Posted on 07/11/2004 4:03:45 PM PDT by lulu21
I just wanted to make a statement regarding Kerry's views on abortion. I wanted to find out what his opinion was, so I came to this website. I found article talking about how he supposidly 'opposes' abortion. Then the same author discusses how in other statements, he has said it is the woman's right. Now, he is being criticized for having contradicting statements. I just wanted to clear this up.
His actual words in saying he opposed abortion were, "There is something called freedom of conscience in the Catholic Church. I oppose abortion, personally. I don't like abortion. I believe life begins at conception. But I don't take my Catholic beliefs, my article of faith, and legislate it on a Protestant, on a Jew, or an atheist who doesn't share it. We have separation of church and state in the United States of America."
I don't think that people understand what he is saying. He is saying that he does NOT like abortion. He PERSONALLY doesn't want it. However, he cannot make a law against something just because his religion does not believe in it. He talks of separation of church and state. That is what we are supposed to have in America. This is why we cannot have organized prayer in schools. It is also why you cannot ban gay marriage on the account of your 'religion' being against it. I am Catholic as well. I also study medicine. I don't like abortion, either. I wish it was illegal. However, I do understand his point that he cannot make it illegal because he doesn't like it. That would be unconstitutional and totally against 'American' values. I hope everyone can understand that.
>>There is something called freedom of conscience in the
It's an implicit freedom -- you can disobey the Church if you want to. However, using that freedom may allow you to persist in sin and inherit hell as a consequence. It's not a free pass.
Kerry also claims to believe that lie begins at conception. This is also strictly not contradictory because liberals tend to believe that inconvenient (to liberals) life can by right be taken.
Opposing taking an innocent life - murder - is not only a catholic belief.
If you follow Kerry's logic, you can't legislate against theft or rape; after all these have moral dimension too, and "we have separation of church and state..."
So, yes, Kerry's views are contradictory.
ruh-roh....
Welcome to Free Republic. Good try to defend the indefensible.
Last year at a NARAL meeting, "I think that tonight we have to make it clear that we are not going to turn back the clock. There is no overturning of Roe v. Wade... There is no outlawing of a procedure necessary to save a woman's life or health and there are no more cutbacks on population control efforts around the world. We need to take on this President and all of the forces of intolerance on this issue. We need to honestly and confidently and candidly take this issue out to the country and we need to speak up and be proud of what we stand for."
Did you catch that? Not only should abortion be available to all American women, all the time, but it should be used as a population control valve around the world. And this is something we should "be proud of." Not what you'd expect from someone who claims he doesn't like abortion.
And this isn't an isolated comment...
From the Boston Herald on January 23, 2001: "I will not back away from my conviction that international family planning programs are in America's best interests. We should resist pressures in this country for heavy-handed Washington mandates that ignore basic choices that should belong to free people around the globe."
Kerry's support for "international family planning programs" -- a standard euphemism for "abortion" -- is an issue he's advocated for some time. If Kerry is telling the truth about being "personally opposed" to abortion, why is he trying to spread it worldwide?
But perhaps the most outrageous quote comes from the 1994 Congressional record: "The right thing to do is to treat abortions as exactly what they are -- a medical procedure that any doctor is free to provide and any pregnant woman free to obtain. Consequently, abortions should not have to be performed in tightly guarded clinics on the edge of town; they should be performed and obtained in the same locations as any other medical procedure... [A]bortions need to be moved out of the fringes of medicine and into the mainstream of medical practice. And by the same token, if our children are to be safe from the danger of fanaticism, tolerance needs to spread out of the mainstream churches, mosques, and synagogues, and into the religious fringes."
Abortion is simply "a medical procedure"? If that were true, then on what grounds could he possibly be personally opposed to it?
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1166881/posts
Your logic as well as Kerry's is incredibly flawed.
Welcome aboard Lulu, hope you enjoy your brief visit.
How do you reconcile Kerry usually not supporting the death penalty, is that not forcing his Catholic view?
Give it up, Kerry is using his religion as a crutch and is desparate to gather the Catholic vote, while making a joke of most of its doctrine.
The Catholic church was very helpful to Kerry when he desired to make bastards of his children.
Anybody who thinks otherwise is a fool.
Suppose Kerry said, "I'm personally against theft and murder, but I wouldn't want to impose it on anyone who thinks theft and murder are OK."
It's the same thing. Sorry, but abortion is killing an innocent human being. It was illegal in every country in the West for 2000 years, until the Supreme Court imposed a supposed right to "privacy" on our country. They were wrong.
Some one needs to pass this through the Troll Detection Unit...
"I'm personally opposed to slavery; it's against my religion, but I can't go forcing others to follow my religious beliefs."
"I'm personally opposed to infanticide; it's against my religion, but I can't go forcing others to follow my religious beliefs."
I'm personally opposed to cannibalism; it's against my religion, but I can't go forcing others to follow my religious beliefs."
Another outright lie from Kerry.
We have no such thing, and these words will not to be found in our Constitution.
And can you imagine trying to explain to God how even tho you knew each little one was a growing life, you just had to defend the mother's right to slaugher the growing baby because you needed votes?
I personally don't like murder but I can't impose my beliefs on someone else.
I personally don't like rape but I cannot impose my beliefs on someone else.
I personally don't like child abuse but I cannot impose my beliefs on someone else.
I personally don't like wife abusing but I cannot impose my beliefs on someone else.
....
People that believe this way would lead to the destruction of society.
Is your finger wind burned too?
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