Pro-Life Support for Kerry -- FEEDBACK REQUESTED

[Tesibria]

Help. Believe it or not, I have "opened the door" with two of my friends who, after the debates, are considering voting for John Kerry. Truly. They are both "pro-life." I want to make the case why a true, consistent "pro-life" person can -- and should -- vote for John Kerry. Please help me make this better !!

Thanx in advance.

Why I, a ‘pro-lifer’, am compelled to vote for John Kerry for President.

1. Because I am “pro-life,” I believe that our society should work to eliminate abortions. I believe John Kerry will do a better job than Bush has done.

I am “pro-life.” I do not know exactly when “life begins” – i.e., when cells become a “person,” but I believe that it is society’s obligation to honor and value and preserve the life of all persons. I hope for the day when abortion is no longer considered necessary.

Because I don’t know exactly when a person becomes a person in a woman’s womb, I personally cannot say when, and under what circumstances, abortion is morally right or morally wrong. I know what I personally believe. I know that my personal beliefs are based on my faith. I know that my faith is not shared by many people. I know that it is not the role of the government to enforce my faith on others.

While I do not know exactly when a person becomes a person in a woman’s womb, I do know that under Clinton, the rate of abortion declined significantly – and that the rate has climbed again under the Bush administration. Other countries with strong support for families have lower abortion rates, even though their abortion laws are in some cases more liberal than those of the US. Countries that prohibit abortions, but fail to provide strong support for families have the highest abortion rates in the world.

I also fear that a government that has the “power” over woman’s body to forbid an abortion equally has the power to require an abortion over the woman’s objections. A government who controls a woman’s body does just that – controls it for good or ill. A government, who can decide that life begins at conception, can as easily decide that life begins at say, healthy birth.

George Bush purports to be pro-life. It seems to me that he’s pro-life until birth. After that, you’re on your own. This is not a pro-life position. This is a pro-9-months gestation period position.

I want people to choose life. I believe there is a greater chance for that under President Kerry.

2. Because I am “pro-life,” I believe that killing via “capital punishment” is morally wrong. George Bush supports executions, and has actually made the decision to permit execution of too many people. John Kerry is opposed to capital punishment except in 1 limited circumstance.

I believe that killing people is fundamentally wrong. I won’t reiterate all the details, but (a) it is just illogical to argue that it’s ok to kill someone as punishment for killing someone. That’s like raping someone as punishment for raping someone; robbing someone for robbing someone. It just makes no sense. A parent who hits a child as punishment for hitting his sister only perpetuates the climate of violence. The same thing applies to a society. A society to inflicts violence on even its worst citizens (residents) perpetuates a society of violence; (b) studies have consistently failed to find convincing evidence that the death penalty deters crime more effectively than other punishments; and (c) even if there were situations, where capital punishment could be justified from a moral perspective, the fact, as has been well-documented over the past 10 years, is that juries make mistakes and innocent people have been executed.

George Bush governed a state with the most executions in the nation. His rationale remains that capital punishment is deterrence, a position that has been wholly discredited by every major study.

John Kerry opposes the death penalty except for post 9/11 terrorists. While I oppose the death penalty in all cases, Kerry’s position is as good as it gets in this election.

3. Because I am “pro-life,” I believe that war – at least this war in Iraq – is immoral.

I understand that some “wars” may be justified. For example, I believe that countries were morally obligated to stop Hitler’s slaughter of the disabled, the Jews and others labeled “undesirable” (and think that our country shirked its responsibility in this regard for too long.)

This war, however, is an immoral war. As Pope John Paul II stated, this war is a defeat for humanity which cannot be morally or legally justified. Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran said that such a "war of aggression" is a crime against peace. Archbishop Renato Martino, also called this a “war of aggression,” and said that it is a “crime against peace that cries out vengeance before God.” As our country was invading Iraq, Pope John Paul II addressed the world: “When war, as in these days in Iraq, threatens the fate of humanity, it is ever more urgent to proclaim, with a strong and decisive voice, that only peace is the road to follow to construct a more just and united society. …Violence and arms can never resolve the problems of man.”

To date, at least 13,000 Iraqis have been killed (along with 1,240 coalition forces).

