Fr. Frank Pavone
National Director
Priests for Life
In an election season, Catholics are called upon to evaluate a wide range of
issues as they determine what candidates they will support.
We who are leaders in the pro-life movement do not say that abortion is the
only issue. It is, however, the foundational issue. Many things
destroy human life. Yet abortion goes beyond that. Our nation's current
abortion policy authorizes such destruction, by a direct denial of the
protections granted to persons under the US Constitution.
An example will clarify this. We are rightly concerned about the poor,
and need to develop programs and policies to advance their rights and enhance
their lives. Sometimes people are heard to say that offenses against the poor
are a more compelling concern to them than the abortion problem. Certainly, the
problems are related, because a consistent ethic of life recognizes that human
life is sacred always and everywhere, and that progress in any area of advancing
human dignity means progress in all the other areas as well.
But to make a truly equivalent parallel between the plight of the poor
and that of the unborn, one would have to imagine a policy whereby a) the
poor were officially declared to be devoid of "personhood" under the
Constitution (as Roe vs. Wade did to the unborn), and b) over 4000 of the
poor were put to death daily against their will, while efforts to directly save
them were prosecuted by the government (as is the case regarding the unborn).
It is one thing to assert that a particular policy does or does not
advance the rights of the poor; it is quite another to assert that the poor have
no right to exist. Debates about the poor are in the first category; the debate
about the unborn is in the second.
In their 1989 Resolution on Abortion, the US bishops therefore
declared, "At this particular time, abortion has become the fundamental human
rights issue for all men and women of good will."
In their 1998 statement Living the Gospel of Life, the bishops
likewise explained, "Opposition to abortion and euthanasia does not excuse
indifference to those who suffer from poverty, violence and injustice.…
Therefore, Catholics should eagerly involve themselves as advocates for the weak
and marginalized in all these areas. Catholic public officials are obliged to
address each of these issues ... But being 'right' in such matters can never
excuse a wrong choice regarding direct attacks on innocent human life.
Indeed, the failure to protect and defend life in its most vulnerable stages
renders suspect any claims to the 'rightness' of positions in other matters
affecting the poorest and least powerful of the human community. If we
understand the human person as the "temple of the Holy Spirit" -- the living
house of God -- then these latter issues fall logically into place as the
crossbeams and walls of that house. All direct attacks on innocent human
life, such as abortion and euthanasia, strike at the house's foundation" (n.
23).
