2007

Reasons why I cannot become involved in pro-life causes with enthusiasm

1. The strategy followed by the pro-life people thus far has had almost no effect on public opinion regarding abortion, even among Catholics. The percentage of both Catholics and Protestants who agree with pro-life statements has hardly changed since the 1970s. Seventy percent or more of both groups think a woman should be able to obtain an abortion legally in cases of rape or danger to the health of the mother. Less than 50% of both groups think that women should be able to obtain an abortion legally just because they do not want more children.
   
   In a democracy like ours, no one can enforce a position against others without convincing the majority to support the position. The fact that the prolife strategy has failed for thirty years to convince the majority means that a political approach to the issue of abortion has not worked and should be abandoned.
   
   
2. By tying the abortion issue so closely to the Republican party, prolife activists have allowed themselves to be co-opted by strategists in that party. When people like myself believe that the Republican position on many issues besides abortion is wrong, we end up having to reject the prolife cause along with its Republican clothing.
   
   
3. I cannot defend the consequences of the pro-life position: convicting a woman who has an abortion of a felony and sending her to prison.
   
   
4. The standard Catholic position regarding political issues is that we do not want to impose our denominational beliefs on others. The belief that the human person is present from the moment of conception has become a denominational belief. It is not accepted by many people of good will in other faiths. The traditional Catholic argument that this is a matter of natural law, not denominational belief, is itself a denominational belief.