So, three great comments from my most recent post, which suggests to me I should clarify some things.  First,in response to Nancy, I must say that I’m not sure I agree with her about not illegalizing abortion. I did not intend anything in my post to reflect a desire to keep abortion legal; it was, instead, about the desire to have open dialouge in a Catholic context with those who would like to keep abortion legal.  These people hold a position I am ultimately against (though to varying degrees depending on the stage in the pregnancy) but it is, generally, not a position I am so against that I believe that we (and they) could not benefit from a conversation in, say, the form of a commencement speech.

This is because, in response to JJS, there are two groups involved who have traditionally been excluded from power and are often victims of neglect and inequality: women and the unborn.  While we are all humans, some of us humans have a harder time of it than others, and they deserve our special attention: wome and the unborn are both two such groups.  So, obviously if people believe they are taking a full human life to protect a woman, that is not  a “good faith argument” but if people believe that they are not taking a human life, and that they are also acting to defend and protect women in a society that still does not do a very good job of it, then I am sympathetic to their point and believe they are worth engaging (as opposed to, say, certain ganglords, like those in Mexico–honestly, when you know the teenage girls I do who have had abortions, the comparison goes from beyond insulting to just ridiculous).   I certainly, in this engagement, would tell them what I think about the need to protect the unborn, and why I think this is most logical thing to do (not to mention the most compassionate) but I also think that people like Obama or women who have had abortion ought not be shunned in the way that Catholics historically have shunned people like slaveowners: both groups might well be committing heinous acts, but the difference is that one group is committing acts they don’t see as heinous for what they think are good reasons that help people.  The other group is actually doing something heinous they to some degree recognize as such in a way that is benefitting only themselves.