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    • E. Christian Brugger, D.Phil. – E. Christian Brugger is a Senior Fellow of Ethics and Director of the Fellows Program at the Culture of Life Foundation in Washington, D.C. and the J. Francis Cardinal Stafford Professor of Moral Theology at St. John Vianney Theological Seminary in Denver, Colorado. He has Master degrees in moral theology and moral philosophy from Seton Hall, Harvard and Oxford Universities and received his D.Phil. (Ph.D.) in Christian ethics from Oxford in 2000.  Christian has published over 200 articles in scholarly and popular periodicals on topics in bioethics, sexual ethics, natural law theory, as well as the interdisciplinary field of psychology and Christian anthropology.  He lives on a farm in Evergreen, Colorado, with his wife Melissa and five children.
    • Helen Alvaré, J.D. – Helen Alvaré, J.D. is Honorary Fellow in Law at the Culture of Life Foundation.   Helen is an Associate Professor of Law at the George Mason University School of Law in Arlington, Virginia where she teaches and publishes in the areas of property law, family law, and Catholic social thought. Professor Alvaré serves as Consultor for the Pontifical Council for the Laity, Senior Fellow at the Witherspoon Institute where she chairs the Conscience Protection Task Force, is President of the Chiaroscuro Foundation and most recently Editor and Co-Author of Breaking Through: Catholic Women Speak for Themselves.From 2000 to Spring 2008, Professor Alvare taught at the Catholic University Columbus School of Law. Professor Alvare also lectures widely in the United States and Europe on matters concerning marriage, family and respect for human life. She is a consultant to ABC News and to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Marriage and Pro-Life Committees. In 2008, Pope Benedict XVI named Professor Alvare a Consultor to the Pontifical Council for the Laity.From 1987-2000, Professor Alvare was an attorney with the USCCB’s General Counsel Office and director of information and planning for the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities. In these positions, she testified before the…
    • Jennifer Kimball Watson, Be.L. – Jennifer Kimball Watson joined Culture of Life Foundation as Executive Director in November of 2007. She is an Adjunct Professor of Bioethics at the Ave Maria School of Law in Naples, F.L.. Previous to her work with the Culture of Life Foundation Jennifer was a Wilbur Fellow of the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal located in Michigan. Jennifer earned a Licentiate in Bioethics from the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum School of Bioethics in Rome.  Her prior undergraduate studies were in International Administration and Government Policy at the Evergreen State College in Washington State.Jennifer’s areas of specialization include Eugenics in Artificial Reproductive Technologies, Heterologous Adoption and Transfer of Embryos, The Womb in Reproductive Technologies, and the Role and Significance of The Medical Act. She interviews with National Conservative and Christian Radio Syndicates as well as several foreign and secular reporters. Jennifer has spoken on the dignity of women and women’s social issues to various audiences since 1999 and has spent several years in advocacy work with various international organizations in the field of life sciences. From 2000 to 2006 she recruited and coordinated grass-roots social policy efforts that consisted of a public and private sector network of professionals and academics…
    • Margaret Datiles Watts, J.D. – Margaret Datiles Watts, J.D., is Culture of Life Foundation’s Associate Fellow in Law. Maggie is member of Washington, D.C. and Maryland bar associations.  She holds a B.A. in Philosophy (Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude) and a Certificate in Classical Philosophy from the University Honors Program at The Catholic University of America. She earned a Juris Doctorate from Columbus School of Law at The Catholic University of America, where she served as a Research Fellow at CUA Law’s Marriage Law Project. She also studied Roman Law and EU Law at Magdalene College, University of Oxford, England.A former Fellow and Staff Counsel for Americans United for Life, Datiles co-authored an amicus curiae brief to the Supreme Court of the United States in the landmark partial birth abortion case, Gonzales v. Planned Parenthood, et al., companion case to Gonzales v. Carhart (2007). She also advised legislators, policy groups and the media (radio and newspapers) on abortion and bioethics laws and drafted pro-life model legislation.Her areas of research and/or publication include legal issues surrounding abortion, government funding restrictions for abortion, contraception, healthcare rights of conscience, stem cell research, artificial reproductive technology, population decline, physician-assisted suicide, euthanasia, and same-sex marriage.She currently publishes articles…
