Kerry Issues Worksheet: Abortion

Look here for a reminder of the purpose of this worksheet project and here for another small discussion about an example question (concerning the current War).

Abortion
Are you pro-choice or pro-life?
If you are a Kerry supporter and you are pro-choice, to what degree are you so?
I ask because some pro-choice people are only pro-choice in extreme cases or where the mother's health is involved. I understand this view, but I don't know that Kerry supports it. Those of you that hold this view would most likely be better represented by a pro-life candidate. It is more likely that Pro-life candidates will make allowances for abortion, then it is that a pro-choice candidate will restrict abortion in such a way.

However, all that being said, your view on abortion may or may not fit with Kerry's because Kerry's seems to be uncertain. As evidence, I present this from the July 26th issue of National Review.

"I oppose abortion, personally," says John Kerry. "I don't like abortion. I believe life does begin at conception. But I can't take my Catholic belief, my article of faith, and legislate it on a Protestant or a Jew or an atheist...who doesn't share it. We have separation of church and state in the [US]." If Kerry believes that abortion kills a human being - and it is reasonable to infer from his comment about conception that he does...- then it is awfully tepid of him to say that he does not "like" it. But then, it is also odd that he shrinks from prohibiting it. It takes a moment's reflection to see that opposition to abortion is not an "article of faith" in the way that the Virgin Birth is. Non-Catholics, indeed atheists, have reached the conclusion that abortion is a form of killing that should generally be banned. Can it really be Kerry's position that their conclusion is rendered suspect by the fact that the Catholic Church agrees with it? Kerry wants to say that he agrees with his church about abortion (the practice is wrong) but not about the public policy about abortion. But the "Catholic belief" about abortion is not just that it is wrong, but that it is wrong because it is a form of unjustified killing, that reason can demonstrate this point, and that allowing it is therefore unjust. Kerry's straddle is based on the idea that reason and religion are in conflict and that the state must side with the former. But he's made a hash of both reason and religion. Which we oppose, personally.

Yeah, I oppose it too. As do, I'm sure, some other people, including at least one in Missouri. The National Review's analysis about this Kerry quote is reasonable and sound. The important point here is John Kerry's "straddle" -- he doesn't really know where he stands. If you expect him to represent your views on this issue, don't be surprised if he abandons you on it later.

I should also note that I am taking these issues one at a time and I don't know how many people vote for a candidate on a single issue, but when we are done, these issues in their totality present a picture of a man who is not only inconsistent with the Democratic Party platform, but inconsistent with himself. Voting 93% liberal in the Senate does not a Liberal President make when it comes to executing the duties of that office.

However, I remember something I said during the 2000 election: "Yes, Gore may indeed have a better position on the environment, I don't really know. But I do know that George W. Bush is pro-life and on that issue alone, he has my vote."

Next up: Appeasement


(PS: Just to say, John Kerry also displays ignorance of the Constitution by asserting that we have separation of Church and State here in America. We just don't. It's just not true. We need to stop merging a Thomas Jefferson letter (designed to discuss the protection of churches from the state, not the other way around) and the Constitution.)