I’m with David at Catholics in the Public Square – the more I read about Virginia governor candidate Tim Kaine and Catholic the more troublesome it is. Generally I want to support truly pro-life Democrats. Though too often their pro-life views will nod towards Catholic teaching on the death penalty, but it does not seem to penetrate to other areas. Previously David reported:<\/p>\n
I have a faith-based opposition to abortion. As governor, I will work in good faith to reduce abortions by:<\/p>\n
1. Enforcing the current Virginia restrictions on abortion and passing an enforceable ban on partial birth abortion that protects the life and health of the mother;
\n2. Fighting teen pregnancy through abstinence-focused education;
\n3. Ensuring women’s access to health care (including legal contraception) and economic opportunity; and
\n4. Promoting adoption as an alternative for women facing unwanted pregnancies.<\/p>\n
We should reduce abortion in this manner, rather than by criminalizing women and doctors. Too often politicians are interested in scoring political points, rather than in reducing the number of abortions. Many of the legislative proposals introduced in the General Assembly, like the ones to require unnecessary building standards for doctor’s offices that perform abortions, are just political grandstanding. They encourage division and lawsuits rather than contributing to the goal of reducing abortions. <\/p>\n
Okay, yes, because of Roe and Casey the right to kill an unborn child is legal. Mr Kaine wants to work, it seems, within that reality. Great. Except for the promotion of contraception I have no problem with this plan. Yet, his stance of not wanting to "criminalize" abortion is a problem. This is important to Catholics because of what John Paul II taught us in Evangelium vitae:<\/p>\n
When it is not possible to overturn or completely abrogate a pro-abortion law, an elected official, whose absolute personal opposition to procured abortion was well known, could licitly support proposals aimed at limiting the harm done by such a law and at lessening its negative consequences at the level of general opinion and public morality. This does not in fact represent an illicit cooperation with an unjust law, but rather a legitimate and proper attempt to limit its evil aspects". (Evangelium vitae n. 73)<\/p>\n
My own comment was that one abortion clinic in another state recently closed due to increasing standards. These are much more than grandstanding, but real ways to reduce abortion. When abortion clinics have to face the same regulations everybody else does, they scurry away afraid of the light.<\/p>\n
I also deeply distrust statements like "on abortion and passing an enforceable ban on partial birth abortion that protects the life and health of the mother;" This is absolute garbage since there is never a medical situation where PBA would save the life of the mother. How in the world can killing the child at the last seconds before birth ever be any medical necessity?<\/p>\n
This sounds more like safe, legal, and rare than a truly faith filled pro-life response. <\/p>\n