The House abortion bill and a progressive Catholic response

Today the House passed a bill banning abortion at 20 weeks.  The Democrats have claimed the bill is unconstitutional and is a violation of Roe v. Wade.  Technically they are correct, however the right to privacy in Roe is conditional upon the fact that the fetus is not recognized as a person until viability - with the Court settling on viability because Congress had set no other time for the start of legal personhood so the default had to be the plain language of the 14th Amendment, which starts life at birth.

The 14th Amendment, however, also includes an enforcement provision.  If enforcement can reasonably include interpretation, Congress is certainly within its rights to set some time earlier than viability - although it would have to deal with any equal protection issues which arise by doing so.  By settling on 20 weeks, which is well past the point where most natural miscarriages occur, they avoid most of these issues, so the Bill would likely pass constitutional scrutiny, just as the Partial Birth Abortion Ban did at the federal level, even though the states could not do so on their own (just as they cannot go to 20 weeks on their own).

Still, the Republicans are not serious.  A more serious bill would have been 23 weeks and would have included an exception for the health of the mother when the child is diagnosed with a defect which will end its life before birth.  In such cases, the quicker the pregnancy is terminated, the less risk for the mother.

A serious bill would also make it easier to not only support women in having their children, but also support families financially regardless of the income level of the primary bread winner.  To do so would require a $500 a month tax credit for each child paid with wages or TANF benefits, with a matching state credit.  This would provide enough funding, especially if indexed for inflation, to afford an additional child, thus removing the main incentive for abortion, which is financial pressure caused by expanding the family.  Any abortion bill should also include this provision.

This would unify the pro-life and progressive wings of the Church. Indeed, the bishops should insist on such a provision.  To not do so would be heartless, as an abortion ban without such a provision would lead to more dangerous back alley procedures.  Indeed, there should be a provision that late term abortions be conducted in hospitals using induction.  Catholic hospitals should offer these services, as in such cases the child could be baptized at birth before being allowed to die without extraordinary measures.

There is another reason the GOP is not serious on this issue.  If they were to work out a deal with Obama their base would freak out, while the centrists would consider the issue solved.  The mushy middle on abortion would become solidly for the new status quo.  Most importantly, the ability to turn out the base on what is considered a settled issue (and to raise money from them) would be all but ended.  Indeed, there would be no reason for the fundraising and GOTV machine, which includes the Catholic clergy, that is active on abortion to continue its relationship with the Republicans.

Let me also point out that, although the President has promised to veto this particular bill, he did say in the third debate with Senator McCain in 2000 that he would be willing to revisit the Partial Birth Abortion Law so that other procedures might also be banned - however he might hold fast to a 30 week limit.

This is, of course, the wrong time for this legislation to be considered seriously.  If Obama were to keep is promise to revisit this issue and start negotiating with Representative Blackburn on details he would not only have a staff rebellion but would also hurt Democratic turnout in 2014.  This is the kind of legislation best passed in the final year of a presidency.

Papa Francesco & Evangelium Vitae | National Catholic Reporter

Papa Francesco & Evangelium Vitae | National Catholic Reporter by MSW.  MGB: Sadly, if the Church were to give some ground on the beginning of life and shift to Gastrulation, it would have a more defensible position on both ensoulment and the right to life.

Waiting for the decisions on same sex marriage

The entire nation, including the Washington DC area - where the National Conference of Catholic Bishops is located, is awaiting the result of the two cases regarding same sex marriage before the Supreme Court.  The first case regards whether Proposition 8 will be upheld or whether the High Court will agree with lower courts that it violated the equal protection rights of California LGBT couples to marriage.  The second case is about whether the Defense of Marriage Act will be overturned, allowing gay married couples to be treated equally, both by the federal government and other states.

There are procedural questions that are as important as the underlying questions, which the court may use to dodge the major issues - mostly involving standing - the ability to bring the case at all.  The reverse of that question is whether the Court will limit these decisions to California and to the parties involved or nationalize gay marriage rights, as many are hoping.  We shall see what happens shortly.

