The Consistent Ethic of Life & Its Critics | National Catholic Reporter

The Consistent Ethic of Life & Its Critics | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: The Consistent Ethic of Life was a dodge by Cardinal Bernardin to allow Catholics to remain in the Democratic Party and still be good Catholics.  It is totally at odds with the operational strategy of the Pro-Life Movement in Republican Party, which is to control both houses of Congress, the White House, the SCOTUS and three-fifths of the state legislatures so as to overturn Roe by a jurisdictional argument (the one supported by the Federalist Society that has the states decide all such issues, including gay marriage and segregation) and, barring that, propose and pass a Life Amendment recognizing life at conception (ending birth control too).

The problem, of course, is America is too evenly divided for that to ever happen. The closest the movement will ever come was the Partial Birth Abortion Act, which three Republican Justices, including the recently appointed Roberts and Alito demurred on using as a way to overturn Roe.   Of course, the Republicans could have still used their majority to settle the question of late term abortion – all of it – including the health exception (which is essential if the fetus has no chance of survival).  Of course, it would have had to face the problem of miscarriage in a personhood paradigm, one which is really impossible to resolve except by allowing first trimester abortion to continue.  Of course, that would ruin the movement.

The video question is stale and points to procedures in harvesting tissue from  advanced miscarriage.  No there there.  As for immigration, Americans like cheap food and the people who sell it like undocumented workers  who can be dismissed for making trouble.

The mention question cheapens Life into a sound bite, even in sermons.  Enough said.

Matt Abbott is trying to be more Pro-life than Chaput.  Now that is funny.  He must be keeping an extremist donor or donor base happy.

Leaving the end of life questions out of the article would have made it tighter.  It does go to the question of motivation.  Do we really care about all those aborted fetuses and the assisted suicides of the world, or is the movement really trying to defend the honor of God, who is made into an Ogre in the process?  While no one should be killed for the cost savings, stopping treatment when it is clear that death is immediate result of any path is a legitimate Catholic position which deserves further study away from the knee jerk pro-lifers.

I agree, these are hard questions, but they will not be solved by a knee-jerk appeal to the Magisterium any more than to giving license to the uninformed conscience.