The Bush Administration has attempted to retroactively justify its rationale for war, by arguing that Saddam Hussein’s “evilness” justified this war to remove him from power. (Well, that is one of about a half-dozen rationalizations.) I am not convinced. We did NOT go to war to free the Iraqi people from an oppressive dictator. That was, at best, “collateral booty” – the unavoidable consequences of our war waged for immoral purposes. That cannot justify this war. That cannot justify the way this war was waged. And that cannot justify our failure to plan, to work, to create peace. That cannot justify the, by the most conservative estimates, killing of more than 13,000 innocent Iraqis to date; nor can it justify the 1,240 coalition deaths. It is immoral. It is wrong.

We are there now. We have to continue. I do not trust – how could I trust -- the man who made the immoral choice to go to war in the way we went to war to make the moral decisions required now.

Sources: Abortion: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/11/opinion/11roche.html?oref=regi&pagewanted=print&position=; http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=sojomail.display&issue=041013#5; Capital Punishment: http://www.duclarion.com/news/2004/02/24/Editorials/Capital.Punishment.Is.Wrong-615849.shtml; http://web.amnesty.org/pages/deathpenalty-facts-eng; War: http://www.cjd.org/paper/jp2war.html; http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/868616.cms; War casualties: http://icasualties.org/oif/; http://www.iraqbodycount.net/.

[revree]

1. It all comes down to...

explaining that we pro-choicers are also pro-life and want to stop abortions, too, with education and birth control, and that we respect life, even soldiers and Iraqi children. By only focusing their compassion on unborn fetuses, your pro-life "friends" are not extending their Christ love to all living things, and this is not what Christ taught.

THOU SHALL NOT KILL is all the Bible says. It does not come with a waiver or addendum saying it is OK to kill Muslims or children of Iraqis or women who are pregnant and will die if they give birth. It applies to all living things, all life.

And THAT is something we can all agree on, working together to diminish ALL KILLING of living things, humans or otherwise, not just the unborn.

[Dr.Phool]

6. My wife is pro-life

She's voted Republican for 30 years on the abortion issue alone. She's a liberal in every other sense.

This year, she's not only voting for Kerry, she's an enthusiastic supporter, and talks him up where ever she goes. Bush scares her that bad. She also believes that the pro-life politicians don't want to overturn Roe v Wade, because once that issue fades for many people, they'll start looking at everything else these people are doing to them.

[revree]

2. It all comes down to...

explaining that we pro-choicers are also pro-life and want to stop abortions, too, with education and birth control, and that we respect life, even soldiers and Iraqi children. By only focusing their compassion on unborn fetuses, your pro-life "friends" are not extending their Christ love to all living things, and this is not what Christ taught.

THOU SHALL NOT KILL is all the Bible says. It does not come with a waiver or addendum saying it is OK to kill Muslims or children of Iraqis or women who are pregnant and will die if they give birth. It applies to all living things, all life.

And THAT is something we can all agree on, working together to diminish ALL KILLING of living things, humans or otherwise, not just the unborn.

[Eric J in MN]

3. This blog article may provide you with more info

http://www.amptoons.com/blog/000800.html

[Tesibria]

10. thank you == this is great!

[fugue]

4. I would use more material on how the abortion rate is *up* under Bush

You cite the article as a reference, but you don't raise the point.

That's gotta hit pro-lifers where they live.

[Tesibria]

11. and thank you --

good point and I will flesh that out.

[Selwynn]

5. I think Kerry's on words speak best to pro-life folks:

One of the BEST ANSWERS I've ever heard:


DEGENHART: Senator Kerry, suppose you are speaking with a voter who believed abortion is murder and the voter asked for reassurance that his or her tax dollars would not go to support abortion, what would you say to that person?

KERRY: I would say to that person exactly what I will say to you right now.

First of all, I cannot tell you how deeply I respect the belief about life and when it begins. I'm a Catholic, raised a Catholic. I was an altar boy. Religion has been a huge part of my life. It helped lead me through a war, leads me today.

But I can't take what is an article of faith for me and legislate it for someone who doesn't share that article of faith, whether they be agnostic, atheist, Jew, Protestant, whatever. I can't do that.

But I can counsel people. I can talk reasonably about life and about responsibility. I can talk to people, as my wife Teresa does, about making other choices, and about abstinence, and about all these other things that we ought to do as a responsible society.

But as a president, I have to represent all the people in the nation. And I have to make that judgment.

Now, I believe that you can take that position and not be pro- abortion, but you have to afford people their constitutional rights. And that means being smart about allowing people to be fully educated, to know what their options are in life, and making certain that you don't deny a poor person the right to be able to have whatever the constitution affords them if they can't afford it otherwise.

