If the pro-life movement is going to accomplish its fullest potential — protecting life from conception until natural death — and effectively reduce the number of abortions, it must be truly nonpartisan. Catholics should be at the vanguard of this effort.

Marjorie Jones Dannenfelser, a leading voice among pro-lifers as president of the Susan B. Anthony List, called Donald Trump “the most effective pro-life president in American history.” An authentically pro-life movement should reject that assessment.

What it should do is emphatically condemn Trump’s jailhouse killing spree during his final year in office and hold politicians who support the death penalty accountable.

Under the former president’s administration, 10 people were executed in one year. And due to Trump’s three Supreme Court appointments, the court voted 6-3 to allow federal inmate Lisa Montgomery’s execution to go forward. On Jan. 13, Montgomery, whose lawyers said was mentally ill, became the first woman executed by the federal government since 1953.

The church is unequivocal when it comes to the death penalty, with the catechism declaring it “inadmissible” and calling for “its abolition worldwide.”

The pro-life movement also needs to look honestly at the data when it comes to abortion: The abortion rate in America decreases under Democratic presidents and policies, while the rate remains essentially stagnant under Republican administrations. One explanation is that Democrats invest in programs that address disparities in education, health care and economic insecurity. Those initiatives reduce rates of unplanned and unwanted pregnancy.

This is not to say that Catholics in the pro-life movement should blindly embrace Democrats, soon-to-be President Joe Biden among them, who argue for unfettered access to abortion and don’t acknowledge a baby in the womb as a human life with intrinsic value. Catholics should focus on issues, not partisanship. Clearly no party encompasses the wholistic pro-life view articulated by the Catholic Church. But the pro-life movement cannot live up to its intended — and potential — mission if it unquestioningly bolsters Republican politicians who fail the test of being fully pro-life. Who better to fuel a more comprehensive, nonpartisan movement than Catholics?