Something So Clear

Marjorie Campbell, marjorie@marjoriecampbell.com

I know many pro-life Catholic Democrats who sincerely gag over their party's abortion platform.  But they puzzle why other Catholics find that "single issue" a deal breaker with a party that prides itself on concern for oppressed and struggling people.  A reader just sent me this Q&A with Father Thomas Williams, LC.  I had to share something so clear:

Q: But is abortion objectively any graver than other social injustices, to which the Church also pays attention? Doesn't a consistent ethic of life go beyond abortion?

Father Williams: The Church's defense of social justice embraces any number of key life issues, and attention to one does not lessen the importance of the others. Abortion, however, stands out among them as a unique case meriting singular attention.

To quickly enumerate the reasons for this singularity, we must look first at the simple magnitude of the problem: some 46 million legal abortions performed every year in the world, which in and of itself makes abortion a social problem of staggering proportions.

Second, it involves the killing of the most innocent and vulnerable members of society.

Third, it perpetrates this evil systemically and legally, thus giving abortion a veneer of moral legitimacy. Since the law informs people's consciences, the legality of abortion perpetuates an anti-life mentality and separates it from other crimes against life such as terrorism, serial killing, human trafficking, and so forth.

Fourth, abortion repeats the historical error of taking an entire class of human beings and devaluing them to a second-class status, deprived of basic human dignity and the rights that flow from it.