Kerry's Opposition to Abortion

Harvard Law Student Joshua Davey has posted some thoughts regarding Senator Kerry's recent statement , "I oppose abortion, personally. I don't like abortion. I believe life does begin at conception." However, Senator Kerry continued, "I can't take my Catholic belief, my article of faith, and legislate it on a Protestant or a Jew or an atheist. . . . We have separation of church and state in the United States of America."

Now -- wholly and apart from the debate about pro-abortion-rights Catholic politicians and communion -- Senator Kerry's statement strikes me as quite unfortunate, for at least three reasons: First, the "Catholic belief" that abortion is a grave wrong is not (at least, at I understand it, the Church teaches that it is not) merely an "article of faith." No one is suggesting that Senator Kerry should support laws requiring affirmation of the Trinity or the Resurrection. It is, I think, a shame that so many Catholics seem to embrace uncritically the notion that we affirm the sanctity of life, and embrace other principles of Catholic Social Thought, *simply* as a matter of fideism.

Second, and accordingly, the "separation of church and state" imposes no constraints whatsoever on the right of Catholic legislators -- or any other legislators -- to support laws that limit or discourage abortion (any more than they constrain the right of Catholic legislators to oppose the death penalty, or support a "living wage"). The "separation of church and state" (properly understood) is, in my view, a crucial aspect of authentic religious freedom. That said, the Kennedy / Kerry / (Rawls?) idea that separationism imposes obligations of self-censorship or dis-integration on religious citizens is durable, but pernicious.

Third, Senator Kerry's statement seems to distract attention from what seems a much more interesting and challenging conversation, namely, the one proposed and engaged by Michael Perry in his recent book, "Under God." It seems to me that pro-life Catholic politicians and voters might well decide, for prudential reasons, that political realities and the fact of pluralism weigh against outright bans on abortion, or that a candidates' positions on other issues "outweigh" her mistaken views on abortion. And, as Perry argues, Catholics might well decide, for reasons *internal* to our faith (i.e., reasons not imposed by liberal theory) to avoid "faith based" arguments in certain public contexts. The (important) point, though, is that these decisions should not be regarded as Senator Kerry appears to regard them, i.e., as required by democratic morality or "the separation of church and state".

Rick