A Plea to Senator Bob Casey: Fight for Life - Seize the Moment

I appeal to you, Senator Bob Casey, make history. Right the wrong that was the censoring of your fathers' good voice in 1992. "Fight for Life" and defend the truth about life which he heroically stood for.

CHESAPEAKE, Va. (Catholic Online) - It is official. The Democratic National Convention Committee has confirmed that Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey Jr. will speak at their Nominating Convention being held in Denver, Colorado. He is formally scheduled to address the crowd on Tuesday evening, August 26, 2008, the second night of this much anticipated Convention. Rumors of this possibility have circulated for some time.

Senator Casey's father, the late, revered former Governor of Pennsylvania, Bob Casey Sr., was denied a speaking role at the 1992 Democratic nomination convention.

Oh, I know that historical revisionists are now attempting to say that he was omitted from a speaking role because of his opposition to the Clinton/Gore ticket. His son and the rest of us know that this is simply not the truth. The late Governor, one of the last truly pro-life and pro-poor Democrats, wrote a marvelous book entitled "Fighting for Life", from which I excerpted the quote with which I began this editorial plea. The book details the whole troubling truth of the censorship effort and the Governors courage in the face of those who sold out the Party.

Speaking of abortion, Bob Casey once wrote:

"It's hard to think of anything more foreign to the principles of the Democratic Party or the whole American experience. Far from being "inclusive", it excludes an entire class of fellow human beings from our care and protection. It's the only "constitutional right" we're ashamed of, avoiding the word abortion with contorted euphemisms like "reproductive rights" and "termination" and "evacuation".

"Far from liberating women, abortion has become a lucrative industry, exploiting young women beyond anything ever imagined. When pregnancy comes at a difficult time, which is the worthier response of society: To surround mother and child alike with protection and love, or to hold out the cold comfort of an abortion clinic? Where is America's true character to be seen- in an adoptive home or at the abortion clinic? In which role is a woman more empowered - giving life or taking it?

"These are questions that rest uneasily on the conscience of today's Democratic Party. We have traded our principles for power - the fleeting power offered by loud and well financed factions like NARAL and Planned Parenthood.... "We can choose to extend once again the mantle of protection to all members of the human family, including the unborn. We can choose to provide effective care of mothers and children.""

The thing is ....it was the late former Governor of Pennsylvania, Bob Casey Sr., who wrote these and so many other clear and convincing words regarding the National tragedy of abortion on demand.

To me and many others my age (53) and background (blue collar Catholics and others of our ilk) the censoring of Governor Bob Casey from speaking at the 1992 Democratic convention, precisely because of his support of the rights of all people including our first neighbors in the womb, was not only wrong but it caused me to leave the once great Party of the working poor, middle class and disenfranchised with which I used to be affiliated.

Along with the announcement of Senator Casey's speaking role has come growing speculation concerning what the now famous son of the late Governor will address in this potentially historic speech. Many opine that he will avoid addressing the fundamental human right, the Right to Life. They say he will address instead issues of economic justice and solidarity with the working class.

I certainly hope he will consider all to whom we are joined in solidarity, including our youngest neighbors in the womb. Senator, how can you not speak of that entire class whom the late Mother Teresa rightly labeled the "poorest of the poor", those with no voice but ours, our neighbors in the first home of the whole human race? I issue a plea to you, do so for your Dad! He taught you well. You know the truth that the child in the womb is our neighbor. Rise to the moment and make him, and all of us, proud.

The Press has been filled with discussions over the proposed draft changes in the Democratic Party plank concerning the issue of Abortion. The 2004 Democratic Party plank on abortion read as follows:

"Because we believe in the privacy and equality of women, we stand proudly for a woman's right to choose, consistent with Roe v. Wade, and regardless of her ability to pay. We stand firmly against Republican efforts to undermine that right. At the same time, we strongly support family planning and adoption incentives. Abortion should be safe, legal, and rare."

This is precisely the kind of language which makes it impossible for people like me, former Democrats, to ever consider rejoining the Party. I have written repeatedly concerning my uncomfortable place as a "reluctant Republican". I am not "liberal" or "conservative" and I am certainly not "neo-conservative" with the attendant militarism which that label seems to entail. I am whole life/pro-life (I accept the "consistent ethic of life" label if it is properly understood within a hierarchy of values), pro marriage and family, pro-poor, pro-freedom and pro-peace.

Like so many others, when I heard of the proposed changes in the platform of the Democratic Party and read the writings of fellow Catholic Christians like Doug Kmiec and others whom I admire, like members of Democrats for life, which indicated that the new language was a real improvement, I was quite hopeful. That was until I read it.

Here is the Draft language for the 2008 Democratic Party platform on abortion broken up into three sections:

1) "The Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v Wade and a woman's right to choose a safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay, and we oppose any and all efforts to weaken or undermine that right."

This is a further retrenching of the Democratic Parties commitment to viewing the taking of innocent human life in the womb as some kind of "right" even though it is always and everywhere wrong to take innocent human life no matter what the Supreme Court says. Further, the dropping of the language of "safe, legal and rare" makes the new plank even worse. The counterfeit notion of human freedom as consisting of a raw power over the right to life of a weaker and smaller fellow human person is bad enough. Worse yet is the using all of our tax dollars to commit the killing.

