Again, end the March for Life

COVID-19 suspended the March for Life this year. Even if it had not, Republican treachery would have (treachery is part of treason and insurrection). Sadly, there are Catholics who will accept racism and insurrection to defend Trump and his role as the useful idiot of the USCCB Office of Pro-Life Activities (who are themselves embedded Republican staffers).

The unborn already have a right to life. The 5th and 14th Amendments consider the right to life only as it pertains to execution by the government, not murder. Not being murdered is statutory law as part of the broader social contract where protection from the sovereign is bought by the power to tax and waiving any right to personal violence in the state of nature. Unless one considers having government as a natural right and taxation an inherent state power, there is no right to not be murdered (born or unborn).

About this time, every time a Democrat is elected President, the Catholic Church looks to bolster its pro-life mailing list by raising the possibility that the long-gone FOCA proposal would be used to provide a statutory right to abortion. They are about 30 years to late. The Unborn Victims of Violence Act already conceded the point. Here is the relevant language:

`CHAPTER 90A--PROTECTION OF UNBORN CHILDREN'

``Sec.1841. Protection of unborn children.

(c) Nothing in this section shall be construed to permit the prosecution--

            ``(1) of any person for conduct relating to an abortion for which the consent of the pregnant woman, or a person authorized  by law to act on her behalf, has been obtained or for which such consent is implied by law;

            ``(2) of any person for any medical treatment of the pregnant woman or her unborn child; or

            ``(3) of any woman with respect to her unborn child."

The real debate is over and the shouting is entirely political theater to scam pro-life believers into fealty to the Republican Party. 

This is the maximum amount of ground the right to life side can get (save possibly for banning late term sex selective , Trisomy 23 and 21 abortions - and maybe 18 because the child may or may not survive to be born). Trisomy 7 and 13 abortions must be allowed at any stage, because they not only endanger the mother's health, but in some cases may kill her from shed genetic material through the placenta.

That last bit does not conform to Church policy, but it does comport to natural law reason (the real kind, not what the Church says). Most objections to Catholic politicians speaking honestly on the issue of abortion are about perceived loyalty to the hierarchy, not actual faith and morals.

Vatican II settled this. Free thought is not banned in the moral law or in dealing with freedom of religion (or irreligion). The heavy hand of the Curia was chopped off, although SS Paul VI and John Paul II tried to sew it back on. They failed. Francis has dropped the Royal We from Catholic teaching.

The demand for one voice is sociological and pathological, not theological (although there is a great bit of overlap between the two). It is no sin, however, not to back the bishops when they are wrong (or be excluded from Communion for doing so).

There is an appropriate and very Catholic way to oppose abortion: economic dignity for women and families. President Biden is proposing expanding the child tax credit by $1000 to $3000 (permanently) and making it refundable (just for COVID). This should be permanent as well and the amount should be doubled and redoubled to $1000 a month, distributed as an offset to an employer-paid subtraction VAT.