EXCLUSIVE: DOUG KMIEC - 'After Meeting with Barack'

6/17/2008

(Page 2 of 3)

endorse either Senator Obama's or Senator McCain's positions on life. As a Catholic, I believe both fall short of the ideal.

Senator Obama's position accepts the existing legal regime which leaves the abortion decision with the mother -- which is all right so long as the mother is persuaded to choose life. Senator McCain's position would leave the decision with the individual states -- which is all right so long as the individual states prohibit abortion.

Since we are assured of neither, neither position is fully pro-life.

In truth, both positions are pro-choice, with the former focused on the individual and the latter focused on the state. Senator McCain's position is sometimes described as pro-life, but it is more pro-federalism (states being free under the McCain position to decide to permit or disallow abortion as they see fit).

From a standpoint of subsidiarity and prudence, one can make an argument that the Obama position is preferable since it does not arrogate to a higher level that which can be done more effectively below in direct relationship with the mother.

That said, as a constitutional law teacher, I respectfully disagree with both Senator Obama and Senator McCain since the Constitution was intended as a means to enforce and guarantee the unalienable right to life recited in the Declaration of Independence, where of course it is explicitly traced to our Creator.

Thinking of the lives with actual faces and names the church has encouraged to life

Since neither candidate presents a position fully compatible with Catholic teaching recognizing abortion for the intrinsic evil that it is, I understand my Catholic responsibility to work for the reduction of the incidence of abortion through the most prudent way possible.

My experience in parish work and with Catholic pregnancy centers suggest that the most effective way to actually protect life is to work directly face to face with someone facing the awful thought of taking an innocent life.

Doing one�s best to work toward respect for life as a matter of personal responsibility; meeting as best one is able the social and economic and religious reassurance needed by the individual children of God (mother and unborn child) brought into one's life.

Can pro-abortion be distinguished from pro-choice?

Many conservative activists say the answer is �no,� but does this collapse of categories not understate the free will that the good Lord has given us Himself? Yes, the choice must be to affirm life if we are thinking with the church, as we should, but there is a necessary category difference to be stated.

Those who are pro-abortion, as I see it, are those who advocate the practice as a matter of fundamental right or as part of a radical, often feminist, agenda that takes no account of the moral weight or significance of unborn life. This is not Senator Obama's position, though before our meeting, and during it, I would take issue with him and his advisors for occasions where he has, in my judgment, spoken with less clarity than he should to differentiate himself.

This is an effort of evangelization at work, and the Senator would appear to affirm the importance of the distinction not just because it is politically convenient at that moment, but because of his desire to honor the moral reality of the child deeply held even as he will not impose the same recognition upon the mother. He reminds me that he speaks consistently to those who are both pro-life and pro-abortion and for the most part I have found that to be true.

But isn't it all about overturning Roe v. Wade?

I have long thought so myself. The objective has guided my pro-life testimony, litigation, lobbying, marching, praying, and related speaking and academic writing efforts for the past several decades. I don't think it is necessarily wrong for a Catholic voter or I would not have pursued it with such single-minded devotion; it just has not proven very effective.

I also think many Catholics misunderstand what can be gained. In particular, I am distressed by well-meaning individuals who have been led into thinking that we as a nation are merely one vote away from protecting life if we control the composition of the Supreme Court.

First, I think it's wrong to understand court appointments in this fashion as it indulges the pernicious notion of the rule of men rather than the rule of law. But, putting that law teacher's objection to one side, in truth, there is not a single member of the present Court willing to affirm the unalienable right to life from the moment of conception, as opposed to merely reversing a single court decision such as Roe, which, as best as I can tell, would directly save no unborn life.

Yes, if Roe was reversed a few states ...
- - -

Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.

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1 - 10 of 26 Comments

frank
4 years ago
2 words: Dred Scott
Wondering
4 years ago
If McCain is against abortion, why is he for stem cell research from fertility clinics...I would think if you are agaist abortion, you would be against fertility clinics altogether.
Robert A
4 years ago
Professor Kmiec is woefully mis-guided and is in need of much prayer. The blood of the innocents who are killed cries out to God. My late grandmother once said "We were hungry until it happened. Then after it happened, we were not hungry anymore". "It" was the election of Adolf Hitler. He offered hope and change to Germans.

