Reproductive rights, life, and the Church

By Ken from Frederick, MD - Oct 28th, 2008 at 3:05 pm EDT



There are certainly many in the Catholic Church fighting to prevent Barack Obama from being elected. However, we have seen a shift in Catholic support towards Barack.

I am a lifelong Catholic and a graduate of the University of Notre Dame. I don’t consider myself a theology expert, but I feel I have some idea of what the essence of the Church’s teaching is. Certainly, it is not to be focused exclusively on one issue (abortion) while ignoring all others. The potential damage of a McCain presidency in terms of new wars (perpetrated by a lack of diplomacy), neglect of our nation’s poor, neglect of the health care system, neglect of the humanitarian crises around the globe, etc outweigh his pandering on abortion.

Since many of the folks who oppose Obama are looking exclusively at the abortion issue and McCain’s claim to be in favor of overturning Roe v. Wade, let’s look at that issue. Here’s some things to consider:

First, it is important to understand that overturning Roe v. Wade will not make abortion illegal. The case was as much a states’ rights case as it was an abortion case. If it is overturned, then it will put the decision on whether or not to make abortion legal into the hands of the individual states. Obviously, at that point, some will make it illegal, some will keep it legal and abortions will continue.

Furthermore, this will create an even greater problem because people of means will have no problem traveling for an abortion of they live in a state where it is illegal while lower income folks will not have that option. Then we will begin to see more instances of self-induced abortions or other risky, non-medical procedures being performed. Some of these folks will certainly decide to carry the child to term, but will then be faced with the economic realities of caring for an actual child. Economic issues and problems associated with people in poverty (things that sometimes get brushed under the rug) will be put back into the national spotlight as children in the US face problems of not having proper shelter, food, education, etc. The real solution to addressing the issue (which is what Barack Obama is focusing on) is twofold:

1. Reduce unwanted pregnancies. This means expanding birth control education (I know it’s not the Catholic way, but it is essential if we want to address the issue), expanding sex education (not just abstinence-only education), and developing a culture that promotes individual responsibility.
2. Providing assistance for mothers who decide to carry the child to term. This means providing economic assistance, educational assistance, health care assistance, etc, etc. (I believe Senator McCain calls this “socialism”). It also means providing resources for those who deliver but are unable to care for the child and end up choosing adoption. This may mean doing things that seem counterintuitive like supporting Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood is not just an abortion factory like some people think - it provides extensive health care resources for low income women. Supporting them helps mothers which allows those mothers to help their children.

Here is some of the info from the Dem’s platform:

“But we must also support parents as they strive to raise their children in a new era. We must make it easier for working parents to spend time with their families when they need to. We will make an unprecedented national investment to guarantee that every child has access to high-quality Pre-K programs, and access to Head Start and Early Head Start and we will help pay for child care. We will ensure that every child has health insurance, invest in playgrounds to promote healthy and active lifestyles, and protect children from lead poisoning in their homes and toys. Improving maternal health also improves children's health, so we will provide access to home visits by medical professionals to low- income expectant first-time mothers. We must protect our most vulnerable children, by supporting and supplementing our struggling foster care system, enhancing adoption programs, and protecting children from violence and neglect.”

“We will support fathers by providing transitional training to get jobs, removing tax penalties on married families, and expanding maternity and paternity leave. We will reward those who are responsibly supporting their children by giving them a tax credit, crack down on men who avoid child support payments, and we will ensure that payments go directly to families instead of bureaucracies.”

“The Democratic Party also strongly supports access to affordable family planning services and comprehensive age-appropriate sex education which empowers people to make informed choices and live healthy lives. We also recognize that such health care and education help reduce the number of unintended pregnancies and thereby also reduce the need for abortions. The Democratic Party also strongly supports a woman's decision to have a child by ensuring access to and availability of programs for pre- and post-natal health care, parenting skills, income support, and caring adoption programs.”