Gun Control, Refugees, Etc. are Not Pro-Life Issues

The pro-life movement is opposed to direct killing.  In the political arena, this mostly means anti-abortion, anti-euthanasia, and anti-death penalty.  Gun control does not fit as it is already illegal to murder someone with a gun.

The pro-life movement is not a utilitarian life-saving movement.  We don't address every possible thing that might save a life.  Otherwise, the pro-life movement could be involved in anti-smoking, seat belt laws, self-driving cars, obesity, and we could go on all day. 

Another problem is that once we move further away from direct forms of killing, we leave behind the argument of personhood, so central to the abortion debate, and head into pragmatic arguments about the efficacy of different policies in saving lives.  This is an entirely different debate and is divisive in its own way.  It's hard enough to get people on board with our first premise without immediately saddling on a bunch more that people of good will who agree on the first premise can still disagree on.

The utilitarian life-saving approach, in theory, may also actually undermine our initial premise.  Would you abort baby Hitler?

Calling everything pro-life is often a liberal tactic to water down and also splinter the movement.  It is also a moral equivocation.  Direct killing is much worse than taking the wrong side on a complex issue where people might die indirectly.

Political movements almost always have broad names that, if taken literally, may not exactly match what they are about.  This is okay.  Probably the best example of this is the "pro-choice" movement which is largely made up of nanny-state liberals who are clearly only talking about abortion-choice.  Many liberals who call out pro-life people over outside issues are not looking in the mirror on this one.  Another example is Black Lives Matter.  Many people responded to them by asking why they weren't talking about black on black crime.  I think being anti-police brutality is a valid cause and their name doesn't bother me.  Why aren't they encouraging more black people to wear seat belts?  Most people responding with "black on black crime" are trying to shut down a discussion on police brutality more than they actually care about black on black crime.

I understand that these other issues matter, too, and many genuine pro-life people are trying to tap into the moral capital of our movement and to reach the consciences of those of us who call ourselves pro-life, but this can be problematic for the reasons cited above.