Is a vote for Obama a pro-life vote?

I really feel sorry for Catholics who consider themselves pro-life and who are trying to make a sensible argument in support of Obama. They cannot do it, but it doesn't keep them from trying. This is an election that Catholics can change, we can help elect a president who will nominate justices and judges who will follow the Constitution. A vote for Barack Obama will guarantee justices and judges who will have to pass an pro-abortion litmus test to be nominated. The ill-effects of such nominations will be severe and long-lasting. Catholics need to spread the word to those of our friends and neighbors who may be more willing to give ground on the foundational issue, as Archbishop Chaput says, of abortion. We need to keep up the good work of the bishops and keep this subject in the public eye. We need to be good citizens.

Is a vote for Sen. Obama a "pro-life vote"?

Last week Prof. Douglas Kmiec wrote a Chicago Tribune op-ed, “How Catholics can oppose abortion, back Obama” (September 9, 2008), which began with these words of praise: "The Roman Catholic Church in Chicago, and indeed the world, is blessed by the thoughtful teaching of Cardinal Francis George." Richard W. Garnett, a friend of Kmiec and a professor of law at the University of Notre Dame, examines Kmiec's apologia for Obama's approach to reducing abortion and finds it very lacking, saying that Kmiec, among other things, misunderstands Cardinal George's recent statement about abortion and the common good:

For all of Sen. Obama’s professed desire to “extend a helping hand,” there is no denying—though Prof. Kmiec does not mention—that he also supports public funding for abortion, a repeal of the ban on partial-birth abortion, a pro-Roe v. Wade litmus test for judicial nominees, a dramatic expansion of federally funded research involving the destruction of human embryos, and the elimination of legal protection for the conscience rights of health-care professionals and hospitals that object to participating in abortions. How these positions—indeed, they are not merely “positions,” they are, Obama has said, priorities—would (in Kmiec’s words) “strengthen a culture of life” is unclear.

Prof. Kmiec concludes with the suggestion that a vote for Obama is a pro-life vote because studies suggest that abortion rates decline in times of economic wellbeing. Let’s assume they do. But again, Cardinal George’s point had to do with the “legal status quo on abortion,” not with necessarily risky predictions about future ambient economic conditions. One can assert—certainly, Prof. Kmiec did not and cannot demonstrate—that the economic wellbeing of women facing unplanned pregnancies would improve significantly under Sen. Obama. And, one can hope—I’m sure that Prof. Kmiec does—that such an improvement would result in fewer abortions, though such hope would seem hard to sustain, given Obama’s support for the “Freedom of Choice Act.” In any event, such assertions and hopes do nothing to change the fact that Sen. Obama is squarely committed, as a point of pride and principle, not only to preserving the current legal regime, which puts unborn children outside the law’s protection, but also to rolling back the gains that pro-life citizens have managed to secure in recent years.

Read Garnett's entire First Things piece.

In related matters, Bishop Vasa of the Diocese of Baker, Oregon, has made further remarks about when it is acceptable, in the eyes of the Church, to vote for a pro-abortion politician: "The conditions under which an individual may be able to vote for a pro-abortion candidate would apply only if all the candidates are equally pro-abortion.” Read more on LifeSiteNews.com.

• Roman Catholics for Obama '08 | Paul Kengor (Catholic World Report, June 2008)
• What Is "Legal"? On Abortion, Democracy, and Catholic Politicians | Fr. James V. Schall, S.J.
• The Illusion of Freedom Separated from Moral Virtue | Raymond L. Dennehy
• What Is Catholic Social Teaching? | Mark Brumley
• Some Political Issues Should Be More Important Than Others for Catholics | Mark Brumley (Oct. 2004)
• Introduction to Three Approaches to Abortion | Peter Kreeft
• Excommunication! | An interview with canon lawyer Dr. Edward Peters
• Some Atrocities are Worse than Others | Mary Beth Bonacci

Posted by Carl Olson on Monday, September 15, 2008 at 09:21 AM | Permalink