Mickey Kaus, I think, is right to roll his eyes at “Kerry's tortured, intellectually bogus answer on abortion.” Earlier this summer William Safire referred to Kerry’s reasoning on abortion as “aself-serving and obvious absurdity.” Will Saletan of Slate wrote this morning: “I know something about abortion politics, so I can tell you you how effective Kerry's answer was. It was awful.” So I was surprised to hear that you were so excited about it.
No matter what your stance is on abortion, how can one believe that (1) life begins at conception, (2) abortion is murder, and (3) it should nevertheless be permissible? How is that any different from saying: My religious belief is that all men are created equal, but others disagree with me on that, therefore I won’t impose my belief upon others by insisting that slavery is wrong? Or we can apply the same reasoning to the war on terror: I believe that murdering innocent human beings is wrong—but people of other religious persuasions (like the Islamo-Fascists) disagree with me on this, and therefore I cannot impose my personal religious belief upon them.
I would commend for your consideration an article written by philosophy professor Douglas Groothius: John Kerry and the Logic of Human Life. It’d be great if you’d be willing to post this for others to consider as well.
Thanks for your time and for considering this. I have great respect and appreciation for your work!
Sincerely,
JT
Between Two Worlds
