July 13-19, 2008 Issue |
Posted 7/8/08 at 10:25 AM
WASHINGTON — Few events in recent
years have caused as much consternation among pro-life Catholic Americans as
Doug Kmiec’s Easter Sunday endorsement of Barack Obama.
After all, the presumptive
Democratic presidential nominee has earned a 100% pro-abortion voting record
during his political career in the Illinois and U.S. Senates.
And Kmiec is a pro-life Catholic law
professor at Pepperdine University who made his name in the Reagan
administration, at Notre Dame University and at The Catholic University of
America.
Father Richard Neuhaus, editor in
chief of the journal First Things, says
Kmiec has it wrong.
“He has now become a voice for
Catholics who wish to back for president a candidate who has a long history of
unqualified support for the unlimited abortion license imposed by the Roe
v. Wade decision of 1973,” Father Neuhaus said in a commentary for
the Register about Kmiec’s arguments (see complete commentary, page 12.)
And on the presidential campaign
trail, Obama recruited a Planned Parenthood official to campaign on his behalf
in New Hampshire, and he earned the endorsement of NARAL Pro-Choice America
over rival Hillary Clinton, despite Clinton’s own solidly pro-abortion
credentials.
Obama has also made the promise that
“the first thing I’d do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act,” a bill
that if enacted would prevent any federal, state or local government entity
from restricting access to abortion. It would strike down virtually every state
law on abortion. The stated aim of this legislation is to “end the abortion
wars,” by allowing abortion-on-demand in all nine months of pregnancy for any
reason and without any restrictions nationwide.
This would eradicate state and
federal laws that the majority of Americans support — such as requirements that
licensed physicians perform abortions, fully-informed consent, and parental
involvement — and prevent states from enacting similar protective measures in
the future.
Kmiec, for his part, has solid
credentials as a politically knowledgeable, pro-life Catholic lawyer. Currently
a law professor at Pepperdine, he previously served as dean of The Catholic
University of America’s law school and as a law professor at Notre Dame.
And in the political realm, Kmiec
provided constitutional counsel to Republican Presidents Ronald Reagan and
George H.W. Bush from 1985-1989 while serving as assistant attorney general in
the Office of Legal Counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice.
Why?
So why is Kmiec supporting Obama
despite the Democratic candidate’s position on abortion?
In an article posted Easter Sunday
on Slate.com’s legal blog “Convictions” announcing his endorsement, Kmiec
stated he believed Obama to be “a person of integrity, intelligence, and
genuine good will.”
Kmiec acknowledged that he and Obama
“may disagree” on some “important fundamentals,” including Kmiec’s belief as “a
Republican and as a Catholic” that “life begins at conception, and it is
important for every life to be given sustenance and encouragement.”
But, Kmiec said, “I am convinced,
based upon his public pronouncements and his personal writing, that on each of
these questions he is not closed to understanding opposing points of view and,
as best as it is humanly possible, he will respect and accommodate them.”
In an e-mail interview with the
Register, Kmiec elaborated about why he believes Catholics can vote for Obama.
Kmiec said it was wrong to characterize
Obama as pro-abortion despite his perfect pro-abortion voting record and his
campaigning on an abortion-rights platform with the endorsement of NARAL and
leaders of Planned Parenthood.
“No, those who are
pro-abortion, as I see it, are those who advocate the practice as a matter of
fundamental right or as part of a radical feminist agenda that takes no account
of the moral weight or significance of unborn life,” Kmiec said.
According to Kmiec, neither Obama
nor presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain has a truly pro-life stand
on abortion, despite the Arizona senator’s strongly pro-life voting record on
abortion.
Kmiec said both candidates are
actually “pro-choice” since Obama believes the decision should be left to the
pregnant mother whereas McCain’s position isn’t that the federal government
should outlaw abortion, but instead that the matter should be returned to the
state level by reversing the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision
that legalized abortion nationally.
Kmiec even suggested Obama’s position
is more in keeping with Church teachings than McCain’s.
“From a standpoint of subsidiarity
and prudence, one can make an argument that the Obama position is preferable
since it does not arrogate to a higher level that which can be done more
effectively below in direct relationship with the mother,” Kmiec said.
