Reflections on Catholic Politicians and Abortion

As a national association whose mission is to strengthen the clergy in their preaching and teaching about abortion, we feel obliged in this election season, in which abortion continues to be a hotly debated issue, to echo the recent teaching of our bishops on the relationship between the Church's mission and public policy on this topic.

The Church speaks, and will continue to speak, on the issue of abortion and clearly call for public policies that limit and eventually eradicate this practice. This message is not simply the result of religious beliefs, but of American ideals. As the United States bishops wrote in November of 1998,

Furthermore, we as Catholic priests refuse to be intimidated when, in carrying out our duty to proclaim the Gospel, we are charged with "meddling in politics." We do not endorse candidates or political parties. We do, however, challenge all in political life to reject the violence of abortion. Politics is not an arena which can absolve itself of responsibility to moral laws; nor can the Church absolve herself of the responsibility to teach those laws.

A further concern arises when those holding or seeking elected office take a "pro-choice" position and also proclaim themselves to be Catholics.

No law says you have to be Catholic. But if you publicly declare that you are, don't be surprised if someone criticizes inconsistencies between your public positions and the teachings of the Church.

We repeat the words of the United States bishops:

Priests for Life will continue to echo this teaching, particularly in the months ahead, and will continue to be a resource for the clergy to address the abortion issue with vigor, clarity, and confidence.

Fr. Frank Pavone

National Director

Priests for Life

 

Priests for Life
PO Box 141172
Staten Island, NY 10314
Tel. 888-PFL-3448, (718) 980-4400
Fax 718-980-6515
Email mail@priestsforlife.org

Subscribe to Fr. Frank's bi-weekly prolife column (free): subscribe@priestsforlife.org 

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A Libertarian Atheist Answers 'Pro-Choice Catholics'

by Doris Gordon

Many who say they are personally opposed to abortion nonetheless support keeping abortion legal. Such a stance is often taken in the Catholic community, particularly by Catholics in politics. An example is Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm. Calling herself "pro-choice," she said that as a Catholic she believes "what Catholics believe on abortion," and asked, "[I]s it right for government to force Catholic beliefs on every other faith?" (The Detroit News, 9/10/02).

Interesting question. To ask it is to concede that the political arena is about forcing beliefs on others by law. Government is not a think tank that makes political-policy suggestions. Government is force. The power of the sword is implicit in all laws, just or unjust. How are politicians going to use that power?

Abortion isn't a victimless-crime debate; to abort a child isn't like smoking pot. The reason I and others object to abortion is that we find it to be homicide (the killing of one human being by another). The proper use of government force is to oppose killing the innocent, not to encourage it, as the Supreme Court did in Roe v. Wade, by legalizing and protecting its practice.

People show severe intellectual problems in saying both that they believe what the Church believes and that they would deny preborn children legal protection. The Church holds that such children are human persons with rights, yet the "personally opposed" hold that it should be a woman's choice to destroy them. If there is a credible reason for such a position, what is it?

I'm not Catholic

Opposition to legal abortion cuts across the religious and political spectrum. I'm an atheist. I was born and raised Jewish. Catholicism had nothing to do with my coming to understand why abortion is a wrong, not a right, and why it should not be legal.

I'm a longtime libertarian and participant in abortion debates among libertarians. Libertarianism is pro-choice -- except when it's a choice to victimize others and violate their rights. I used to think abortion is permissible, thanks to Ayn Rand and her philosophy of Objectivism. But ironically, I became pro-life and founded Libertarians for Life (LFL) because of Rand and her onetime closest associate, Nathaniel Branden, both atheists.

(See my articles, "How I Became Pro-Life: Remarks on Abortion, Parental Obligation, and the Draft" -- www.L4L.org/library/congrecord.html; and "Introduction" -- www.L4L.org/library/intro.html.)

What about the substance of the abortion debate?

Many libertarians are religious. However, in arguing politics, we normally appeal to ordinary reason, not religious faith. In abortion, what's central is: When do human beings -- human persons with rights -- begin? The marker event can't be derived from libertarian philosophy; it just takes the concepts of human being, person, and rights as a given. Its basic premise is that all of our rights are limited by the obligation not to violate the rights of others.

To arrive at the correct marker, we need the correct scientific facts of human embryology. That a new human organism, a member of the species Homo sapiens, begins at fertilization is well recognized. (See: Dianne N. Irving, "When Do Human Beings Begin?: `Scientific' Myths and Scientific Facts" -- www.L4L.org/library/mythfact.html.)

One doesn't have to be pro-life to accept that this is correct science. Alan Guttmacher, M.D., was a president of Planned Parenthood. PP's research arm, the Alan Guttmacher Institute, was named after him. In his 1933 book Life in the Making, he wrote: "We of today know that man is born of sexual union; that he starts life as an embryo within the body of the female; and that the embryo is formed from the fusion of two single cells, the ovum and the sperm. This all seems so simple and evident to us that it is difficult to picture a time when it was not part of the common knowledge."

