Blogs Comment On Catholic Voters, Presidential Debate, Infant Mortality, Abortion

Main Category: Women's Health / Gynecology
Also Included In: Abortion;  Pediatrics / Children's Health;  Public Health
Article Date: 20 Oct 2008 - 9:00 PST

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The following is a summary of selected women's health-related blog entries.

~ "An Obama Vote is No Sin for Catholics, Even With His Abortion Views," John Farrell, U.S. News and World Report Blog: Responding to the "dispute over Catholics and politics" that has been "revived in this election cycle," Farrell writes that "it is not a sin for Catholics to vote for" Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) "or other Democratic candidates who support abortion rights." He adds, "As a matter of church doctrine, Catholics are free to vote for any candidates whose stands they like on foreign policy, the economy or other issues. And as a matter of practical politics, Catholic voters who vote Republican because they think the GOP is a strong foe of abortion have been sold a bill of goods." Farrell argues that instead of "focusing so much on overturning Roe v. Wade" and neglecting steps "that would actually reduce the number of abortions," antiabortion advocates "have let the perfect be the enemy of the good." According to Farrell, "there is nothing the Democratic Party leaders would like more than to make abortion safe, legal and rare," adding that Catholic conservatives should "seize the opportunity to work with pro-choice Democrats on the 'rare' part of that equation and save tens of thousands of potential lives each year" (Farrell, U.S. News and World Report, 10/15).

~ "Game. Set. Match. Obama." Shannyn Moore, Huffington Post Blogs: In the blog entry, Moore discusses Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain's (Ariz.) remarks in Wednesday's debate that he would not use a "litmus test" for Supreme Court nominations and that protections for the health of a pregnant woman have "been stretched by the pro-abortion movement in America to mean anything." Moore writes, "McCain's outright mockery of the health and life of the mother as being a legitimate reason for termination was deplorable." In terms of Supreme Court nominations, Moore adds that the issue "has been a motivating factor for voters in elections past. This year, however, is truly an unprecedented moment where the scales of justice are threatened like never before." She concludes, "A vote for Barack Obama keeps those scales level. A vote for John McCain shifts the balance of the court to the far right for decades and threatens that which so many have given their lives for" (Moore, Huffington Post, 10/16).

~ "A New Conversation on Abortion," Jim Wallis, Huffington Post Blogs: During Wednesday's presidential debate, "the first steps were taken toward a new national conversation about abortion," Wallis writes in a blog post. He notes that "[f]or too many years, the old one hadn't changed very much," adding that "'pro-life' battled 'pro-choice' when neither party was really either one." He writes that both candidates in the debate made statements about moving toward "some possible common ground" among abortion-rights opponents and supporters, and both suggested "cultural commitments and policy directions" that "could unite the pro-choice and pro-life parities and bring us together to find some real solutions and finally see some results." Calling abortion reduction "the clear common ground," Wallis asks, "What if 'pro-life' really meant policies that would protect the precious gift of life wherever it is threatened and aim at dramatically reducing the number of abortions in America? And what if 'pro-choice' meant extending the range of real choices available to women -- not only to terminate a pregnancy, but also to make the decision to have a child with the necessary economic support, health care and adoption services?" He concludes, "Americans are for life. Americans are for choice. The challenge for our political leaders, our religious leaders, and every American is to hold freedom and life together even when they seem to collide" (Wallis, Huffington Post Blogs, 10/16).

~ "Since Roe, Protections for Women's Health Embedded in Abortion Law," Michelle Movahed, RH Reality Check: The Supreme Court has made it clear that the Constitution "protects each and every woman against any law that would force her to carry to term any pregnancy, including a post-viability pregnancy, which jeopardizes her life or her health," Movahed writes in a blog post. According to Movahed, the Supreme Court first defined constitutional requirements for a health exception in Doe v. Bolton, the companion case to Roe v. Wade, and courts have since "consistently interpreted health exception to post-viability abortions bans as including both psychological and physical health." Abortion-rights opponents, meanwhile, "have long and consistently tried to erode or eradicate health exceptions," she says. Movahed adds that often "antiabortion critics claim that, as a result of the Supreme Court's comprehensive definition, women are routinely obtaining post-viability abortions for frivolous reasons, in spite of the fact that the number of post-viability procedures performed in this country is miniscule." Abortion opponents also claim that mental health exceptions are often exploited, but "imposing requirements that the woman suffer from a serious or significant medical condition and/or excluding mental health considerations would compromise a woman's health by limiting the ability of physicians to consider all aspects of health in exercising medical judgment about the most appropriate form of treatment." She concludes, "Such limitations would undermine the core values of dignity, self-determination and equality that underlie all reproductive rights" (Movahed, RH Reality Check, 10/17).

~"Infant Mortality -- and Abortion: A U.S. Scandal," Peter Clothier, Huffington Post Blogs: Clothier says he "wonder[s]" if Republican vice presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin (Alaska) -- who opposes abortion rights -- "took note" of a recent CDC report that found that the U.S. infant mortality rate ranks 29th in the world. "This country, which she touts constantly as 'the greatest in the world,' is clearly not the greatest in the world when it comes to giving birth to its babies," Clothier writes in the post. He adds that one could argue "that abortion is a conscious choice, and therefore sinful, according to a particular religious belief; and infant mortality, on the other hand, is no more than an unfortunate accident of nature." He says, however, "that given the advanced state of our medical knowledge and the technology at our disposal, infant mortality is also a choice we make, as a society. In failing to provide our citizens with the health care they deserve -- whether pre- or post-natal, or at the moment of birth -- we are in fact choosing, I suspect in the large majority of cases, to allow these babies to die." Clothier concludes by calling on Palin to "talk about something that shows you really care" (Clothier, Huffington Post Blogs, 10/16).

~ "McCain Says Women's Health is 'Extreme,'" Cecile Richards, Huffington Post Blogs: Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, writes that McCain's comments in the debate about exceptions for women's health reveal that he does not "understand that women's health matters." According to Richards, what McCain said "was belittling to women," adding, "He not only mocked Barack Obama for supporting women's health, he mocked women across the country." She adds, "The simple fact is that we need a president who wants to protect and promote women's health, not ridicule it. If John McCain doesn't support that, then he's not prepared to govern this country." Richards writes that Obama "is a passionate advocate for women's rights and has a long and consistent record of standing up for women's health care" (Richards, Huffington Post Blogs, 10/16).

~"At Long Last: A Debate About Abortion," National Right to Life Committee Blog: The blog entry examines McCain and Obama's comments on abortion rights during Wednesday's debate, as well as their overall positions on the issue. According to the entry, McCain should be given "extra credit for not only explaining why [Roe ] was a bad decision but also insisting that the door be opened for a discussion of [Obama's] ever-shifting explanation for why he led the charge to kill an Illinois law to extend care and legal protection to babies who survive abortions" (National Right to Life Committee Blog, 10/16).

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