Paying for abortions
Carlin, David R. Jr.
OF SEVERAL MINDS David R. Carlin, Jr. PAYING FOR ABORTIONS PROCHOICERS JUNK PRINCIPLES he mask is off. The "prochoice" movement (with the blessing and backing of the Clinton administration)...
...But I suspect the answer is to be found rather in the lack of intellectual integrity that has always characterized the abortion party: a lack of integrity shown in its persistent refusal to discuss the cardinal question regarding abortion, namely, whether the fetus is or is not a human person...
...Dear me, I wonder why that bitter comparison popped into my head...
...The award-winning submission, which may take the form of a scholarly or critical essay or a personal narrative, should appeal to the interests of the general educated reader...
...These arguments have a nice American ring to them...
...But now the abortion movement seems to have forgotten all its fine words about freedom and pluralism as it urges Congress to compel all Americans to pay for the feticidal preferences of a few culture groups...
...Announcement of Prize: December 16, 1994...
...let them abstain...
...The editors reserve the right to select more than one winner or not to award the prize at all...
...If the abortion movement truly believed in freedom and choice, it would move heaven and earth to see to it that our choice not to pay for abortion would be respected...
...Such people can never rise to the level of conviction...
...Now that the leadership has thrown off the mask, however, these folks will be able to remain faithful followers only by consuming larger and larger amounts of selfdeception pills...
...The abortion pluralists have told us that Catholics and Southern Baptists have no right to impose their values on others...
...Or hypocrisy...
...But of course it does not believe in freedom...
...When the abortion movement came on the national stage dressed in the garments of autonomy and pluralism, it was hard to resist...
...All other essays will be returned to their authors after January 1. COMMONWEAL 15 Dutch Street, New York, NY 10038 10:6 May 1994 more believe in pluralism than they believe in freedom...
...According to the pluralism argument, the cultural diversity of the United States means that no culture-group has the right to impose its values on any other culturegroup...
...Now all but the willfully blind can see what the abortion movement is: not prochoice but proabortion...
...If society protects a woman's freedom to kill the unborn life growing in her, shouldn't it protect your freedom not to be a killer...
...The thought occurs to me that earlier in the twentieth century there were one or two parties in the world that exhibited the following characteristics: they were utterly devoid of intellectual integrity...
...they were masters of propaganda...
...Today it looks us right in the eye and says, "Remember when we told you that all we wanted was to be left alone...
...And pluralism...
...What then...
...Commonweal...
...No, for among the rank and file there are many good-hearted dupes who truly believe that the abortion cause is the cause of freedom and pluralism...
...After all, breathes there an American with soul so dead who never to himself hath said, "This is my own, my native land--the land of the free and the home of the diverse...
...According to the personal freedom argument, the autonomy of the individual is a fundamental value...
...So long as it was helpful to use the rhetoric of pluralism and freedom, they were happy to do so...
...People who lack intellectual integrity are incapable of holding intellectual principles...
...I1¢~ ;- , r , : . . . . . . .5...
...How can the abortion movement so easily disregard its hitherto fundamental principles...
...but professing principles is one thing, truly holding them is something else...
...This essay will become the property of the Graymoor Ecumenical & Interreligious Institute...
...If so, those who have defended abortion rights in the name of cultural pluralism should be the first to defend the right of those culture groups opposed to abortion not to have to pay for it...
...Neither society nor government has the least right to interfere with a woman when, in the sacred forum of her conscience, she is making the decision to abort or not to abort...
...Is it a simple case of inattention...
...they had a great talent for switching principles at a moment's notice...
...From the Eritrean scholar Yacob Tesfai (1994) to the euphonious Anthea Dove (l 993) to the exotic Ty Mam Duw Community (1992) to the formidable Ed Marciniak (1991), Graymoor winners have written about the difficulties as well as the satisfactions, the personal as well as the theological dimensions of ecumenical work...
...Is personal freedom an ultimate value...
...The real plan is this: you not only have to permit our abortions, you have to pay for them too...
...Our previous winners have reported from England, Wales, Tanzania, Jerusalem, Eisenach, Germany, Strasbourg, and Chicago, among other places...
...The prize is intended to encourage and support new ecumenical and interreligious ideas and perspectives...
...The winning essay will receive $I,000 and will be published in COMMONWEAL...
...Is respect for cultural differences still a good thing...
...Original and unpublished essays of approximately 2,500-4,000 words should be submitted to the editors of COMMONWEAL who will make the final decision following consultation with a panel of experts...
...Up till now the rhetoric of the abortion 7 rights people has utilized two main arguments: the personal freedom argument and the pluralism argument...
...But as soon as they saw an opportunity to force all Americans to pay for abortion, they quickly embraced that opportunity, casually contradicting the principles they had up till now so strenuously professed...
...Do I mean to say this about everyone who is (if you'll pardon the expression) prochoice...
...They know how to profess principles for public consumption, yes...
...Well then, suppose your conscience tells you that it is wrong to contribute to an insurance plan that pays for abortion...
...Deadline: October 3, 1994...
...The "prochoice" movement (with the blessing and backing of the Clinton administration) is fighting to have national health care include coverage for abortion...
...But they have no business prohibiting abortion to those whose cultural values tell them abortion is morally permissible...
...But of course the abortion leaders no THE GRAYMOOR PRIZE The Friars of Atonement announce the fifth annual Graymoor Prize, to be awarded for the best essay on any aspect of ecumenical or interreligious affairs...
...Live with it...
...If Catholics or Southern Baptists, for instance, are opposed to abortion, fine...
...it believes in abortion...
...It was like being wrapped in the American tlag...
...Watch out for this guy.., his bite is even worse than his bark/" Commonweal 6 May 1994:9 that we wouldn't tell you what to do and you shouldn't tell us what to do either...
...and they practiced the fine art of mass homicide...
...After all, everyone realizes there is no resemblance between those earlier tyrannies and the genteel leadership of our late twentieth-century American abortion movement...
...Is there any personal freedom more basic than the freedom not to dirty your hands unless you choose to...
...Perhaps...
...Suppose it tells you that such contributions make you a partner in homicide...
...the highest (or rather the lowest) they can reach is the level of propaganda...
...The prize-winning essay will be published in COMMONWEAL'S January 13, 1995, issue...
...Well, we were just kidding...
...Well then, neither do pro-abortion culture groups have a right to impose their values on Catholics and Southern Baptists...
...In other words, the abortion folks want to compel anti-abortion folks to participate in what the latter consider to be unwarranted homicide...
Vol. 121 • May 1994 • No. 9