What interests me is the question that Justice Sonya Sotomayor asked Petitioners as to what interest they had in preserving traditional marriage.  I am sure his answer was less than complete, just as those of us who are for gay marriage are less than honest when we say we want traditional hierarchical marriage to go away (we believe both parties in a marriage should be equal).  It is that inequality, with male domination, that those who wish to defend marriage, are trying to maintain.  Indeed, it is compared to the relationship of Christ to the Church, as well as the clergy to the people in the pews.  That is is another thing that progressive Catholics would like to reform, at least as far as the hierarchy is concerned.

The bottom line is the hierarchy insists upon doing our thinking for us on moral issues. Such issues are based on natural law, which supposedly should be the province of every informed conscience, with or without a Roman collar.  What the plaintiffs are really defending is that authority within the Church.  This is because the Sacrament of Marriage has rather beautifully followed the civil celebration of the institution and will likely continue to.  Indeed, unlike the Petitioner argument, in Catholic Canon Law, fecundity is not a requirement for the Sacrament.  Indeed, neither is the Priest.  The two parties marry themselves. The Priest or Deacon is merely the witness for the Church (and in the United States, the community).  With a largely gay priesthood, many bishops most likely fear that many civilly married gay couples will have their unions blessed privately by a friendly priest - with a large number of such priests seeking the right to marry as well.

Petitioners have one last fear - one that they are unwilling to admit, even to themselves.  They fear that society will be damned by allowing gay marriage and that failure to prevent this puts their own souls in jeopardy - or possibly their own faith in what they have been taught if gay marriage goes through and nothing happens.  At the very least, their attitude of moral superiority will be tarnished in the inevitable event that the marriage equality side wins.  Such a dose of humility would likely be good for the conservative movement.

The mind, neuroscience and the beginning of life

Tomorrow at noon, if you are a C-SPAN BookTV watcher, be sure to catch a rebroadcast of Afterwords with Sally Satel, "Brainwashed: The Seductive Appeal of Mindless Neuroscience," hosted by Dan Vergano, USA Today Science Reporter.  It contrasts nicely with a few of the episodes of Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman on the Science Channel, which talk about when life begins as well as what we have found out about the mind from neuroscience.  Both of these also relate to How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human Thought Revealed by Ray Kurzweil.

I confess I have not read Dr. Satel's book, but can relate from the broadcast that she regards neuroscientists making conclusions about metaphysics as going a bridge too far.  This is the concluding chapter, however both the book and the C-SPAN program are worth watching and reading.  I would agree and disagree with her on this.  The finding that the actions of the brain occur before the reflections of consciousness have profound metaphysical impact - just not the impact that most neuroscientists, programmers or indeed ethicists have in mind. 

Both Morgan Freeman and Ray Kurzweil talk a bit about the beginning of life as well, with Morgan showing a few options, including life as beginning at conception, life beginning at the ability to be conscious and personhood beginning at about age five, when children become morally conscious.  He also talks about learning machines.  Kurzweil addresses the issue of the begining of life and abortion with the options of conception and the ability to be conscious.  Usually those who are pro abortion (not just pro choice) believe that consciousness in the womb is when life begins, while the pro lifers belive that fertilization is when life begins.  Kurzweil repeats this point.  

Kurzweil's main thrust is to describe the inevitability of machine intelligence which can be used to both supplement human intelligence and become conscious in its own right.  The book is also well worth reading, but take it in small chunks.  As an aside, in his Epilogue, he talks about the destiny of mankind in injecting human intelligence into the larger universe as an inevitability, especially if we can enhance ourselves with AI.  As a fan of Star Trek, it sounds to me like he is proposing we become the Borg.  I'm not sure I like that idea.  However, I don't think this will happen.  Let me explain why.

What neuroscience seems to show is that consciousness is not what it is cracked up to be.  Rather then being sentience itself, it is merely the experience of being sentient.  By sentience, I mean the ability to make moral choices, including the ability to choose evil.  In the world of artificial intelligence, I am fairly sure we don't want to give computers or the Web the ability to make such choices for us, which is why some of what Kurzweil and Freeman say will never happen.

