If you can’t defend the most helpless of humans, how are you going to defend any human?
I think you have been confused by baseless slurs. I am unabashedly pro-life, including anti abortion. I am not just so in principle, but in personal practice.
With our last child, my wife steadfastly refused a strong recommendation for a medical abortion - in a Catholic hospital. Our son is severely disabled, but remains one of the lights of my life.
I also served as a medic in Vietnam, spending nearly two years with a battalion that suffered the highest casualty rates in USMC history (well over 90% kia over the total deployment). Again, as a reflection of my committment to our teachings about life.
I do not embrace abortion, I reject it because I embrace the Church’s teaching in that the right to life is inalienable at “every phase” and in “every condition” (see CHRISTIFIDELES LAICI #38
vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_jp-ii_exh_30121988_christifideles-laici_en.html)).
Where Estesbob and I disagree are on two things. First, he argues that it is approproate to abridge the Church’s teaching on pro-life for the purposes of voting. I disagree, the Church explained quite clearly that moral relativism on fundemental teachings is not licit in voting (see this Doctrinal Note, #4:
vatican.va/roman_curia//congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20021124_politica_en.html)). I suggest people read and follow the Vatican’s guidance on critical teachings.
Second, Estesbob has asserted that he, and the GOP, are the source of “all good” on the “only issues that matter” to “real” Catholics. I disagree, I believe that God is the source of all good and that undue faith in a earthly political party (or system) is idolotry.
Because we do not agree, estesbob routinely accuses me of being pro-abortion. However, the accusation is utterly without basis. In fact, I am far more conservative on abortion than most posters here. If you search, you will find that I follow Church writings on the matter quite literally, and do not accept Vern and estesbob’s assertion that over 100,000 abortions in the US each year are ‘licit’. I believe that the response by the Tribunal of the Holy Office in 1902 as still being in place, since there appears to be no document overturning it.
In that instance, as this, I did/do not assert any moral authority (unlike Estesbob, I do not believe that I judge who is, and is not, a “real” Catholic). However, I think it is important to read what the Church actually says instead of just repeating what we think or want it to say.
