A Quick Response

What Cardinal Martini says in my post below is what I say--and, I think, what Cathy Kaveny (Notre Dame), John Langan, SJ (Georgetown), and many other Catholic thinkers say.

Let me be clear:  What we say does not leave any room for what John Kerry said and did in the last presidential election:  As I saw it, Kerry was essentially cheerleading for NARAL.

(Again, what the Catechism and Evangelium Vitae say leave no room for support for the death penalty in North Carolina or elsewhere in the United States (here).)

But what we say does leave room for a prudential judgment that the criminalization of  early abortions is not, all things considered, the best way to deal with the tragedy of abortion in our society.

What public policy with respect to abortion do I support?  I concur in Cathy's answer:  See M. Cathleen Kaveny, "Toward a Thomistic Perspective on Abortion and the Law in Contemporary America," 55 The Thomist 343 (1991).  I quote the most relevant passages of Cathy's essay in my book, Under God?  Religious Faith and Liberal Democracy (2003) at 117-19.

MOJ-readers should also take a look at John Langan, SJ, "Observations on Abortion and Politics," America, Oct. 25, 2004.  (The article is here.)  As Langan explains,

the enactment of any prohibition of abortion is not simply the enunciation of a moral truth; it is a political and legal act that is to be carried out in an arena where there are many conflicting points of view and interests and where there is widespread hostility to the pro-life position. There must be room for a variety of judgments about how best to deal with this zone of conflict, in which pro-life forces work at a considerable disadvantage. It is reasonable to think that there can be and will be divergent political judgments about how to improve the protection of unborn human life in these difficult circumstances. In such a complex political setting, political leaders are better suited to make these judgments than are bishops or theologians or intellectuals. The function of bishops, and more generally of the churches, is to bear witness to the moral truth that is at stake, not to determine what is the best legal and political resolution of the problem. . . .  It would be a brave bishop who would claim to know on theological grounds just when such compromises are acceptable or justifiable, and it would be a naïve voter who would follow his opinion on such a question.

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Yes, Rick, the Dems have been in the grip of NARAL and the like.  I hope that's beginning to change.  (My own thinking on the morality of abortion has changed dramatically over the years.)   I'm rooting for Bob Casey over Rick Santorum.  You're rooting for Santorum.  We're both rooting for pro-life candidates, one a Democrat, the other a Republican.

(Maybe I shouldn't be too quick to concede that Santorum is a pro-life candidate:  Does he support the death penalty?)
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mp