Sentience happens in the brain.  Some would call such a contention materialistic.  I beg to differ.  The metaphysical implication is that the body and spirit are entirely intertwined - and not just in the brain.  Rather, the soul is the life force that stops the cells from entropy.  Once that soul is gone, entropy proceeds, starting with the brain (some organs life longer, so transplant surgery is possible).  

The beginning of life, then, would be that point where the life force begins to organize the human being - and that point is gastrulation.  Before that time, you can cut an embryo in two and make two people.  During the time between fertilization and gastrulation the maternal DNA (and therefore the maternal soul) entirely control the development of the child.  After gastrulation, the genes of both parents are equally responsible for development.  Until gastrulation, it is not possible to know whether the DNA from both parents is even compatible in that zygote, which is why most blastocysts die at this point.  Unless Heaven is populated with bad blastocysts, life cannot begin at conception.

This conclusion is both a defeat for the pro-life side and would be considered a victory if adopted - although it will only be a moral victory.  There is more to ending abortion than simply proving that post-gastrulation embryos have a soul.  Starting life at that point would turn each miscarriage into a public event - and that will never be allowed to happen in this country.  If abortion is to be decreased, the answer is economic - however that is the subject of a different column. 

No ministry allowed for gay Catholics | National Catholic Reporter

No ministry allowed for gay Catholics | National Catholic Reporter Finally, being married to a gay spouse is not really a mortal sin.  Indeed, it is a good act that the Church should join in on.  The mortal sin is held by the bishop.  Also, St. Augustine proved that sacraments are not dependent in their validity on the state of the minister's soul.  Neither are works of mercy and less valid.

Vigneron, Same Sex Marriage & Communion | National Catholic Reporter

Vigneron, Same Sex Marriage & Communion | National Catholic Reporter by MSW.  MGB: Actually, from what I read from Canon Law, the whole fecundity argument found by the DOM set is wrong, since as some members of the Supreme Court have pointed out, fecundity is not a requirement in either civil or canon law - and in Canon Law only functionality is. While some bishops do not agree with how gay people practice functionality, the unitive purpose is still served. Additionally, in the marriage sacrament, the couple administers it to each other - the priest or civil clerk are merely witnesses. What the bishop really fears is that a largely gay clergy will end up blessing the civil unions or gay marriages and he won't be able to stop it. The Church has a definite problem thinking it can be wrong. It needs to grow up to the fact that on this issue, it most certainly is, as marriage is the basic adult right - allowing a person to leave their family of origin and create a new family with another person who will become one flesh (both legally and sexually).

MSW Takes the Bait | National Catholic Reporter

MSW Takes the Bait | National Catholic Reporter by MSW.  MGB: Sometimes the hierarchy needs to respond to criticism from the pews.  In fact, the protection from being overcome by Satan is not some magic boon but the ability to change its mind in the nick of time.  My faith is found in the Nicene Creed, not the Catechism or the confused teachings of the 70s and 80s when my faith was formed.  The reality is that every generation must make up its mind on everything.  That is the beauty and the curse of being human.  Much in the Church will fall rather shortly, especially in how it is managed and how sexual doctrine, which is essentially misogynistic, is taught.  

Libertarianism Going Mainstream? | National Catholic Reporter

Libertarianism Going Mainstream? | National Catholic Reporter by MSW.  MGB: It depends on how you define Libertarianism.  If you mean hard core Austrian economics, I agree with you.  However, if you mean finding alternative institutions, especially the Church, to do what the state does not do as well (provided the state watch on how rights are protected - for example the rights of teens to keep their newborns and the rights of gays to adopt), then the Church should cooperate in making the public sector smaller and its own footprint bigger.

