Stephen Kent’s column “Looking to a higher law” (CR, Aug. 20) demonstrates again that the Catholic News Service has made no serious commitment to oppose abortion. To demonstrate standing up against abortion in the political arena is futile, the author’s hypothetical starts with the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. Afterwards inferior courts would overturn anti-abortion legislation and Supreme Court precedent, if one follows the logic of Kent. He should have been calling for American members of the church to act like Americans and defend the 14th amendment to the Constitution and to fight for their right to representative government against a judicial oligarchy.
CNS asks us to support a feel-good resolution that does not require personal commitment or limits abortion-legislating courts. Our form of government places a moral burden on the citizen to speak out on moral issues and negotiate with our fellow citizens in the public arena. The author is only partially right when he warns us against reliance on legislation. The church should be calling on its citizens to quit excusing themselves from speaking out for the unborn in the public arena. From social consensus we will limit abortions.