I had to watch a re-run of Ray Arroyo's interview with Prof Schenck, head of Catholics for Obama to follow his contorted logic when he and fellow Catholics Bart Stupak and Kathy Dahlkemper claim that they are supporting Obama on pro-life grounds. Sr Simone Campbell followed similar logic in her DNC speech, and I was more than upset with their misuse of logic.
I have the following challenges for Prof Schenck, Sr Campbell, Mr Stupak and Ms Dahlkemper or any Catholic who sees the Paul Ryan budget as an excuse to vote for Obama while claiming the moral high ground on life issues.
1. Prove that Romneycare and Romneycare ALONE decreased abortions;
you are drawing a conclusion without proof that other factors are not at play; increased counseling, chastity education, higher wages, better economy, etc could have caused this. Pregnancy is caused by such erroneous things as the Gloucester Pact in Massachusetts, can we say that abortion is utterly predictable as Prof Schenck claims? When you are dealing with human beings the answer is complicated.
Its specious to assume that more Medicaid spending equals fewer abortions. Its like saying higher wages for Chicago teachers will improve the abominable reading and math scores (only 15% are on grade level). Money is not always as effective at providing the results we intend, the federal government has an abundance of examples to prove this case!
2. Prove that women seek abortions principally because they have no medical coverage.
I have counseled abortion bound women for decades, believe me sir you are oversimplifying things.We never allowed a woman to leave our CPC without assurance that she had medical coverage. Cardinal O'Connor in his day personally paid for some middle class women without insurance to give birth.
That is never cited as the top reason for abortion when opinion surveys are done. Here are the results of one survey. Note the second reason is not that the woman can't afford medical care per se, but the cost of raising the child is too high. And its only 23% of women who seek abortions. Source: Lawrence Finer, et. al, "Reasons U.S. Women Have Abortions: Quantitative and Qualitative Perspectives" Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, Vol. 37 No. 3 (Sept., 2005) p. 110
Social Reasons (given as primary reason)
- Feels unready for child/responsibility25%
- Feels she can't afford baby23%
- Has all the children she wants/Other family responsibilities19%
- Relationship problem/Single motherhood8%
- Feels she isn't mature enough7%
- Interference with education/career plans4%
- Parents/Partner wants abortion<1 br="br"> - Other reasons<6 .5=".5" div="div" total:93="total:93">
3. Can you say for sure that the Ryan budget will be adopted by Romney without any changes to the proposed cut in the increase in Medicaid spending? IF in the unlikely scenario that Romney's version of the budget is ditched for Ryan's and after two houses of Congress finish with it, it would be unrecognizable anyway! You have picked an unsteady pole on which to hang your political hat, considering the behavior of the Congress with regard to budgets. President Obama's budget did not receive one single vote. How do you know which budget will emerge, if any?
4. If you add up all the abortions we pay for at Planned Parenthood via federal subsidies, overseas abortions via the banning of the Mexico City Policy, the abortions done via abortifacient drugs which are now mandated by the HHS, and other miscellaneous abortions Obamacare will pay for that we don't know about yet, (like when Obamacare pays for new prenatal testing which will decimate the population of babies with Down syndrome) http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/is-the-hhs-taking-aim-at-babies-with-down-syndrome/can you really keep telling us that Obama would LOWER the abortion rate? REALLY?!
AND if the Ryan budget is NOT adopted, as Ray Arroyo assured you it would not be then your entire argument is null and void. Plus we have the statements of President Obama which show that he sees abortion as a good, he is not interested in lowering it as Bill Clinton claimed, he is a hero to the likes of NARAL and Planned Parenthood who spoke in his defense at the DNC; he is the ONLY American politician who approved after birth abortion according to the testimony of Jill Stanek. http://www.godandscience.org/doctrine/stanek.html#.UE9nhLJlTQA
2. Prove that women seek abortions principally because they have no medical coverage.
I have counseled abortion bound women for decades, believe me sir you are oversimplifying things.We never allowed a woman to leave our CPC without assurance that she had medical coverage. Cardinal O'Connor in his day personally paid for some middle class women without insurance to give birth.
That is never cited as the top reason for abortion when opinion surveys are done. Here are the results of one survey. Note the second reason is not that the woman can't afford medical care per se, but the cost of raising the child is too high. And its only 23% of women who seek abortions. Source: Lawrence Finer, et. al, "Reasons U.S. Women Have Abortions: Quantitative and Qualitative Perspectives" Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, Vol. 37 No. 3 (Sept., 2005) p. 110
Social Reasons (given as primary reason)
- Feels unready for child/responsibility25%
- Feels she can't afford baby23%
- Has all the children she wants/Other family responsibilities19%
- Relationship problem/Single motherhood8%
- Feels she isn't mature enough7%
- Interference with education/career plans4%
- Parents/Partner wants abortion<1 br="br"> - Other reasons<6 .5=".5" div="div" total:93="total:93">
3. Can you say for sure that the Ryan budget will be adopted by Romney without any changes to the proposed cut in the increase in Medicaid spending? IF in the unlikely scenario that Romney's version of the budget is ditched for Ryan's and after two houses of Congress finish with it, it would be unrecognizable anyway! You have picked an unsteady pole on which to hang your political hat, considering the behavior of the Congress with regard to budgets. President Obama's budget did not receive one single vote. How do you know which budget will emerge, if any?
4. If you add up all the abortions we pay for at Planned Parenthood via federal subsidies, overseas abortions via the banning of the Mexico City Policy, the abortions done via abortifacient drugs which are now mandated by the HHS, and other miscellaneous abortions Obamacare will pay for that we don't know about yet, (like when Obamacare pays for new prenatal testing which will decimate the population of babies with Down syndrome) http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/is-the-hhs-taking-aim-at-babies-with-down-syndrome/can you really keep telling us that Obama would LOWER the abortion rate? REALLY?!
AND if the Ryan budget is NOT adopted, as Ray Arroyo assured you it would not be then your entire argument is null and void. Plus we have the statements of President Obama which show that he sees abortion as a good, he is not interested in lowering it as Bill Clinton claimed, he is a hero to the likes of NARAL and Planned Parenthood who spoke in his defense at the DNC; he is the ONLY American politician who approved after birth abortion according to the testimony of Jill Stanek. http://www.godandscience.org/doctrine/stanek.html#.UE9nhLJlTQA
Sr SimoneCampbell, Prof Schenck, and Kathy Dahlkemper; Catholics who support Obama on 'pro-life' grounds no one who knows the issue of abortion is going to buy your argument that you support Obama on purely 'pro-life' grounds. It appears that you are simply Democrats in search of an excuse to support a man and a party you have unreasonable loyalty to. Its time to allow logic to challenge your emotional connection, its time to inform your Catholic consciences.
1 comment:
It's like the Cirque de Soleil for them to reach that far for a valid excuse:( Too sad, and I realize that the Church seems to be falling apart from the inside out...
Post a Comment