Christian Conservatives & "Secularism" | National Catholic Reporter

Christian Conservatives & "Secularism" | National Catholic Reporter by MSW.  MGB: The Church does indeed need to expand into the secular world, at least in terms of serving not only its membership but the poor.  We need more Catholic Vocational-Technical High Schools and Remedial Schools (which also manage social benefits for their clients).  We need more Catholic Hospitals taking on non-violent drug offenders so that they do not need to be incarcerated.  This does not mean we need to impose our beliefs on them, although we could certainly offer Catechism classes as optional electives funded by the Church rather than by taxes.  We should also work with socialists toward more social justice - not for revolution, but just for representation.  Our obsession with Liberation Theology has gone on for far too long.

Self-Referential? Exhibit A | National Catholic Reporter

Self-Referential? Exhibit A | National Catholic Reporter by MSW.  MGB: The word is scruples, which can also be sinful because they are, as you say, self consumed.

What's Really Wrong with Our Politics | National Catholic Reporter

What's Really Wrong with Our Politics | National Catholic Reporter by MSW.  MGB: I am sure my old prof, Frank Luntz, had a piece of this too. Whatever gets it done.  I am still troubled that we only have a gang of 8 and not a gang of 10 behind reform, since we need 5 Republicans to get it done.

Back to the HHS Mandate | National Catholic Reporter

Back to the HHS Mandate | National Catholic Reporter by MSW.  MGB: The whole issue, let me remind you, was Valerie Jarrett baiting the bishops in order to attract Catholic women.  Sadly, the bishops took the bait.  Now that the election has occurred, the Administration has basically caved.  Let me also remind you that the issue is not about whether contraception is to be covered, since this has been true since 2000 for all with insurance policies with preventative care, but whether there is a co-pay.  Facts are inconvenient things.

Reform & Pope Francis: Part II | National Catholic Reporter

Reform & Pope Francis: Part II | National Catholic Reporter by MSW.  MGB: The pro-life office did certainly get out of control - changing doctrine by press release and impacting (or trying to impact) the case of Terri Schaivo.  The solution my be breaking up the operation into several patriarchies and ending Roman supremacy (which is mythical) altogether.  Send these guys home and let their local patriarchs deal with them according to their worth.  (I suspect many will retire).

Francis & Reform: Part I | National Catholic Reporter

Francis & Reform: Part I | National Catholic Reporter by MSW.  MGB: Francis appeared conservative when he was in his see, however Justice Sueter also appeared conservative on the New Hampshire Supreme Court.  He could very well end priestly celibacy - indeed he must for a good doctrinal reason, its link to Continence, which is based on a hatred of sexuality and women.  It is an insult to marriage and must be rooted out.  This is more likely to occur, however, if the Western Patriarchy is split into several linguistic or national autocephalic patriarchies with their own Canon law to deal with such issues.  Africa, by the way, should be transferred back to the Coptic Pope in Alexandria.  If they wish traditional mores, let them have them.  Indeed, they are reasonable to do so in fighting an ongoing struggle with polygamy.  The Irish, English, American and Canadian Churches should set their own rules as well.  Now that would be reform (and I suspect that this is the way we are going, given some of the Catholic prophesies of this era).

Rosshirt on Dr. Ben Carson | National Catholic Reporter

Rosshirt on Dr. Ben Carson | National Catholic Reporter by MSW.  MGB: This is not different than many in the conservative movement, who have no compunction on fleecing their flocks.

What's Wrong With Planned Parenthood? | National Catholic Reporter

What's Wrong With Planned Parenthood? | National Catholic Reporter by MSW.  MGB: This is also why Catholic Hospitals should do late term inductions, so that the child may be baptized and dies with dignity, rather than left to these people.

(Un)Think(Non)Progress | National Catholic Reporter

(Un)Think(Non)Progress | National Catholic Reporter by MSW.  MGB: The Cardinal was wrong.  Gay couples are as entitled to form families as heterosexual couples.  It is the basic adult right.  What really scares the hierarchy is that the families of these couples may ask for a priestly blessing, which they will likely get, given the amount of gay priests in service.  The teaching on homosexuality and so much else is decidedly doomed once this happens.