Friday, January 25, 2013
Charles Reid is mistaken about Roe, Cardinal Bernadin, and the pro-life movement
In this HuffPo essay, to which Michael Perry linked, Charles Reid is mistaken in several respects. First, he re-presents the frequently advanced -- but no more compelling for being frequently advanced -- argument that, because Justices O'Connor, Kennedy, and Souter declined to overrule Roe in Casey, it is "obvious" that "Republican promises on abortion were cynically motivated by partisan advantage and were not a sincere commitment to the life issues." The suggestion, I take it, is that pro-lifers should not vote for Republicans because Roe will never be overturned.
I suspect it probably won't -- at least not explicitly. That said, the five Justices who have indicated a willingness to uphold reasonable restrictions on abortion were appointed by Republicans, and the four who have indicated a determination to invalidate such restrictions were appointed by Democrats. So, if you think (as you should, if you are pro-life) it's important that (i) our laws move in a pro-life direction and (ii) that those laws survive judicial scrutiny, then you have (Casey notwithstanding) a good reason -- even if not a conclusive one -- to prefer that Republicans, rather than Democrats, nominate and confirm federal judges.
Second, Reid suggests that Cardinal Bernadin's "consistent ethic of life" emphasis provides an "alternative road map for American Catholics," according to which "the premise of the pro-life movement must be about saving lives, not winning elections or even changing laws." Cardinal Bernadin did not think, in fact, that pro-lifers should stop at "saving lives" and disregard the important task of "changing laws." He would have been wrong if he had. True, there are limits -- some imposed by the Court, some imposed by political and cultural realities, some by sound judgment and prudence -- to what laws can do when it comes to creating a culture of, and a consistent ethic of, life. But I am very confident that Cardinal Bernadin would firmly reject the suggestion that pro-lifers should settle for our current, deeply unjust legal regime. Cardinal Bernadin never suggested Catholics should abandon the struggle for legal change; his challenge, instead -- which we should all embrace -- was to broaden that struggle, to other contexts and other ways in which the dignity of the person is threatened or disrespected.
https://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2013/01/charles-reid-is-mistaken-about-roe-cardinal-bernadin-and-the-pro-life-movement.html
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If Prof. Perry's post allowed comments, I would have similarly expressed my doubts that Cardinal Bernadin would be happy with his name being used to suppport the notion that we should not be supporting legal protections for the unborn. It was a "both/and" not "either/or".
The article also fails to note the series of protections that have been passed at the state level in recent years, which the pro-choice movement has not failed to notice. This either reflects fruit of the same old strategies, or a shift in strategy since Casey, which has in fact borne fruit.
Finally, Prof. Reid's calls for respect and dialogue are belied by his characterizations of Republican politicians. Given that Todd Akin lost a Senate election in a state Obama lost convincingly, isn't it fair to say that Catholics and pro-lifers have already rejected him as public face? Prof. Reid finds the disqualifies "defends the right to bear Kalashnikovs and Bushmaster assault rifles," which raises the questions of why respect and dialogue is called for in the case of killing unborn children, but not for gun ownership.
This leads to the conclusion that Prof. Reid doesn't really think these strategies will bring about an end to abortion (since he doesn't practice them on issues he does actually care about) but rather hopes pro-lifers will shut up about abortion so that we can make progress on other issues.