First of all, here is the essential ingredients to this debate:

A pregnant woman in Florida named Samantha Burton, was pregnant.  During the later days of her pregnancy she was confined to the hospital on bed rest, against her will by way of court order, to treat complications to her pregnancy.   The story goes on that she had smoked during the first 6 months of her pregnancy.  She was at the hospital because she had a false labor event, and the doctor advised her that if she did not stay in the hospital on bed rest and stop smoking she risked a miscarriage.

Burton is in her late 20s, has two young daughters and a common-law husband and holds down a blue-collar job, said her lawyer, David Abrams. She didn’t want an abortion, had obtained prenatal care and voluntarily went to the hospital after experiencing symptoms she’d been told to look out for, he said.

But she didn’t like the care she received at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital. She said her doctor, Jana Bures-Foresthoefel, was brusque and overbearing. Her lawyer said bed rest for difficult pregnancies is a controversial issue because it can cause some complications like blood clots. Abrams said smoking by itself doesn’t cause miscarriages.

And people wonder why I like her so much.

Palin links Tiller, Long slayings

Sarah Palin today picked up a widely heard theme on the right, using the murder of abortion doctor George Tiller to call attention to the murder of an army recruiter in Arkansas, allegedly by a self-styled Islamic militant:

The stories of two very different lives with similar fates crossed through the media’s hands yesterday — both equally important but one lacked the proper attention. The death of 67-year old George Tiller was unacceptable, but equally disgusting was another death that police believe was politically and religiously motivated as well.

William Long died yesterday. The 23-year old Army Recruiter was gunned down by a fanatic; another fellow soldier was wounded in the ambush. The soldiers had just completed their basic training and were talking to potential recruits, just as my son, Track, once did.

Whatever titles we give these murderers, both deserve our attention. Violence like that is no way to solve a political dispute nor a religious one. And the fanatics on all sides do great disservice when they confuse dissention with rage and death

The purpose of these Sunday musings was to help me by allowing me to ponder recent thoughts feelings and events.

Not necessarily to discuss policy, politics and the other topics of my daily rantings.

But today I have to stretch that, because this has a week where the “A” word has been in all around me.

I am talking about abortion.

It was the anniversary of Roe Wade earlier this week, a day many celebrate, and some mourn.

It was also the week where the President overruled the restrictions on overseas abortion funding.

Both of these are areas where I find  a lot of internal conflict, but they are also areas where I also apply a great deal of resignation.

Abortion is here to stay, and once again, we are exporting it with federal dollars.

Now, the first of these is simply a statement of fact.  Roe Wade will never be overturned, and it will prevent states from making their own determinations about.  Several have tried, they all fail.  While the subject of abortion is hot enough, my dislike of the interference in federalism is worse.

Essentially, this editorial elevates abortion to an essential medical service, and dismisses any notion that doctors, nurses or hospitals have the right to not perform them, all as a part of the Bush conspiracy to Undermine a ”women’s reproductive rights and access to health care”.

A Parting Shot at Women’s Rights

Undermining women’s reproductive rights and access to health care has been a pervasive theme of the outgoing administration. On his first full day in office, President Bush imposed the “global gag rule,” which prohibits taxpayer dollars from going to international family-planning groups that perform abortions using their own funds or that advocate for safe abortion laws.

Which there is nothing wrong with.  Why should US tax dollars fund abortions overseas?  Yes, Roe Wade made it a right here, but the same people who are crying out that we cannot force this right on other nations, regardless of their own cultures and laws, are the same ones who decry our meddling in other countries.

I guess not all meddling is bad.  I am all for promoting public health to the Nations that need it, but that should be done by privately funded groups.

Abortion.  Apparently that is the defining issue of our culture.

Sure, there are many things that drive the liberals wacky about Palin, but her determined pro life stance has to be the one I read about the most.  The constant accusations that she will repeal Roe Wade are generally the loudest.

No matter that the ability to make Roe Wade go away is hardly easy and not in the list of executive powers.

Perhaps these panic stricken fear mongers should consider that you have had 3 conservative presidents, all who were pro choice, and gee, none of them managed that trick.

We have a stumbling economy, a war, the constant threat of terrorism and all manner of other important issues, but for some reason, the defining issue keeps becoming Abortion.

