Barbara Kralis addresses the recent debacle in South Dakota where some pro-life groups, including National Right to Life, torpedoed an attempt by the Legislature to pass a bill banning abortions because “now isn’t the right time” to attempt to challenge Roe v. Wade. Apart from the question of tactics, what message does this send to the public at large about pro-lifers? That we’re not first and foremost concerned with ending abortion at every opportunity? That we’re more concerned with political matters?
Kralis quotes Pope Paul VI that evil cannot be done in order to accomplish good. Did NRLC commit an evil by undermining this bill? I think perhaps. I have other problems with NRLC, including their failure to recognize that contraception should be part of the pro-life fight, but then they’re not specifically Catholic and many anti-abortion Protestants are nevertheless not opposed to contraception either.
Whether now was the right time to pass a law that would go to the Supreme Court and challenge Roe is missing the point. We should take every opportunity to remind the American people that (1) most Americans, acting through their duly elected representatives, want the right to ban this murder of the innocent and (2) that we’re not going to stop trying to get this message out.
It wasn’t a question of allowing evil. THEY DID ALLOW EVIL.
We shouldn’t have to tolerate this kind of crap. Plain and simple. This was a serious political move with awful motives. That is evident.
ADDENDUM: If this was backed by the Bush administration, well then. He hasn’t put his money where his pro-life mouth is.
…and you can figure the rest of whatever I would say about this but tis Lent and I don’t like to cuss during Lent.
PMC – thank you for posting the Casey link. I read somewhere recently that the logical follow-up question from a reporter’s point of view to Kerry’s avowal that he’s “personally opposed to” abortion, gay marriage etc. should be “Why?” – a question that either isn’t ever asked or ever reported. Judge Casey asked the logical tough questions – something that made this doctor squirm.