EDITOR: Its one of my favorite scenes from Star Trek.

Captain Picard has been taken hostage by a genocidal maniac bent on killing his own people. One of the bad guys is taking Picard somewhere to execute him. Picard, looking straight ahead, very calm, calls him a coward for being a part of the genocide and basically tells him off ending with, “You offend me.” The bad guy looks at Picard and asks,” Is this how a Starfleet officer pleads for his life?

Picard turns towards the man and says ,” I’m not pleading for my life…I’m pleading for yours.”

Colorado, I would like to plead for your life.

I see our beautiful Colorado bumper stickers that say, “Respect Life.” I see the way Coloradans value the resources of this state, the animals, the nature, the beauty and its people. I see how Black Lives matter. How diverse and progressive Denver is. Peace, love, joy. Freedom.

Colorado is 1 of only 7 states that allows abortion up until the moment of birth for any reason with no restrictions at all. Internationally, only 5 of the 198 countries permit elective abortion after 24 weeks, 3 of the 5 nations that permit late-term abortion are notorious human rights abusers. What does this say about us, that we so vehemently guard this as a right? Think about that. Could you stomach babies being killed the day after they were born? We are lying to ourselves if we think Late Term Abortions are anything but.

But there are plenty of people out there pleading for the babies without a voice. I’m not really pleading for the lives of the sweet babies. Their precious bodies. Their mattering. I’m not really pleading for them.

I’m pleading for us.

Let’s not be those people, in this state, in this nation that go backwards in our progressiveness, that are so enamored with our own freedom that we cost someone else their life, so abusive in the name of self-determination that we cannot see that killing a “fetus” the day before its born, is killing one of us. Let’s make sure that no one’s voice has to cry out, “I can’t breathe.”

Democrats CAN Vote yes on bipartisan proposition 115.

— E. Doran, via letters@sentinelcolorado.com