[BRIGADE] PJB: Last Chance -- For Life
Published: Fri, 09/12/08
By Patrick J. Buchanan
Friday, September 12, 2008
Near the end of a town hall meeting in Johnstown, Pa., a woman
arose to offer a passionate plea to Barack Obama to "stop these
abortions."
Obama's response was cool, direct, unequivocal.
"Look, I got two daughters -- 9 years old and 6 years old. ... I am
going to teach them first about values and morals, but if they make
a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby."
"Punished with a baby."
Obama sees an unwanted pregnancy as a cruel and punitive sanction
for a teenager who has made a mistake, and abortion as the way out,
the road to absolution and redemption.
The contrast with Sarah Palin could not be more stark. At the birth
of her son Trig, who has Down syndrome, Gov. Palin said: "We knew
through early testing he would face special challenges, and we feel
privileged that God would entrust us with this gift and allow us
unspeakable joy as he entered our lives.
"We have faith that every baby is created for good purpose and has
potential to make this world a better place. We are truly blessed."
Between the convictions and values of Palin and those of Barack,
then, there is a world of difference. In the culture war that is
rooted in religious faith, they are on opposite sides of the
dividing line.
But more crucial than their conflicting beliefs is the political
reality. This election is America's last hope to reverse Roe v.
Wade. Upon its outcome will rest the life, or death, of millions of
unborn children. The great social cause of the Catholic Church and
the Knights of Columbus, of the Evangelical and Pentecostal
churches, of the entire right-to-life movement, hangs today in the
balance.
Why? It is not just that Obama is a pro-choice absolutist who
defends the grisly procedure known as partial-birth abortion, who
backs a Freedom of Choice Act to abolish every restriction in every
state, who even opposed a born-alive infant protection act.
Nor is it because Joe Biden is a NARAL Catholic who has been
admonished by bishops not to take communion because he has, through
his career, supported a women's "right" to abortion, the exercise
of which right has ended the lives of 45 million unborn.
Nor is it even because McCain professes to be pro-life, or Gov.
Palin is a woman who not only talks the talk but walks the walk of
life.
No. The reason this election is the last chance for life is the
Supreme Court. For it alone -- given the cowardice of a Congress
that refuses to restrict its authority -- has the power to reverse
Roe, and because that court may be within a single vote of doing so.
Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, Sam Alito and Chief
Justice John Roberts appear steeled to overturn Roe and return this
most divisive issue since slavery to the states, where it resided
until January 1973.
And John Paul Stevens, the oldest and perhaps most pro-choice
justice at 88, is a likely retiree in the next four years. And
there is a possibility Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, at 75, a
survivor of cancer, could depart as did Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.
Thus, in the first term of the next president, there is a strong
probability that one or two of the most pro-Roe justices will leave
the bench. Replacement of even one of these two liberal activists
with a jurist who has a Scalia-Roberts-Alito-Thomas record on the
U.S. appellate court could initiate a challenge to Roe, and its
rapid reversal.
Not only would that decision be a stunning perhaps irreversible
victory for the pro-life cause, it would return the issue of
abortion to Congress and the states, where numerous legislators are
prepared to curtail if not outlaw abortion on demand in America.
Overturning Roe would re-energize the right-to-life movement in
every state. In some, like California and New York, where it could
not wholly prevail, some restrictions -- i.e., no abortions after
viability -- might be imposed. Requirements such as for parental
notification before a teenager has an abortion and that pregnant
women be informed of what the procedure means and the trauma that
often follows could be written into law.
If Roe goes, all things are possible. If Roe remains, all is lost.
Is there any certainty that John McCain, who set up the Gang of 14
to give Democrats veto over the most conservative of Bush judges,
would nominate an Alito or a Roberts? No.
But there is a certainty that a President Obama would move swiftly
to replace a Stevens or Ginsberg, or any other justice who steps
downs or dies, with a pro-choice jurist. For support for Roe v.
Wade is a litmus test in today's Democratic Party, where the right
to an abortion has been elevated to the highest rank in the
Constitution.
Bottom line. If Obama-Biden wins, Roe is forever. If McCain-Palin
wins, Roe could be gone by the decade's end.
As Catholics are the swing voters who likely will decide this
election, one awaits the moral counsel of the Catholic hierarchy.
SOURCE: http://buchanan.org/blog/2008/09/pjb-last-chance-for-life/