Does Prof Kmiec not ponder that he may face questions about this when he faces God? And that he may see the faces of those innocents whose blood was shed looking at him during the questioning?
Molly
4 years ago
Professor Kmiec, you have not addressed Obama's support for infanticide in any of your Obama apologias. Curious.
Frank Niemiec
4 years ago
I believe we have heard enough of Professor Kmiec's position. Nothing he can say will rescue his credibility.
Bill Jones
4 years ago
Professor Kmiec,
As a former Constitutional Law student of yours, I am shocked and disappointed that you, one of the greatest pro-life voices that I have encountered, would use soft logic and half quotes to encourage fellow Catholics to vote pro-choice.

If I follow your unfortunate reasoning, Catholics don't really need to worry about whether homicide is illegal or not - they just need to work together to convince people that homicide is evil and wrong.

Professor Kmiec, that is pathetic, and if you do some soul searching and spend some time in prayer, you will realize that a vote for Obama is not a vote for repatriation. It is a vote against life. I recently read that Catholic Obama supporters are 75% more likely to not attend mass regularly. Is this your excuse?
Lance Q. Magnotta
4 years ago
Dr. Kmiec, while you are a learned and celebrated man, you do not communicate the objective Catholic teaching on the supremacy of respect for human life. Very simply, Dr. Kmiec, if we do not respect human life, we will not tolerate people of other ethnic backgrounds or cultures either.

Your commentary does not support the will of God for the American people. There is no justification for a candidate either Republican or Democrat who assents or promotes the degradation of human lives. Abortion kills actual people like you and I. It kills American citizens. It kills other residents of our great country. It kills mothers due to the horrible complications of its procedures.

There is nothing acceptable about willfully killing people to achieve a result. The bottom line is that abortion, racism, and evil in general are diametrically opposed to the goodness of God, and therefore Catholic dogma. There is no excuse for tolerating proponents of the culture of death. May we all pray and do our part to peacefully end this ceaseless tragedy around us.
Melvin
4 years ago
This article reads like Mr. Kmiec has already decided that he supports Obama and wants to justify Obama's stances that are in contrast to Catholic teaching. It also sound like he wants to convince everybody else of it as well.

Basically, he drank the Obama kool-aid of "hope" and wants us to drink it as well. Don't you know Mr. Kmiec that true "hope" only lies in Christ. It's to roasy and not critical enough of Obama's record and history, it just looks at what he hopes he will do. Well, I don't buy it! And I don't say that because I support McCain, because I don't.

His position and history is just slightly less offensive to me as a Catholic, so I will probably end up voting for him. And another thing, I'm tired of all of these Catholic's describing themselves (or polls putting them in catogories) of traditionlist, centerist, or modernist. You are either Catholic or you are not. You either hold to the churches teachings or you don't. And if you think that abortion should be a choice, then you don't hold to the church's teaching and you have effectively excommunicated yourself.

If you can't conform your will to that of God and his church, then find a chuch that will suite your needs or start your own, and hope that God will see things your way when it is your judgement day. As for me, I will do my best hold fast to Jesus's teaching and that of his church and pray that God will have mercy on my soul at the end of my life.

BTW, one last nugget for Mr. Kmiec, God does not call us to be effective or victorious. He is already victorious by His death on the Cross. He only calls us to be faithfull.
PFC Mark Vandermere
4 years ago
Mr. Bauer,

Your "Most Liberal" rant is 100% pure BUNK. In fact, if you pull up any data that includes senate voting records; including the eight years that Senator Obama spent as a state senator prior to going to the U.S. Senate, you will see that he is FAR from the most liberal senator in Congress.

You sir are echoing the exact same talking point that was immediately launched when John Kerry became the Democratic nominee.

If you are seriously into "Progressive to Conservative" ratings, simply go to "On the Issues" and look at the scales for each U.S. Senator or Congress Member. The ratings indicate that U.S. Senator Russ Feingold is by far the most liberal senator currently serving. If you believe these ratings; Senator Obama according to his voting record comes in at 11th place; and when Congress is included, comes in in 89th place.

Do your homework sir. Don't just mindlessly echo talking points which have no merit.

You do NOT sound like a Christian to me sir.
RyGuy
4 years ago
My only question to Professor Kmiec is how does one reconcile Obama's stance with the Born Alive legislation, which is effectively a pro-infanticide position, with Obama's work to "discourage" (reduce?) abortions...

I fully agree that the GOP and McCain positions are not pro-life either, but Obama directly voted to permit the death of abortion survivors...

Although on the other hand, McCain has directly supported the slavery of "spare" human embryos which is a morally indefensible position and equivalent to abortion (both are the intentional termination of a human life)...

Hooray for November 4th

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