Father Neuhaus said it was
“disingenuous” for Kmiec to argue Obama and McCain have morally equivalent
positions on abortion and that Obama might actually be closer to Church
teaching regarding the sanctity of life.
“The candidate who would return the
abortion question to the states so that citizens working through their elected
representatives can enact laws protecting the unborn is, in taking that
position, pro-life,” Father Neuhaus said. “The candidate who, by supporting Roe
v. Wade, would deny to citizens that opportunity is ‘pro-choice.’ It
is a great disservice to try to obfuscate such an obvious distinction.”
Kmiec said that it’s not accurate to
say the U.S. bishops have instructed American Catholics to place abortion ahead
of other issues when considering who to vote for, even though the bishops’
November 2007 “Faithful Citizenship” document states Catholic voters should ask
political candidates how they plan to “address the preeminent requirement to
protect the weakest in our midst — innocent unborn children — by restricting
and bringing to an end the destruction of unborn children through abortion.”
Said Kmiec, “With respect to the
bishops’ own statement, it would be mistaken, for example, to rank racism below
abortion or vice versa, since they are both held out as intrinsic evils.”
Father Neuhaus said Kmiec fails to
understand that not all intrinsic evils are equally grave and that abortion,
unlike racism, is the key social issue in contemporary American politics.
“The intentional killing of a member
of the human family — which is what happens in every abortion — is the most
pressing social justice question of our time,” said Father Neuhaus. “Mr.
Kmiec’s candidate advocates an unlimited right to abortion.”
Judges Don’t Matter
Kmiec has also argued that it’s not
particularly important that Obama has promised to nominate only
pro-abortion-rights judges to fill Supreme Court vacancies.
“Senator Obama’s emphasis on
personal responsibility rather than legal bickering over potential Supreme
Court nominations, in my judgment, best moves this issue forward,” Kmiec said
in a May 3 Catholic Online commentary.
Kmiec told the Register that when
Obama met June 10 with him and about 30 religious leaders in Chicago, Obama
reaffirmed his desire to “to reduce the incidence of abortion” by policies
such as encouraging responsible sexual behavior, discouraging unwanted
pregnancies and promoting adoption. And Kmiec said that while he has dedicated
himself personally and professionally “for the past several decades” to the
goal of confirming Supreme Court judges who would overturn Roe
v. Wade, this approach “just has not proven very effective.”
University of Notre Dame law
professor Rick Garnett responded to Kmiec’s arguments about judicial
appointments in a commentary posted June 9 on the Mirror of Justice blog.
“The fact that overturning Roe does
not, by itself, end abortion does not change the fact that the persistence of Roe
effectively removes abortion from the arena of legislative – even if only
incremental — action and compromise,” Garnett said.
And in another June 16 posting on
the Mirror of Justice blog about Kmiec, Garnett said that while it’s true that
overturning Roe would not end abortion by itself and
that there are ways to reduce abortions that do not involve overturning the
1973 decision, “the fact is that President Obama will sign legislation and
issue executive orders that remove currently existing regulations, that
undermine conscience-protections and religious-freedom protections for
hospitals and health-care professionals who do not wish to participate in
abortion, and that use public funds to pay for abortions and embryo-destroying
research.”
Tom McFeely is based in
Victoria, British Columbia.
Where They Stand: The Candidates and The Issues
The Iraq War
Obama: Campaign opposed invasion. Promises withdrawal
in 16 months.
McCain: Voted for invasion and funding. No withdrawal until Iraq stable.
Marriage
Obama: Supports same-sex adoption.
Helped kill Marriage Amendment. Opposes Defense of Marriage Act.
McCain: Helped kill Marriage Amendment. Supports Defense of Marriage
Act.
Torture
Obama:
Opposes torture of U.S. detainees.
McCain:
Opposes torture of U.S. detainees.
Embryonic Research
Obama: Voted
to fund stem-cell research. Supports clone-and-kill research.
McCain: Voted to fund stem-cell
research. Opposes clone-and-kill research.
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