in state court hoping to block enforcement of the state’s trigger ban which was set to take effect on July 28. The lawsuit calls abortion “essential healthcare” and says a ban would cause financial hardship for some women needing to travel out of state for their abortions. The clinic argues that the North Dakota Constitution guarantees the rights of life, liberty, safety and happiness, and they say that includes a right to abortion. All irony for such a claim is lost on them. 

In the midst of this wrangling for the right to life versus a right to abortion, Mund is acting as her own campaign manager in her run against incumbent Republican Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-ND) and Mark Haugen, a Catholic and a dinosaur of sorts as a prolife Democrat.

Haugen is staunchly pro-life. He said in a recent interview that it’s important to remember that pro-life Democrats are a part of the party. “Are we the minority? Absolutely. But that’s democracy,” he said. “I have to work hard at explaining my position.”

Mund is hoping that as an independent, she will attract voters fed up with the two-party system. She based her platform for her Miss North Dakota crown on increasing the number of women elected to political office. Despite the fact that her impetus of running for office is advocating for abortion, in her AP interview, Mund said she intends to stay in North Dakota and someday raise a family. So, in that way, she is pro-life when the mother wants her baby. No doubt, Mund sees herself as a social justice warrior but simply lacks a vision of justice for the unborn. She is also ignoring the many women suffering regret over their abortions.

Mund has said that her biggest failures in life are not trying, so she is giving a run for office a try and has vowed to continue if she fails in her first attempt.  How much more beautiful her determination and efforts would be if applied to defending life.  

The North Dakota Catholic Conference rejoiced when the Supreme Court overturned Roe, calling it a remedy of a grave injustice that had for “far too long prevented states from becoming sanctuaries for life.”

They also noted that there is much work still to be done. “We cannot, however, rest with overturning Roe and legally protecting unborn life. Building a culture of life means making abortion unthinkable. This will require all parts of society to reexamine and address what they can do so that no woman ever feels that the death of her child is the answer to any situation.”

Mund is on the other side of the divide of this preeminent issue, where all else fades away — for without life itself, everything else is moot. Promoting health care, attacking the root causes of poverty and injustice, working against human trafficking and all other dehumanizing conditions is an obligation to love your neighbor as yourself. But to get to that point, living souls must be allowed to exist. What a travesty for anyone to stake their mission on ending those lives.