    • William E. May – William E. May is Senior Research Fellow of the Culture of Life Foundation and emeritus Michael J. McGivney Professor of Moral Theology at the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., where he taught the academic years from 1991 through 2008 after teaching for 20 years at The Catholic University of America. He is the author of more than a dozen books. The 2nd edition of his Catholic Bioethics and the Gift of Human Life was published by Our Sunday Visitor (2008), and a substantively revised 3rd edition is scheduled for publication in 2013. In 2003 Our Sunday Visitor published a revised and expanded edition of his Introduction to Moral Theology. Among his other books are: Marriage: The Rock on Which the Family Is Built (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1995; 2nd revised edition, 2009)); and, with Ronald Lawler OFM Cap and Joseph Boyle, Catholic Sexual Ethics (rev. and enlarged ed. Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor, 1998; 2nd rev. edition, 1998; a 3rd edition, substantively revised by May alone, was published in 2011); Theology of the Body: Genesis and Growth (Boston: Pauline Books & Media, 2010) He has published more…
    • Frank J. Moncher, Ph.D. – Dr. Frank Moncher received his Ph.D. in Clinical-Community Psychology from the University of South Carolina in 1992, following which he spent several years on faculty of the Medical College of Georgia, with a focus on Adolescent Intensive Services. In 2000 he moved to the Washington, DC area to teach at a graduate school of psychology which had a mission of integrating the science of psychology in the context of the Catholic Christian view of the human person. Concurrent with this, over the past 12 years he has consulted with 11 different religious orders and 4 dioceses to provide psychological evaluations of aspirants and candidates, as well as consulting with different diocesan marriage tribunals.His research interests include the integration of Catholic thought into psychotherapy, child and family development issues, and integrated models of assessment of candidates for the priesthood and religious life. Frank is published in Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Human Services, Adolescence, Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Edification, and the Journal of Psychology and Christianity, as well as contributing to several book chapters on children, families, and religious issues.Since 2010, Dr. Moncher has worked for the Diocese of Arlington and Catholic Charities as a psychologist and consultant.  His…
    • Steve Soukup – Fellow in Culture and Economy Steve Soukup is the Vice President and Publisher of The Political Forum, an “independent research provider” that delivers research and consulting services to the institutional investment community, with an emphasis on economic, social, political, and geopolitical events that are likely to have an impact on the financial markets in the United States and abroad. Mr. Soukup has followed politics and federal regulatory policy for the financial community since coming to Washington in 1996, when he joined Mark Melcher at the award-winning Washington-research office of Prudential Securities. While at Prudential, he was part of the Washington team that placed first in Institutional Investor magazine’s annual analyst survey for eight years in a row. Mr. Soukup left Prudential with Mr. Melcher to join Lehman Brothers in the fall of 2000 and stayed there for two years, before leaving early in 2003 to become a partner at The Political Forum. While at Lehman, Mr. Soukup authored macro-political commentary and followed policy developments in the Natural Resources sector group, focusing on agriculture and energy policy. He also headed Lehman’s industry-leading analysis of asbestos litigation reform efforts. At The Political Forum, Mr. Soukup was initially the editor and junior partner,…
    • Dr. Pilar Calva, M.D. – Dr. Calva is a medical doctor specializing in Human Genetics with a Cytogenetics subspecialty from The University of Paris, France. In Paris, she was the under-study to the world-renowned Professor Jerome Lejeune, who is considered by some to be the father of modern genetics. In 1958, Lejeune discovered that an extra 21st chromosome is responsible for Down syndrome, or Trisomy 21. Lejeune dedicated his life tirelessly and unfailingly to defend the unborn, especially those with Down syndrome, testifying before scientific conferences and lawmakers. He was appointed by Pope John Paul II as the first President of the Pontifical Academy for Life. In Dr. Calva’s own words: When I arrived in France, I lived a life divided between faith and reason. I thought that from Monday to Saturday, I put on my white coat for my scientific tasks, and Sunday was the day I took off the white coat, put on my crucifix and dedicated myself to my religious duties. Professor Lejeune truly converted me, making me see that one can wear the white coat and the cross, at the same time. That is, one can fly with the wing of faith and the wing of reason. Inspired by the life…
    • Elyse M. Smith – Elyse M. Smith is an associate attorney with a northern Virginia law firm working in nonprofit and church law, estate planning, and civil litigation. Ms. Smith graduated magna cum laude from Ave Maria School of Law in Naples, Florida, where she served on Law Review and was published in the Ave Maria International Law Journal. She was named “Most Dedicated Editor” for her work on Law Review. Ms. Smith earned her bachelor’s degree in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia.  
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  >  Issue Briefs  >  Marriage & Family  >  Abortion as a World View, not “Just Another Issue”

