Three pro-life moments last week | National Catholic Reporter

Three pro-life moments last week | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: The lesson here is that there is a difference between being pro-choice and pro-abortion.  Pro-aborts would say that the disabled child and the poor child in the third world are better off dead.  Pro-choicers contend that it is the decision of the woman, not the state, and that not having an abortion when told too is a pro-choice stance too.  Whether it's LifeSiteNews, the American Life League, the USCCB or the NRLC, the onus is on pro-lifers to say exactly how they would protect life.



The Church has been a strong advocate to say that first trimester embryos are people - but the moral point is not really the issue.  It is easy to advace a moral point.  What is hard is to advance a legal one - one which applies the force of the state.  Given the commonality of miscarriage in the first trimester, the moral point is fairly impossible to turn into a legal one without major equal protection problems (you can't simply separate the status of the miscarried from the aborted by saying so - if one becomes public, so does the other).



This is particularly important because Justice Thomas hinted at retirement this past weekend.  That would leave exactly no votes on the Supreme Court who would overturn Roe v. Wade.  That destroys the possibility of going back to the bad old days where abortion was considered bad medical practice and sanctioned that way.  The only way to regulate it now is by personalizing the embryo or fetus - so the Church gets its wish.  Be careful what you wish for.



Any legisiative compromise will resemble the status quo, for the most part (although Downs children might be spared - if we throw enough money at giving them supportive care).  As an issue for Republicans, this will largely go away.  Indeed, they should quit trying to get cases before the Court. If there is a 9-0 ruling upholding Roe, their ability to raise funds and bodies for their annual March for Life will start to diminish - the same is true for NARAL-Pro-Choice America.