Senator Ben Nelson's 'Thomas More' Moment: A Matter of Life or Death for Children.

This is a matter of life or death. Pray for Senator Nelson. Pray for all of the children whose lives are at stake. Pray for our Nation.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Catholic Online) - Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska is an unlikely hero. He would probably be the first to reject the idea that he should be given any special praise. He is just doing his job representing the good people of Nebraska who elected him to represent them.

One needs only to visit his web site http://bennelson.senate.gov/index.cfm to see that Senator Nelson is, to coin a phrase which probably dates me, the "real McCoy". There is no grandiosity about his self description on this site. He is what his just what his constituents call him, "Ben".

He came from the Southwest Nebraska town of McCook with 8,000 residents. He was raised with Midwest values. He is a man of faith, a lay minister in his Protestant Christian Church. He does not wear that faith on his sleeve. He does not need to, it informs his mind, his heart and, his public service.

This man is the quintessential husband, father, grandfather and plain old good citizen and citizen lawmaker in the best of the American tradition. The description notes in his biography that "As a proud grandfather, Nelson enjoys spending time with his family, reading, hunting, fishing, and the whole of outdoor life. An avid hunter, Nelson has won both the domestic Grand Slam and international World Slam for wild turkeys and has hunted on safari in Africa. Ben Nelson and his wife, Diane, continue to live in Omaha. They have four children, Kevin, Sarah, Christie, and Patrick as well as five grandchildren. Nelson commutes home nearly every weekend to be with his family and with the people of Nebraska."

His biography also emphasizes his capacity to effect compromise noting that he is "known as a consensus builder who has worked to forge compromise agreements". However, this is a man who knows the truth that the child in the womb is one of us and that we must not allow any Health Care Reform package to pass - and then become law - which uses Federal tax Dollars to kill our innocent neighbors. There are some truths which are incapable of "compromise." The first among them is the fundamental human right to life and the first freedom, the freedom to be born.

The argument that the child in the womb is not a human person is rarely being made these days. It is simply accepted as a fact - because it is a fact. Medical science confirms what the Natural Law and our own conscience long ago told us, the child in the womb is a human person. We have the evidence in those marvelous 4d sonograms and we operate routinely on our first neighbors and place them back in the womb.

These are children we are talking about. Therefore, as human persons they are endowed with a fundamental human right to life. They should also be able to exercise the first freedom, the freedom to be born and take their place at our side. Rather, the argument has become profanely "sophisticated". In an age where sophistry has replaced true discourse, its proponents smile while they defend barbarism.

The proponents of allowing people to kill their own children in the womb contend that we should not make their "choice" for them. Sadly, this promotion of might over right is also enforced by the Police Power of the State in the current regime. These children have no voice because it is muffled behind the womb. This evil of abortion on demand has resulted in the killing of millions of children and left wounded mothers and fathers its trail of tears.

Some choices are always and everywhere wrong. We all know it. We use the positive law to prohibit them all the time. We simply treat preborn children differently. They have become "chattel", personal property under the positive law in the United States. In effect we have sanctioned a new form of slavery.

Ben Nelson has become the center of attention in the most important Senatorial vote in many years, the vote to prevent the use of federal tax payer dollars, through a proposed heath care reform package, to pay for abortions. This moment is what I call Senator Ben Nelson's "Thomas More" moment.

Thomas More is my personal hero. I am a public policy advocate and a lawyer. He is the Patron Saint of all politicians and public servants. Oh, I know that Ben Nelson is not a Catholic Christian. He is a Methodist Christian. It does not matter. We all know the story of Thomas More and we admire him for standing for the truth. He would not violate his rightly formed conscience. He was "the kings good servant but the Lord's first".

In 1532, knowing that he could not enforce the unjust request of his temporal King he resisted. At the time, few would have even noticed if Thomas had succumbed to the royal request and all of the "arm twisting" from both carrots and sticks which accompanied it.

He probably could have justified the action through the exercise of his well honed rhetorical and logical skills by calling it a merely perfunctory or procedural action. Instead, Thomas More held in harmony his vocation as the father of a family and one who knew the truth with his profession as a lawyer and his service in political office. He knew that there is a hierarchy of values which bring with them a hierarchy of duties and loyalties. There still is. Consistency in recognizing the primacy of human rights and defending the truth is the most important trait of a true public servant.

The facts are out - and they are deeply troubling. Reliable sources indicate that Ben Nelson has undergone extraordinary "arm twisting" from this administration. They are trying to compel him to support the current version of the Health Care Reform Package with its funding of abortion, the taking of innocent life, as "health care". He is the "60th vote" needed for the proponents of this legislation to be able to ram it through before we pause to remember the birth of a baby whose life in the womb proclaims the truth of the dignity and value of every human life.

First there was the stick. He has been threatened with having the military base he worked so hard to bring to his State closed by the "BRAC" commission. This man of deep patriotism must have experienced that as a sword which pierced his heart. Other sources indicate he was also offered the carrot in the form of substantial financial incentives for his people, the people of Nebraska. But this ordinary man has who has now been called to extraordinary heroism refused to back down. He knows that this vote is truly a matter of life and death. He is standing strong. He needs our prayer.

Another Senator, Bob Casey Jr., the son of a giant who is now with the Lord, was named for his beloved father. His father was one of the last great Pro-Life, Pro-Poor, Pro-Family and Pro-Peace Democrats, Governor Bob Casey. The son of the great man has not fared as well as Senator Ben Nelson.

Senator Bob Casey Jr. also knows the truth about the humanity of children in the womb. However, he succumbed to the pressure and danced to the siren song of the denizens of death. He offered a "compromise" which the US Catholic Bishops and every truly pro-Life American has rejected because it amounts to a "Neville Chamberlain" type of surrender concerning the fundamental human rights issue of our age, the Right to Life.

Sadly, Senator Bob Casey Jr. carries an even higher burden because he is a Catholic Christian and has the fullness of the truth offered by the teaching office of his own Church to guide him in his deliberations. He has not been faithful to the charge. He offered a "compromise" which was in fact a capitulation.

But Senator Ben Nelson saw right through the subterfuge. He heard the cry of those whom Mother Teresa called the "poorest of the poor", children in the womb and did not back down. His office released the following statement:

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Senator Nelson Comments on Abortion Compromise

"December 17, 2009 - Today, Nebraska's Senator Ben Nelson praised provisions in an abortion compromise adding new teen pregnancy initiatives and tax credits for adoption, while saying that the language working to ban public funding of abortion is not sufficient at this point.

"Senator Nelson said today a proposed compromise he's studied does not yet ensure that a longstanding federal standard barring public funding of abortion would be maintained in the Senate health care bill the Senate has been debating this month.Nelson said without further improvements the compromise is not sufficient.

"The compromise adds important new initiatives addressing teen pregnancy and tax credits to help with adoptions," Senator Nelson said. "These are valuable improvements that will make a positive difference and promote life. But as it is, without modifications, the language concerning abortion is not sufficient."

"Senator Nelson reiterated that he will not be able to support a cloture motion needing 60 votes to end debate on the underlying Senate bill if certain language in the bill remains. The existing language allows public funds to pay for abortion, thus relaxing the longstanding Hyde amendment.

"He said today that he is open to looking at additional attempts to maintain the federal restriction on public funding of abortion."

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This is Senator Ben Nelson's 'Thomas More' Moment. It is a matter of life or death for children. Pray for him. Pray for all of the children whose lives are at stake. Pray for our Nation. God bless America.

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