That's why I think it's important. That's why I think it's important for the United States, for instance, not to have this rigid ideological restriction on helping families around the world to be able to make a smart decision about family planning.

You'll help prevent AIDS.

You'll help prevent unwanted children, unwanted pregnancies.

You'll actually do a better job, I think, of passing on the moral responsibility that is expressed in your question. And I truly respect it.

[wellstone dem]

7. Being pro-life doesn't stop when a child is born

it means supporting affordable housing for low-income kids.
it means supporting ADEQUATE foster care for kids who are beaten, abused and neglected. (don't get me started on this one.)
it means adequate drug treatment programs for parents.
it means adequate after school programs, so that parents don't have to leave kids alone.
it means ensuring that kids have adequate health care so that they don't die because they are poor.
it means being sure that victims of domestic violence have access to shelters and to legal aid so that the abuse stops.
It means not driving children who are gay, lesbian or questioning to suicide.
it means being sure that our children who choose to defend our country to not have their sacrifice abused, resulting in their deaths.
it means being sure that even those who hurt others, are not killed.


To quote someone I don't admire, being pro-life is "hard work", it is not a one dimensional issue. The policies that Bush supports actually drives more people toward the choice of abortion than away from it.

[noamnety]

8. I'm pro-choice, just role-playing

Because I am “pro-life,” I believe that women need to have access to options that will make unwanted pregnancies a thing of the past.

Bush has consistently appointed people to the FDA - to the Advisory Committee on Reproductive Health Drugs who oppose contraception in all forms. Hager refused to prescribe birth control in his private practice, and advocated reading the bible as a cure for PMS. Stanford refused to prescribe birth control to any patient, married or not. His policies promote abstinence and the rhythm method - which not only has been shown to be ineffective, but also is not practical for a married women (who shouldn't have to be abstinent) who is beginning menopause (making the rhythm method useless) and has a higher risk of having a baby with severe birth defects.

Because of policies Bush has endorsed, more women are being denied access to birth control. Bush opposes insurance coverage of birth control, and the republican agenda supports legislation allowing pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions for birth control pills - even when it is for a medical condition. He is now endorsing faith based insurance plans for federal employees.

The result is that real life women have been denied access to birth control. In some cases the only pharmacy in town has refused to provide it, in one instance, the pharmacist refused to transfer the prescription to another pharmacy.

[patrice]

9. Pro-Life needs to be revived with real honest leadership.

"I am “pro-life.” I do not know exactly when “life begins”..."

Everything comes from God, ergo there is no line between cells and life. "Cells", "Life", these are words WE made up, to differentiate phases in a seamless whole. And yes, this means that we are called, therefore, to respect the chicken in the plastic package from the grocery store, before we eat it (the chicken that is).

more in a bit . . .

[patrice]

12. More

"I hope for the day when abortion is no longer considered necessary."

That will be when people are free enough to create the kinds of environments that perpetuate maturation, growth, and more freedom. "Free" here includes freedom from the kinds of ignorance and hate that create environments that perpetuate dependence, regression, and slavery.

The way I see it, the only way to get there is for the consequences of each individual's actions to be on their own soul, ANY kind of interference in that by the state or any group (like a church) perpetuates dependence through abdication of responsibility, e.g. "It's not my fault I'm a bad mother; I should have been an actress (or whatever)". Not living with what we really are/want also results in anger and hate.

[patrice]

13. "This is a pro-9-months gestation period position.

I like that! I'm going to use it.

[George_S]

14. Best reason? Less abortions!

Scroll down: Pro-life? Look at the fruits
by Dr. Glen Harold Stassen

http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=sojomail.display&issue=041013#

[patrice]

15. "juries make mistakes and innocent people have been executed. "

Justice is much easier on those with $$$$ than it is on the poor and people of color.

Even one instance of injustice contradicts the whole "justification" for capital punishment. If we say life is so important that taking even just one life should be punished, then taking "acidentally" taking an innocent life because of imperfect justice breaks the rule.

Basic ethics : The ends does not justify the means. A PERCEIVED good does not justify whatever action that obtains that "good".

[patrice]

16. War is proof positive of failed leadership.

Still, if someone were to come here to take our land, I would fight them, but I wouldn't consider it my business to persuade others one way or another, because morality must be an individually free choice.

Bush's War clearly does not have the characteristics of a defense of our homeland, and killing people for what they might do is uncivilized.

Also, death does not deter terrorists. It fertilizes them.