
It raises the question of whether a blanket ban on abortion really is the goal of Catholic political advocacy. After all, it is not necessarily wise to seek the sanction of the civil law against all immoral actions: St Augustine famously argued for the toleration of prostitution.
However, in this case, while the question of when and in exactly what form it should be proposed practically to ban abortion, there is no real question that the civil law should fail to protect the innocent. If the law does not protect the lives of children, then what is it for?
I have written something at greater length on this on my Philosophy blog; here is an 'executive summary'.
The
‘Open Letter from Concerned Catholics’ (the ‘Beattie Petition’) directed to the
Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Poland attempts to discourage the Polish
Bishops in their support for the full criminalisation of abortion in their
country. It claims that, since in particular hard cases women are faced with ‘agonizing
decisions’ about abortion, its criminalisation is contrary to a ‘woman’s
freedom of conscience’. It is a principle of Catholic teaching, and of common
sense, however, that freedom of conscience does not imply a freedom to inflict
injustice on others, and that the State is obliged to protect the innocent. The
Beattie Petition attempts to confuse matters by the selective quotation of Vatican
II’s Dignitatis humanae, ignoring
this limitation on freedom of conscience, and ignoring the condemnation of
abortion by Vatican II in Gaudium et
spes, not only as a sin on the conscience of the individual, but as a crime
to be ‘guarded against’. Finally, the Beattie Petition fails to acknowledge the
good consequences of the criminalisation, even if the law is only imperfectly
enforced, notably in reducing the number of abortions, and freeing the medical
profession from official involvement in a procedure contrary to the very nature
of the medical vocation.
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This is an extremely good and clear response. It exposes the false mercy and mendacity of the Beattie letter. I see that it has also been reproduced on the LifeSite News website... It should, imho, be posted in full on this website too.
ReplyDeleteYes an excellent article, surely Tina Beattie by having these extreme views has excommunicated herself. And yes I agree with the previous comment, please post the full article here as well.
ReplyDelete