There are also philosophical questions to answer, such as: What's the marker for when a person with rights begins? LFL shows why it's fertilization, and why the right to control one's own body is a limited right. (See: Doris Gordon, "Abortion and Rights: Applying Libertarian Principles Correctly" -- www.l4l.org/library/abor-rts.html; and the sections in the Library on www.L4L.org, "On the Onset of Personhood and Rights" and "On Parental Obligation and Children's Rights".)

In those articles, LFL shows why the support children receive from their parents is theirs by right. Both parents owe them protection from harm, whether they are living in a crib, the mother's body, or in a petri dish. (What about rape? See: John Walker, "Abortion in the Case of Pregnancy Due to Rape" -- l4l.org/library/aborrape.html.)

Roe v. Wade and the ACLU

In Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court announced itself unable to answer "the difficult question of when life begins." It should have given the benefit of its uncertainty to life. Instead, it arbitrarily ruled that to be a person legally, we must be born.

In effect, Roe trashed the ethical principle of equal unalienable rights as set forth in The Declaration of Independence -- and imposed a two-tiered legal policy on human beings that defines a superior class as persons with rights and an inferior class that does not count. Such a double standard is not only unlibertarian, it puts all of us on a slippery slope. Yet to this day, the Court is unwilling to confront either philosophy or correct human embryology.

Our unalienable rights are pre-political. As Nadine Strossen, the president of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), said on C-Span: "We don't need the Ninth Amendment or the Constitution to have rights; we have rights by virtue of the fact we are human beings." I agree. The Declaration of Independence holds that everyone is created -- not born -- equal and "endowed by their Creator" -- not the government -- with certain unalienable rights, among which are life and liberty, and that the purpose of government is to secure these rights.

Strossen and the ACLU favor legal abortion, so on a later occasion I asked her, "If having rights is pre-legal, then why not also our personhood, from which our rights flow?" Usually a font of information, this time she only noted that we disagree. At another time, she admitted to me that the ACLU had no prepared response to the charge that abortion is homicide.

Why is Catholicism opposed to abortion?

Let's get back to what's Catholic. In order to judge the Catholic belief on abortion, one must first know what it is. I consider Fr. Frank Pavone, Founding Director of Priests for Life, to be a reliable source of information. I asked him some questions:

Q: Are there any statements in papal encyclicals against abortion that are inextricably religious? If so, what is their impact on the conclusion that abortion is wrong?

Fr. Pavone: "Yes. The key document, of course, is Pope John Paul II's encyclical The Gospel of Life. One of the specifically religious arguments against abortion found there is from the Incarnation. God, in other words, became human in Christ, and thereby united every human life -- including life in the womb -- to Himself. The Pope therefore concludes that to attack a single human life is, in some way, to attack God Himself.

"The impact this has on the conclusion that abortion is wrong is simply that for believers it gives another motive for the conclusion, and strengthens their awareness that they cannot be `pro-choice believers.' At the same time, as you know, the Catholic Church holds that one can come to the conclusion that abortion is wrong without having any faith at all."

Q: Do these encyclicals say anything against the legalization of abortion?

Fr. Pavone: "Yes, The Gospel of Life states that no civil authority has the right to legitimize abortion, and that if it tries, such laws lack all authentic juridic validity. Yet the Church does not reach that conclusion based on the religious arguments against abortion, but rather based on the fact that abortion violates fundamental human rights which any government is bound to protect. The Church sees her call for laws against abortion in the same way as for laws against stealing. Though stealing is against the teachings of Catholicism, the non-believer is not free to say, `Since I am not Catholic, I may steal.'"

Sounds sensible to me. When faith and reason arrive at the same position, that's a strong recommendation for it. But if others learned in Catholicism have counter arguments, I'd like to hear them.

A challenge

When people argue and agreement seems elusive, they often ask, "Who should decide?" Ayn Rand gave a great answer: "Whoever can prove it." Intellectually, both sides have the burden of proof. Read the encyclicals. Read Libertarians for Life's perspective. Read those who insist that abortion is a permissible choice. Then ask which side of the abortion debate best addresses the fundamental questions and which side makes the strongest case.

What if you're still in doubt? Give the benefit of the doubt to life.

__________________________________________

Libertarians for Life's literature and speakers are available to explain and defend why we oppose abortion. Our reasoning is expressly philosophical and scientific — rather than either religious or pragmatic.

Doris Gordon
Libertarians for Life
Website - http://www.l4l.org
email - libertarian@erols.com

Contact:  Libertarians for Life
http://www.L4L.org  MD, US
Doris Gordon - Founder, 301-460-4141
Keywords:  Pro-Life

By Father William Saunders

Sometimes I meet Catholics who say, "I am personally against abortion, but I am pro-choice." To me, that makes no sense, but how can I argue with them? -- A reader in Springfield

The pro-abortion movement has made great gains using the "pro-choice" label. First, the "pro-choice" label numbs our moral sensitivity because it masks the fact that anyone really is for abortion and diverts our attention from the act itself. Secondly, the idea of being "pro-choice" seems to appeal to Americans who cherish freedom and the idea of being free to choose rather than being forced to do anything.