I expected so much more. My friend Doug Kmiecs analysis, which we published on Catholic Online, indicated there would be language in the new plank which affirmed personal responsibility in human sexual intimacy. He wrote "Yes, there is the reaffirmation of Roe, but it is now matched with a full-throated call for efforts to address the irresponsibility of kids having kids, through appropriate educational efforts emphasizing the maturity and responsibility that must accompany sexual intimacy."

Here is the language:

2)"The Democratic Party also strongly supports access to affordable family planning services and comprehensive age-appropriate sex education which empower people to make informed choices and live healthy lives. We also recognize that such health care and education help reduce the number of unintended pregnancies and thereby also reduce the need for abortions."

Doug, what were you thinking? This language could be used to promote all kinds of so called "sex education" programs which could be used to usurp parental roles, primacy and rights. It is also precisely the kind of language which has hidden the evil that every procured abortion is the taking of an innocent human life under the language of "choice" since the infamous Supreme Court decisions of Roe and Doe.

I will admit that the final language is, to Doug and Democrats for Life's credit, a real step forward. In fact, it expresses exactly the kind of language of solidarity which the Republican Party should adopt in their Party platform:

3)"The Democratic Party also strongly supports a woman's decision to have a child by ensuring access to and availability of programs for pre and post natal health care, parenting skills, income support, and caring adoption programs."

It is time for those who recognize what medical science and natural justice both tell us that children in the womb are human persons with an inalienable right to life - to begin using a new language in this human rights struggle.

Without the right to life there are no other rights. Without the freedom to be born, there are no other freedoms. Yes it is true; we must care for children in the womb after they leave the womb. Yes, we must offer the kind of care for mothers which they deserve and provide a culture of care. However, contrary to what some in the Democratic fringes are saying, the overwhelming majority of pro-Life people agree with that, especially Pro-Life Catholics.

I am pro-life, pro-family, pro-freedom, pro-poor and pro-peace. I am committed to a consistent ethic of life from the womb to the tomb. However, the killing of innocent children in the womb is the pre-eminent moral evil of our age and Senator Bob Casey knows this to be the case. His father championed this truth.

Senator, as a fellow Catholic, I share with you a belief that "nothing separates us from the love of Christ" in the words of the Apostle Paul. There is a communion of saints. Your Dad will be listening Tuesday evening from his place in the communion of love with the Lord of Life which his Catholic Christian faith proclaims.

Senator, your father called on us all to replace the current culture of death, nihilism, and instrumentalism with a new culture of life and a civilization of love. He advocated for a strategy for life wherein we would bring an end to legal abortion and create a culture which welcomes, nurtures, protects and provides for the right choice, life.

He, along with a bipartisan group of men and women, including political "liberals" and "conservatives", drafted a thoughtful document entitled "A new American Compact: Caring About Women, Caring for the Unborn". You must remember this Compact. It appeared as a full page ad in the New York Times during the 1992 Democratic Convention. I know you were raised by a father who truly believed in its truth and importance. The compact begins with these words:

"Over the next months and years, the American people will confront again the question that Lincoln posed at Gettysburg: whether a nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to human equality can long endure. In this generation, the issue pressing that question on our consciences is the issue of abortion.

"We who propose the new American compact outlined below are men and women of diverse callings and political perspectives. We are public officials, medical professionals, scholars, and feminists; we are liberals and conservatives; Democrats, Republicans, and Independents; Catholics, Jews, Protestants, and agnostics.

"We have sought to reflect carefully on the abortion controversy. We are making our reflections public in the hope that they will help all Americans cut through the static of the sound bites and discuss the linked questions of abortion, human dignity, and American freedom with the moral seriousness demanded of citizens of a democratic republic.

"For almost twenty years, abortion policy in America has been controlled by the courts. That seems likely to remain the case in the immediate future, even though the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision permits state legislatures to enact some modest regulation of abortion practice. It is to be deeply regretted that the American people have been denied the deliberative role in shaping public policy on this issue that has been played by the citizens of other developed democracies. The American people are capable of serious public moral reflection; the American people are capable of rising above partisanship on a matter of this gravity. Their voice can and must be heard, through the normal procedures of democracy.

"For like the practice of slavery, and like the Jim Crow laws of the not-so-distant past, the abortion issue raises the most fundamental questions of justice--questions that cannot be avoided, and that cannot be resolved by judicial fiat. Who belongs to the community of the commonly protected? Whose rights will we acknowledge? Whose human dignity will we respect? For whose wellbeing will we, as a people, assume responsibility? Profound issues of personal and public morality are engaged by these questions. Their resolution--and the manner in which they are debated--will determine the kind of society America will be in its third century."

Now, many more years, those words still cry out to be heard. Those questions still await our answer. Our future as a truly free people hangs in the balance. The challenge of that compact remains to be implemented as a part of a true campaign for life and solidarity with the poor. Rise to the moment!

I appeal to you, Senator Bob Casey, make history. Right the wrong that was the censoring of your fathers' good voice in 1992. Take this opportunity as an occasion for the triumph of the truth he gave his life to advance. Stand up on Tuesday evening and give the speech you know that he would have given.

If you do so, you will not only honor his memory, you will reignite the great cause of our age and help to lead a radical realignment in the American political landscape.
This is your moment, this is his moment, this is the moment of truth and the moment for life; Seize it.

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