Since when does the killing of an innocent human being serve as a badge of honor? Since Planned Parenthood, by way of the online store hosted by Yahoo, starting selling t-shirts that say “I had an abortion.” How can the words “I had an abortion” support women’s rights?
I direct your attention to a post I made back in June about Respect Life Masses here in Arlington.
Kerry stops, drops, and rolls when questioned about his statement that he believes life begins at conception. Here is part of an interview with Peter Jennings, from Jay Nordlinger on NRO.
Jennings: “You told an Iowa newspaper recently that life begins at conception. What makes you think that?”
Kerry: “My belief, just my, my, my personal belief about what happens in the fertilization process as a, as a human being is first formed and created, and that’s when life begins. Something begins to happen. There’s a transformation. There’s an evolution. Within weeks, you look and see the development of it, but that’s not a person yet, and it’s certainly not what somebody, in my judgment, ought to have the government of the United States intervening in. Roe v. Wade has made it very clear what our standard is with respect to viability, what our standard is with respect to rights. I believe in the right to choose, not the government choosing, but an individual, and I defend that.”
Jennings: “Could you explain to me: What do you mean when you say ‘life begins at conception’?”
Kerry: “Well, that’s what the Supreme Court has established — is a test of viability as to whether or not you’re permitted to terminate a pregnancy, and I support that. That is my test. And I — you know, you have all kinds of different evolutions of life, as we know, and very different beliefs about birth, the process of the development of a fetus. That’s the standard that’s been established in Roe v. Wade. And I adhere to that standard.”
Jennings: “If you believe that life begins at conception, is even a first-trimester abortion not murder?”
Kerry: “No, because it’s not the form of life that takes personhood in the terms that we have judged it to be in the past. It’s the beginning of life. Does life begin? Yes, it begins. Is it at the point where I would say that you apply those penalties? The answer is no, and I believe in choice. I believe in the right to choose, and the government should not involve itself in that choice, beyond where it has in the context of Roe vs. Wade.”
Let’s have a gander at what some of the democrats are saying about the vote in the House today on the bill that would prevent Federal Courts from requiring one state to accept the gay marriage license of another.
“This debate is about a national election,” Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat, said in opposing the bill. “We are playing with fire with this bill, and that fire could destroy the nation we love.”
To say “we are playing with fire” is one thing, to say “that fire could destroy the nation we love” is nonsensical. How, exactly, would this proverbial fire destroy the nation we love?
“I rise in defense of the Constitution, in defense of the separation of powers,” said House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat. “What’s next? No judicial review of laws that restrict freedom of speech or religion?”
Considering that freedom of religion has become freedom from religion I think we’re well on our way, but in a respect Rep. Hoyer isn’t thinking of. In fact, he commits the fallacy of false alternatives by lobbing this rhetorical hand grenade. There are obviously other alternatives than “no judicial review of laws that restrict freedom of speech or religion.”
As an irrelevant and uncharitable aside, I’d just like all of you to know I think “Steny Hoyer” is a dorky name.
Catholic Lawmakers Ignoring Bishops – AP
“I believe that what I do as a public servant is in accord with church teaching,” said Virginia Lt. Gov Tim Kaine, the presumptive Democratic candidate for governor next year. He supports abortion rights with restrictions such as requiring parental consent for minors and banning late-term abortions. “It hasn’t caused me discomfort as a Catholic personally,” he said.
Ah, as long as it doesn’t cause a politician discomfort that it is a-ok! This is, of course, a fallacious interpretation of the so-called primacy of conscience. If one’s conscience isn’t properly formed to begin with, or if it’s been killed by pathologies of modernity, it can’t be a trusted.
This probably isn’t a full quote of Lt. Gov Kaine, but it’s clear that what is behind these statements is a subjective ethical and moral view, in addition to a faulty understanding of Church teaching.
From an interview of Bishop Robert Vasa of Baker City, Oregon.
Bishop says he will deny pro-abort politicians Communion and that Cardinal McCarrick withheld text of the memoradum from Cardinal Ratzinger at the Bishop’s Retreat.
Full text of the interview via Catholic.org:
http://www.catholic.org/featured/headline.php?ID=1155
