Dolan's frustration with Democrats yields divisive Wall Street Journal op-ed

https://www.ncronline.org/news/politics/distinctly-catholic/dolans-frustration-democrats-yields-divisive-wall-street-journal
MGB: The problem with Dolan and MSW is that they think of the issue in terms of results rather than rights or law. They think that if we just go back to a pre-Roe vision of rights, states will sort it out, or the Catholic Conference in each state will successfully push for a pro-life position. They see one party taking that side and another that won't, although they wish it would. It's not that easy.

Slavery had the same basic issue, not in terms of personhood, but with the desire for states to have the final say individally. That quirk led to the Civil War. The same rebel states reserved the right to define citizenship for Freedmen, and not in a good way. Both positions led to the 14th Amendment, which takes state-by-state personhood decisions away and gives them to the federal government. Experience has shown that on segregation, Latino righths, contraception, abortion, women's rights and gay rights, the 14th Amendment is wise indeed. It is good law and it is why Roe will never be overturned on jursidcitional grounds. No federal court, lest of all theh Supreme Court, will ever adopt the novel legal view that Justice Scalia held that this is possible.

The pro-life movement uses the language of rights for personhood, as it should. The Amendment puts the enforcement of those rights with Congress and no one else and if it does declare the unborn as citizens then it is not abortion that is the crime, it is infanticide, with all the relevant punishments for doctor AND mother. If the pro-life movement cannot accept the latter, the issue is over. There is simply no logical way to change the status quo. They might go to 20 weeks, but not much further. 25 is saner. Of course, if they pass anything, the fundraising and GOTV for both parties dries up, which will hurt the GOP more, as well as the special relationship it has with bishops like Cardinal Dolan.

Of course, if abortion rights were taken off the table as an issue, then there would be absolutely no reason not to unionize any Catholic school that took state money. These schools can already become charter schools, but cannot take tax credits. The bigger problem is the Blaine Amendments, but as a civil rights case, their appeal in federal court would be a slam dunk, especially after the recent Missouri case (although it was more limited).

The issue is not principles, it is coalition politics. For too long, the pro-lifers have been reeling the Church in and the Church has swam willingly to the hook. It need not be that way. Just look at the reality of Roe.