Many are not going to like everything we have to say on today's Supreme Court decision overturning the restrictive Louisiana law requiring physicians to have admitting privileges in local hospitals.
We agree with Catholic Church's teaching that abortion is morally wrong. However, we support the 5-4 Supreme Court decision because we believe - as Aquinas asserted - pedagogical value of law should take into account cultural norms, society's willingness to accept the law & ability to enforce it.
Even President Obama, in his 2009 Notre Dame Commencement Address said, "Maybe we won’t agree on abortion, but we can still agree that this heart-wrenching decision for any woman is not made casually, it has both moral and spiritual dimensions.”
Although we think Aquinas would find legalized abortion on demand as anathema to the values of our faith, we also think he would undoubtedly recognize that society's support for Roe is strong and consistent. Additionally, studies show that restrictive abortion laws do not prevent the incidence of abortion. We do not believe this is going to change in our lifetime or the lifetimes of future generations.
Finally, we are mindful the nuanced opinions of American public are not represented by either political party who seek to push the debate to the margins. While 56% of Americans believe abortion is morally wrong only 8% believe that it should illegal in all circumstances. Thus, we believe that those who are "pro-life" should support policies that help pregnant women bring their pregnancies to term and to subsequently care for their families in both the short and long term, e.g. WIC, adoption programs, SNAP, income support & job training.
As President Obama said at Notre Dame, "So let us work together to reduce the number of women seeking abortions, let’s reduce unintended pregnancies. Let’s make adoption more available...Let’s honor conscience of those who disagree with abortion and draft a sensible conscience clause...Those are things we can do."
In other words, the people, not God, decide what the moral law will be? I don't think I have ever come across such a twisting of the words of St. Thomas Aquinas by subjective moralists proclaiming to be Catholic. It's actually quite demonic! No one has the right to contradict the eternal law of God with man-made laws that are both counter-cultural and barbaric. Abortion was once an evil perpetrated only in Communist countries. This says all about the so-called Catholics who promote it or defend it today, they are apostates from the faith.
ReplyDeleteThere exists the divine and the natural law, the objective moral law, which cries to heaven against the murder of innocents in the womb. No feigned emotional argument, no excuses from a selfish hedonist society, no distracting from the reality with abstract arguments about racial inequalities, unemployment, the climate, etc. Abortion is the direct and deliberate killing of the most innocent of God's Creation, His "Little Ones" for which crime Our Lord Himself passed judgment in the Gospels when he spoke of millstones and the deepest river. This indicates the sentence all unrepentant pro-aborts may expect when they appear before the divine judge, as we all must one day. He hears no excuses and takes no bribes, His justice is just, strict and eternal.