Being pro-life is not incompatible with the Democratic Party. In fact I’d argue that Democrats are the only ones who have presented actual plans to stop abortion. Check out the Democrats for Life 95-10 Initiative; reducing the number of abortions by 95% in 10 years. I know some of you will say it should be 100%, but that is simply not realistic. Overturning Roe vs. Wade is not the solution. If that happens, rich women will go to states or countries that allow it and poor women will resort to back-alley abortions, or to their bathtubs with coathangers.

Ending abortion does not have a simple solution. The lives of women need to be improved, they need to be educated on how to prevent unwanted pregnancies. I think the Abstinence Plus programs are the way to go. Enforcing the fact that abstinence is the only way to be 100% safe, but also telling them about birth control. Most parents won’t talk about that with their kids, and if they did, maybe we wouldn’t have the problems we did. No matter how hard people may try, there is no way to legislate good parenting.

I will extend an olive branch to the catholic democrats by saying that I, like the catholic democrats, oppose the death penalty. I believe that there is room in the democratic party for those people who consider themselve pro-life. Moreover, most reasonable people agree that we can reduce the number of abortions by promoting adoption, providing better access to contraception including the morning after pill, and programs aimed at providing relief to single mothers.

Ricky, no one is for abortion. Overturning Roe will not decrease the abortion rate. I personally don’t like abortion; however, I believe it is very important to give the choice to a women, her doctor, her deity.

Futhermore, if Roe v Wade is overturned, then the decision simply goes back to state legislatures. Thus, wealthier women would simply go to Massachusetts or New York………..states where there would be a right to abortion. If abortion is outlawed, then the result would be a rise in unsafe, back ally abortions. The number of abortions would remame high but would become dangerous.

I believe pro-choicers and pro-lifers could come together and find common ground. Abortions can be reduced by promoted contreptive, morning after pill, and comprehensive sex ed. This is better than criminalizing abortions.

I agree wholeheartedly with your observation that poverty is not a matter of laziness, or moral failure. You state as much in the second paragraph of your Aug. 25 posting. The last sentence of that same paragraph is very important because it shows a few flaws in the logic of your argument.
We are talking about abortion, poverty and being Catholic.
We can start with being Catholic. As you say Jesus teaches us how to treat the poor. But you are mistaken if you think that Jesus limited his teaching to include only the financially destitue.
The poor that Jesus talks about are those who are unable to provide (not just material goods, but emotional, mental, spiritual goods included) for themselves. We as Catholics seek to help our brothers and sisters with ALL of their needs financial and otherwize.
Abortion as you can see is a flash point for Catholics because we see that a truly poor person- the child- can provide nothing for him/herself. The child has life; without any thought to the future cost or benifit to our society we must protect that life because it is in itself valuable enough to protect.
Crystal, you tried to set up a dicotomy between the Catholic stance on contraception and it’s stance on abortion. I assure you that no such problem exists. The Church is not “trying to have it both ways” by rejecting both contraception and abortion. It is promoting the sanctity of life in one cohesive and coherent outlook. The thought that rejecting contraception creates a “need” for abortion is truly misguided. There is never the “need” to eliminate an innocent person- even if that person is “undesired”.

Sorry but just one last note.
Daniel O. is right to suggest a need for education on the topic of Benedict XVI. Your history on this topic is very weak, and seems to be heavily influenced by mass media instead of fact.

You don’t know me, so you can’t judge my amount of experience with this situation. As a matter a fact, I have a great deal of job and classroom experience related with this topic. Plus I am a Catholic. You and I both know that as Catholics we are taught that abortion is wrong! There’s no way around this FACT!

Perhaps you should pay A LOT of attention at church when and THINK about what the Ten Commandments “THOU SHALL NOT KILL.” You keep dodging the topic of murder and worry about poverty. Killing is A LOT worse than poverty! So, you’d rather have a child killed than allow it to be born into our society that can allow them to be a productive person?

Again, have morals, have values and think before you get in any situations and have to deal with this issue! If you have morals and values, you can abstain from this situation!

God will judge those who believe in abortion…..and I’ll be praying for your soul!