Joe Biden, good Catholic that he is, says that life begins at conception and that “abortion is always wrong.” But, good Democrat that he is, he also believes in legalized abortion, saying that it would also be wrong to impose his religious beliefs on those who do not share them. The objective fact of the humanness of the fetus cannot, apparently, interfere with that position.
I wonder if he is also unwilling to impose Catholic religious teachings in issues that are supported by the Democratic Party, such as environmentalism, immigration, and programs for the poor. But at least he is not taking Nancy Pelosi’s position, which is that her Catholic faith impels her belief in abortion.
Is Vice President Biden’s position logically and ethically coherent? I can see the principle that not all moral positions should be legislated, but it seems to me that if abortion is homicide, it does need to be legislated. Can anyone make a case for what Biden is saying, or, conversely, explain why it is wrong?
If the law isn’t going to change anyway, wouldn’t it be better to have a personally pro-life President than someone who is personally committed to abortion? Do you hope Biden runs?
.From Joel Gehrke, Joe Biden: ‘Abortion Is Always Wrong’ | National Review Online:
Vice President Joe Biden believes that life begins at conception, according to a statement he made while inviting pro-lifers to join the Democratic party in conjunction with Pope Francis’s visit to the United States.
Biden maintained that the question of when life begins is a religious matter. “I’m prepared to accept that at the moment of conception there’s human life and being, but I’m not prepared to say that to other God-fearing [and] non-God-fearing people that have a different view,” he said during an interview published by America, a Jesuit-run outlet, on Monday.
“Abortion is always wrong,” Biden continued. “All the principles of my faith, [which] I make no excuse for attempting to live up to — I don’t all the time. But I’m not prepared to impose doctrine that I’m prepared to accept on the rest of [the country].”. . .
It’s the latest bit of evidence that has Republicans increasingly confident in the empirical basis for their abortion views. “The science is settled. It’s not even a consensus, it is a unanimity, that human life begins at conception,” Florida senator Marco Rubio said on Fox News in May.
Dr. Maureen Condic, a professor of neurobiology and anatomy at the University of Utah, wrote a white paper in 2008 buttressing that position. “A neutral examination of the factual evidence merely establishes the onset of a new human life at a scientifically well defined ‘moment of conception,’ a conclusion that unequivocally indicates that human embryos from the zygote stage forward are indeed living individuals of the human species — human beings,” Condic wrote.
The statement that “abortion is always wrong” puts Biden at odds with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.), who has portrayed her support for abortion rights as an extension of her religious beliefs. “As a practicing and respectful Catholic, this is sacred ground to me when we talk about this,” Pelosi told reporters in 2013
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