Abortion as a World View, not “Just Another Issue”

Posted: January 29, 2009
By: Helen Alvaré, J.D.
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alvare_h.jpgWe know what President Obama has already done respecting abortion. On his 4th day in office, he signed an executive order restoring federal funds to groups overseas who provide abortion alongside “family planning” methods like contraception. (You will hear some correctly refer to this as his “reversing the Mexico City policy,” named after the 1984 Mexico City conference during which the Reagan administration first announced a freeze on U.S. funding of overseas abortion providers).

We also know what Obama has promised to do respecting abortion, via the so-called Freedom of Choice Act, (“FOCA” S. 1173, 2007), legislation he has pledged to sign if it reaches his desk. With this legislation, he would effectively undo 36 years worth of democratically enacted regulations on abortion. Not restrictions, mind you, just regulations. Following the Roe v. Wade and Casey v. Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania decisions, all abortions in the U.S. go forward if the mother wants them. But citizens in the 50 states have managed to pass widely popular, common-sense and quite incremental “conditions,” on abortion. For example, “informed consent” laws mean that women are entitled to full informed consent about the medical processes of abortion, and sometimes about the help available to them if they decide to give birth to their child. “Conscience clauses” allow religious health care providers to avoid performing or assisting with abortions. Parents of minor girls are usually entitled to notification before their daughters obtain abortions, unless a judge who is a stranger to the girl decides she can go forward anyway. And abortionists cannot kill infants who are partially delivered outside their mothers, or fully delivered, even if the mother and the doctor contracted for an “abortion.”  Under FOCA, all of these regulations would likely fall; the law prohibits all laws which “deny or interfere with” a woman’s decision to obtain an abortion, or which “discriminate against the exercise of the rights [to bear a child, or to terminate a pregnancy before or after the child is viable] in the regulation or provision of benefits, facilities, services, or information.”

What can we conclude about the reasoning process that could lead to such an extreme agenda? Is it an obsession with abortion? Are such laws the price that supporters have to pay to repay the extremists among their constituents, the very people and institutions who made their victories possible? Here I am referring to groups like the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the National Abortion Rights Action League and the National Organization of Women.  Or perhaps it is simply easier for politicians to “deliver” to their political base a pro-legal-abortion executive order, or piece of legislation, than it is to deliver things like an economic stimulus package, renewable energy, or peace in the Gulf.

It’s unrealistic to conclude that political calculations of these types play no role in decision making about abortion. But it seems reductionist, and maybe even disrespectful to conclude that politics tells the entire story here. How could persons make decisions about abortion without any reference to a set of values that go beyond politics?  Especially today, when the genetic and embryologic sciences make it more clear than ever how very human and alive is the human person in his or her mother’s womb? I think that there is a particular set of values or a “world view,”  underlying such abortion decision making. It is not, however, a view which is congenial to average Americans. By “average,” I mean the more than 80% of Americans who subscribe to a religion involving a personal God ( See, Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, at religions.pewforum.org/reports).  In a 2004 interview by reporter Cathleen Falsani of the Chicago Sun Times, now-President Obama gave the outline of this world view. On the subject of  “prayer” for example, Obama stated that it’s an “ongoing conversation with God,” which he interpreted to mean that he’s “constantly asking myself questions about what I’m doing, why am I doing it,” and that he’s “measuring my actions against that inner voice that for me at least is audible.” When asked “Do you believe in sin?” he answered in the affirmative, thereafter defining sin as “ being out of alignment with my values.”  (blog.beliefnet.com/stevenwaldman/2008/11/obamas-interview-with-cathleen.html , emphasis added)