Why is abortion such a polarizing issue?  Why does it promote such a visceral reaction?

The reality may be in what the two sides see it as.

Conservatives see the issue as a moral one, that of protecting innocent life. 

Liberals see it as a matter of choice, the choice to terminate a life.

The smack down regarding abortion continues for Joe Biden as two more Catholic Bishops take him to task for his latest comments.¹

Two prominent U.S. Catholic bishops said Tuesday that Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden contradicted church teaching by saying in a weekend interview that determining when human life begins is a “personal and private” matter of religious faith he would not impose on others.

The statement from Cardinal Justin Rigali and Bishop William Lori said Biden, who appeared Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” is the latest case of the U.S. Catholic hierarchy correcting a Catholic politician.

Asked on the program about when life begins, Biden said: “Look, I know when it begins for me. It’s a personal and private issue. For me, as a Roman Catholic, I am prepared to accept the teachings in my church.”

Both Pelosi and Biden who were chastised by Catholic Archbishops for their prolife stances show no signs of contrition, and continue to insist their positions are not controversial.

First, Biden, who claims that his beliefs may not be in line, but it is OK, because the church doesn’t really care ¹:

Joe Biden supposedly will attract Catholics to the Democratic ticket, but not if he follows Pope Nancy Pelosi for doctrinal guidance.  In a profile of Biden for the Christian Science Monitor, Biden credits his Catholicism for his focus on “abuse of power”, but shrugs off the abortion debate as a minor controversy.  He even goes on to tell Gail Russell Chaddock that his views on social issues fall completely within Catholic doctrine:

“The animating principle of my faith, as taught to me by church and home, was that the cardinal sin was abuse of power,” he said in an interview with the Monitor. “It was not only required as a good Catholic to abhor and avoid abuse of power, but to do something to end that abuse.”

OK, I admit, that title almost reads like some lame joke lead in ( a priest and abortionist and a democrat walked into a bar and…..).

But believe it or not, it is news. Now, as a disclaimer, I am not promoting a stand on abortion here, this is merely about Democrats who are Catholic.

It started with this story a few days ago, where Nancy Pelosi apparently decided to speak authoritatively on Catholic doctrine:¹

I’m always astounded as to the extent of deception in which pro-choice Catholics indulge themselves, both inwardly and outwardly, to justify their positions. Perhaps there is no balder example of this than Nancy Pelosi attempting to spin the Catholic doctrine on human life today on Meet the Press. Pelosi argues that the Catholic position on human life only developed in the last 50 years and that it doesn’t impact abortion in any case:

The abortion debate took an interesting turn.

Obama has been under fire for a while over his prior votes on abortion so it was obvious that would come up in the Saddleback interview.

When asked when a fetus gains human rights status, Obama took a clear stand:  Ask someone else.  ¹

Obama says pointed abortion query “above his pay grade”

DALLAS - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama side-stepped a pointed query about abortion on Saturday by “mega-pastor” Rick Warren during a televised forum.

Asked at what point a baby gets “human rights,” Obama, who strongly supports abortion rights, said: “… whether you’re looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question  with specificity … is above my pay grade.”

He went on to reiterate his view that it was important to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies.

He is right in the sense that the root issue of abortion is unwanted pregnancies.  But that does not change the fact that you still need to answer the question and define the nature of life if you want to justify abortion.

I don’t get this.  The Catholic Church is very much opposed to Abortion.  So why would a Catholic school ban a Pro Life speaker?

Apparently guilt by association is the sin.  This is throwing the baby out with the bathwater…ironically enough.   Via Hot Air:

Here in the Twin Cities, conservatives have long been inured to the strange policy decisions made by liberal administrations colleges and universities in our community, but the University of St. Thomas may have surprised even the most resigned conservatives here. St. Thomas denied permission for a presentation by a young African-American woman to speak on abortion. Normally, this wouldn’t seem surprising for a Catholic university, but the woman wanted to speak out against abortion — and the university apparently believes that to violate its community standards:

Star Parker is a bestselling author who travels the country speaking to young audiences about the harmful impact of abortion, especially in minority communities. What better place than the University of St. Thomas — an urban, Catholic campus — for this dynamic African-American woman to bring her prolife message?