I already knew Weigel could do it better…
A couple days ago I bemoaned the Douglas Kmiec article insinuating that Obama wasn’t, in fact, pro-choice and that he created an opening for pro-life Catholics to vote for him by throwing out the cliche about promoting adoption and sex ed as a remedy for all of the unplanned abortions (nevermind the 30-somethings that are having them at an alarming rate). In any case, I should have just held on for a couple days: I should have known George Weigel would quickly come out with something far superior.
In short, there is very little, if anything, in Senator Obama’s public record to suggest that he agrees with Professors Cafardi, Kaveny, and Kmiec that abortion is a “tragic moral choice.” On the contrary, the 2008 Democratic platform removed language that described abortion as “regrettable” from the relevant plank. Do Professors Cafardi, Kaveny, and Kmiec imagine that they have a better grasp of Senator Obama’s views on the life issues than, say, the National Reproductive Rights Action League [NARAL], or other pro-choice Obama supporters?
Weigel goes on to concede that McCain, while not perfect, is clearly the preferable of the two choices.
Is John McCain—for whom, I might add, I have never served as an adviser, formally or informally—a perfect pro-life candidate? Of course not. But Barack Obama is a perfect pro-life nightmare. President McCain would not work to repeal the pro-life legislative advances of the past 35 years; knowledgeable and sober-minded Catholic legal and political observers who have worked on these issues for decades are convinced that an Obama administration and an overwhelmingly Democratic Congress would eviscerate those modest advances within a year. As for the Supreme Court, the hard facts of our national history teach us that, while the country can survive the court’s getting it wrong on some things, we are in very deep trouble when the court gets it wrong on the big human rights questions.
[Emphasis mine.]
Quite simply, I couldn’t have stated it any better. If you are pro-life and have even dreamt of voting for Obama, prayerfully consider George Weigel’s words.
