Dr. Alveda King, a niece of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., tells National Review Online that, like her uncle, “every candidate should be pro-life, and when they’re not, they should be challenged.” A pastoral associate and director of African-American outreach for Priests for Life, King is a Christian minister, and she expects to be less involved in politics this year.

Last year, she supported her friend Herman Cain for president. “He and his wife are wonderful community people,” King says. “They don’t live far away from where I live [in Georgia]. I supported him because of his pro-life views.” Now that Cain has suspended his campaign, King stresses that “‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’ should be for every political party.”

Politics isn’t the only route for the pro-life movement, she says, though “every route is a good route. We should teach about it in schools. We should talk about it in the public square. We should challenge our public officials.” And the right to life doesn’t concern solely the issue of abortion. It also concerns the controversy over euthanasia.

On this Martin Luther King Day, King emphasizes that her uncle was pro-life, “contrary to the lies that Planned Parenthood tells every year.” In 1966, she says, the organization offered him an award, but his wife accepted it in his place. “He was pro-life; she was pro-choice.”

In conclusion, King offers, “When you see the political parties squabble, [remember] if a baby is not allowed to be born, all the other issues do not come into play.”