In arguing against this "pro-choice" position, one must first focus on the heart of the choice—a child. Proceeding from a purely scientific approach, we know that when conception occurs, a new and unique human being is created. The DNA genetic code attests to this uniqueness. (Why has DNA coding become so important in identifying criminals?) Moreover, from that moment of conception, the child continues to develop and grow; the child is born, matures to adolescence and then adulthood, and eventually dies.

Note, though, that this is the same person who was conceived: all that has been added is nourishment, time and hopefully a lot of love. Therefore, our Church teaches that
 

"From the time that the ovum is fertilized, a life is begun which is neither that of the father nor of the mother; it is rather the life of a new human being with his own growth. It would never be made human if it were not human already" (Declaration on Procured Abortion, No. 12, 1974).

Moving beyond science to the level of faith, we also believe that almighty God creates and infuses a unique and immortal soul into that body. This soul—our spiritual principle—is what gives each person that identity of being made in God’s image and likeness (Cf. <Catechism of the Catholic Church>, No. 363-368). Even if there were some doubt that God infused the soul at conception or some doubt that the conceived child were truly a person,
 

"it is objectively a grave sin to dare to risk murder. ‘The one who will be a man is already one’" (Declaration, No. 13).

We find in sacred Scripture testimony to the sanctity of life in the womb:

The Lord said to the mother of Sampson,
 

"As for the son you will conceive and bear, no razor shall touch his head, for this boy is to be consecrated to God from the womb" (Jgs 13:5).

Job said,
 

"Did not He who made me in the womb make him? Did not the same One fashion us before our birth?" (Job 31:15).

In Psalm 139:13 we pray,
 

"Truly You have formed my inmost being; You knit me in my mother’s womb."

The Lord spoke to Jeremiah,
 

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you" (Jer 1:5).

For Christians, the sanctity of life in the womb and the belief that this truly is a person is further corroborated by the Incarnation: Mary conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ, the true God, entered this world becoming also true man. Even though Jesus was still in the womb of His blessed mother, St. Elizabeth and St. John the Baptist (who was also in the womb) rejoiced at the presence of the Lord. Would anyone dare suggest Jesus was not a person in the womb of His mother? Little wonder that the Didache (The teachings of the Twelve Apostles) -- the first manual of doctrine, liturgical laws and morals, written about the year 80 AD—we find the moral prohibition,
 

"You shall not kill by abortion the fruit of the womb and you shall not murder the infant already born."

Given that the heart of the choice involves a unique, human person, the choice of action becomes clear: to preserve and safeguard the life of this person in the womb or to destroy it. Since this is a person, the latter choice does not involve simply a termination of a pregnancy or the removal of a fetus; rather, the latter choice involves a direct killing of an innocent person, a deliberate murder. Therefore, the act of abortion is an intrinsically evil act. The Second Vatican Council asserted,
 

"Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception: abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes" ("Gaudium et Spes," No. 51).

We do not have the right to choose evil, no matter what the circumstances are or even if some sort of "good" may arise. To purposefully choose to do evil is an affront to God Himself, in whose image and likeness we are made. Here it is not as though one is choosing between two good actions; instead, one is defending the sanctity of human life in the face of evil. To say one is "pro-choice" in this matter is no different from saying one is "pro- choice" for apartheid, Nazi concentration camps or Jim Crow segregation laws—"I am personally against it, but everyone should choose."

Pope John Paul II said,

"Anyone can see that the alternative here is only apparent. It is not possible to speak of the right to choose when a clear moral evil is involved, when what is at stake is the commandment, ‘Do not kill!’" (<Crossing the Threshold of Hope>, p. 205).

In those difficult, tragic situations—rape and incest (which result in conception at best 2 percent of the time, depending upon which set of statistics one looks at), a young teenage pregnant mother, or a deformed or handicapped child—we must remember the child is still an innocent human being who through no fault of his own was conceived. Here, sharing in the cross of our Lord becomes a reality without question. In these cases, we as members of the Church must support both the mother and the child through our prayers and by opening our hearts, homes and wallets to their needs. We must make the sacrifice to preserve human life.

Fr. Saunders is president of Notre Dame Institute and associate pastor of Queen of Apostles Parish, both in Alexandria. This article appeared in the January 19, 1995 issue of "The Arlington Catholic Herald."

Courtesy of the "Arlington Catholic Herald" diocesan newspaper of the Arlington (VA) diocese. For subscription information, call 1-800-377-0511 or write 200 North Glebe Road, Suite 607 Arlington, VA 22203.