LifeNews.com Note: Maria Vitale is a LifeNews.com Opinion Columnist and the Education Director of the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation. Vitale has written and reported for various broadcast and print media outlets, including National Public Radio, CBS Radio, and AP Radio.

Within the past week, newspaper headlines declared a tragic milestone: the overall death toll from the five-year war in Iraq has reached more than 4,000. Also, for every 15 troops wounded in Iraq, there has been one fatality.

The war in Iraq will undoubtedly remain a key issue in the Presidential race. Newsmen and newswomen in particular are likely to focus much attention on that 4,000 fatality figure.

Yet, I doubt whether a single questioner in a Presidential debate will point out a troubling truth: nearly that many American babies die in a single day from abortion.

One day--nearly 4,000 deaths. A five-year war compressed into a single 24-hour period.

Who will dare ask about an exit strategy for the war going on on our domestic front? Who will interview the grieving post-abortive mothers and fathers? Who will ask the grandparents where their grandchildren have gone? Who will grill candidates at the federal, state, and local level about their support for the war on unborn children and their mothers?

The casualties in this war will not be buried with honors. In fact, they won't receive a funeral at all.

In all likelihood, they won't even have a name, unless their mothers, drawing on their inner courage, attend a post-abortion healing retreat.

Newscasts chronicle the struggles soldiers returning from battle sometimes face in dealing with the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder. Women undergoing abortion often have their own post-traumatic disorder to deal with, a disorder they may try to numb through drugs and alcohol.

Where are the discussions about public health policy to deal with the emotional trauma of abortion? How are women to re-adjust to school and work after losing a child in the abortion war?

The next time candidates come knocking on your door asking for your vote, ask them what they intend to do to end the abortion war. The unborn children of America deserve an answer.