Self-proclaimed pro-life candidates. Abstention from voting for justified

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mapleoak

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Given the fact that there currently are no pro-life candidates in the major political parties, one WILL be voting for a pro-choice candidate if one chooses to vote for any of them. Some tend to posit that culpability is mitigated by the attempt at limiting evil when voting for a ‘pro-choice’ candidate who supports killing fewer people in order to limit the number of people killed.
This can be likened to a parallel scenario where a candidate A supports killing anyone between the age of 20 and 30 and an opposing candidate B who is against killing people between the age of 20 and 30 except in the rare instance they have freckles.
A person voting in this scenario would not be obliged to vote for the latter candidate in order to limit evil. He would certainly be justified to either refrain from voting or vote for someone else who ‘in popular opinion’ has ‘no chance of winning’ but is solidy pro-life. I am sure a 25 year old with freckles would not vote for the latter candidate B and certainly not the former A. A 45 year old without freckles might rationalize that it is unacceptable to vote for the former candidate because he is ‘pro-choice’ and figure it is okay to vote for the latter candidate because the candidate is self proclaimed ‘pro-life’ even though in a limited fashion and a vote for him would ‘limit the evil’ allowed.
This of course is not much different than someone who claims to be pro-life, but supports killing the unborn in cases of rape. There are many folks who themselves were conceived via rape and are absolutely opposed to voting for someone who would have approved of their own death sentences.

My position is no candidate who supports the killing of unborn children, whether that be one child or a million, be it my child or yours, be it a healthy child or one with a disease, or if it be the child from the obscure and unknown woman of the ghetto, is worthy of any position of power, let alone being a candidate for the presidency. It is morally correct to refrain from casting ones vote for such a person or to cast it for an ‘unpopular’ choice.

Discussion welcome.
 
Given the fact that there currently are no pro-life candidates in the major political parties, one WILL be voting for a pro-choice candidate if one chooses to vote for any of them. Some tend to posit that culpability is mitigated by the attempt at limiting evil when voting for a ‘pro-choice’ candidate who supports killing fewer people in order to limit the number of people killed.
This can be likened to a parallel scenario where a candidate A supports killing anyone between the age of 20 and 30 and an opposing candidate B who is against killing people between the age of 20 and 30 except in the rare instance they have freckles.
A person voting in this scenario would not be obliged to vote for the latter candidate in order to limit evil. He would certainly be justified to either refrain from voting or vote for someone else who ‘in popular opinion’ has ‘no chance of winning’ but is solidy pro-life. I am sure a 25 year old with freckles would not vote for the latter candidate B and certainly not the former A. A 45 year old without freckles might rationalize that it is unacceptable to vote for the former candidate because he is ‘pro-choice’ and figure it is okay to vote for the latter candidate because the candidate is self proclaimed ‘pro-life’ even though in a limited fashion and a vote for him would ‘limit the evil’ allowed.
This of course is not much different than someone who claims to be pro-life, but supports killing the unborn in cases of rape. There are many folks who themselves were conceived via rape and are absolutely opposed to voting for someone who would have approved of their own death sentences.

My position is no candidate who supports the killing of unborn children, whether that be one child or a million, be it my child or yours, be it a healthy child or one with a disease, or if it be the child from the obscure and unknown woman of the ghetto, is worthy of any position of power, let alone being a candidate for the presidency. It is morally correct to refrain from casting ones vote for such a person or to cast it for an ‘unpopular’ choice.

Discussion welcome.
To understand where you are coming from…you need to define what you claim is pro life. Then to further understand where you are coming from…list what you call are pro life areas and compare the parties.

To simply lump everyone together if they are not pro life in any of the points you list is clouding the issue even further.

Pro life is against abortion, pro choice is for abortion.

Please break it down to what you are trying to say.
 
Pro life is against abortion, pro choice is for abortion.

Please break it down to what you are trying to say.
Yes, this is what I mean by “Pro Life”.
Pro-life being against abortion.
Pro-choice supporting abortion. Even if it means the candidate were to only support killing my baby and no one elses. I would define him as pro-choice.

In my opinion this disqualifies the candidate.
 
If we’re talking about presidential candidates, which we’re not allowed to do, btw, then the biggest thing to consider, isn’t necessarily what the individual believes about abortion, it is what kind of judges he or she will appoint to the Supreme Court: ones who believe Roe v. Wade should remain “the law of the land”, or ones who support overturning it, recognizing that it’s unconstitutional. Until that happens (Roe v. Wade is overturned), any laws passed against abortion on the state or federal level will always be challenged and most struck down.

That’s for the case of procured abortion. In the case of embryonic stem cell research, if the person doesn’t see it as the same thing as abortion (which we Catholic obviously agree that it is) the question has to be whether this person is married to the ideology, or is truly interested in finding cures and helping people. Some are in the pockets of the cloning/embryonic research folks, and will dismiss any alternative research and therapies. Others, while they may think that embyronic research has value and may produce cures, and don’t believe that the embryos produced either by cloning or via IVF are the same as a child in the womb, won’t pursue it at all costs (if for no other reason than offending their constituents who believe it is the same as abortion) if other therapies are discovered that are promising (and there have been and continue to be).

These are the things that must be considered, because no candidate is 100% pro-life according to the Catholic definition, but if we all refuse to vote, and we end up w/ someone who will enshrine abortion and ESCR research, w/ no restrictions, into our laws and constitutions (state or federal), more children will die and we will be partly to blame.

In Christ,

Ellen
 
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