What we are hearing here is a description of a world-view which does not appear to include a creator-God.  It does not appear either to include a God who made every human person to be equally in his image and likeness, or a God who authors truth or a plan for human beings which can be glimpsed in the world, or an authoritative God who determines good and evil.   An embrace of nearly unlimited abortion is very very likely to be found in such a world view because it is an issue on which one side holds the opinion —  against millennia of religious and moral tradition, and even against the evidence of our own senses – that it’s legitimate, even an affirmative good in some instances, to kill another human being. In fact, we are speaking of a human being who happens to be intrinsically vulnerable, and utterly dependent upon the care of others, first and foremost his or her mother. (See for example Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s dissenting opinion in Gonzales v. Carhart, 550 U.S. 124 (2007) (Ginsburg, J., dissenting) in which she posits abortion as the linchpin of women’s modern freedoms. See also NARAL Pro-Choice America’s website on which they encourage supporters to “celebrate” the Roe v. Wade anniversary, www.naral.org.).  You will have to think hard (save for euthanasia and assisted suicide) to find another issue on which people actually take such a stance. A 1990 Wirthlin study commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and studies since, have shown that it is far more likely for those who eschew the regular practice of a faith to take such a position.

Furthermore, it is not hard to see how this world view would not only lead to support for abortion, but also to blindness toward other human rights – via FOCA or another law —  that most people would hold to be “God-given.”  It’s also not hard to see how such a perspective might be willing to employ dishonest or degrading arguments in order to achieve its ends.  For example FOCA’s preamble posits that women’s ability to abort their children is a necessary precondition for their equal participation in modern “economic and social life.” (S. 1173, Sec. 2(7)).  This is a world view that is imprisoned within the limits of its own “reason.” Faced with rape, out-of-wedlock pregnancy, poverty, teen sex, and even conflicts between work and family, it cannot see any “rational” answer but destroying the life it can only see as a burden. It cannot see that life as a “gift,” or grasp humans’ need to love and care for others as the very path to our full realization or salvation.  Where nothing is “given” by an authoritative, transcendent figure, “reason” will tend to supply only pragmatic, and often short-sighted, responses to difficult questions.

Such a world view would not understand parents’ pre-eminent rights to educate and care for their children, and would easily topple parental notification laws. It would not understand the human right to practice a religion as deserving of any particular respect, and would easily quash the conscience rights of those whose loyalty to a higher authority precludes them from becoming involved in destroying life. The “givens” of our physical bodies are out too.  They don’t mean or indicate anything. They are not “ God – given” but rather eminently manipulable by superior intellects. Partial-birth or born alive “abortion” is therefore “in.”  All of this “makes sense” in the context of a world view in which one’s own limited reason is king and a higher authority is out.

What are we do when faced with power which does not appeal to a higher authority even when the subject is life or death.  Power which, in the words of the head of the Pontifical Council for Life, “arrogan[tly]”  “believes they are right, in signing a decree which will open the door to abortion and thus to the destruction of human life." (See, www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=14884 ).

Prayers for conversion come to mind, immediately.  I think these are indispensable at this time.  What more can be done?  Resubmit the increasingly detailed and impressive scientific evidence about the humanity of the unborn child. Or point to the building evidence (especially the European studies) about women’s suffering after abortion. At the least, perhaps we could ask our newly elected President and like-minded members of Congress supportive of FOCA, to respect the democratic majorities of every single state who have for 36 years, labored to pass the laws we have today which do the little we can do, post-Roe, to express our respect for nascent, vulnerable human life.

 

(c) 2009 Culture of Life Foundation.  Reproduction granted with attribution required.

This entry was posted in Issue Briefs, Marriage & Family by Helen Alvaré, J.D.. Bookmark the permalink.
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