PolySciFi Blog

I try to take a balanced view towards politics (to lay my biases in the open, I am voting for Bush), but I feel that I couldn't let a public statement by Kerry pass uncommented (others have commented, but I felt I needed to add my two bits).

According to the Wa Post(registration required), Kerry's statement was, "I oppose abortion, personally. I don't like abortion. I believe life does begin at conception."

To get one thing out of the way, in its context, Kerry is cleary indicating that he believes human life begins at conception, particularly as a way of signaling that he is in line with the teachings of the Catholic church.

As perhaps is the case with every American, I have spent a nontrivial portion of my life debating abortion. Previously, I've been of the opinion that the differences in the two camps is a function of having an ill-defined definition of when human life begins (outside of the amoralists who I figure a small fraction of the pro-choice side). The pro-life camp believes human life begins at conception (or shortly there after) and accordingly views abortion as murder. The pro-choice camp believes human life begins at birth (or shortly before) and accordingly views as a lesser evil. I honestly always figured the way to settle the debate was for society to come to a general consensus as to when human life begins, and viewed efforts such as this one as steps in the right direction.

However, Kerry's statement trashes my logic (assuming his statement is a principled one, which it may not be). Kerry says that life begins at conception, yet is a very vocal and extreme supporter of the pro-choice position. For instance "Kerry voted against the [partial birth abortion] ban, which Bush signed into law, because he said it does not provide adequate protections for a woman's health." (from this wapo article).

My problems with Kerry's rationale on the PBA and his statements
1) Kerry's advocating that the mental health of a mother is more desirable than a viable life.^1,2 Disregarding the religious arguments, is it a social consensus that a life is worth more than someone's mental health?^1,2 Is not life generally treated as a higher right in the hierarchy of rights than the pursuit of happiness? (there is, and there must be a hierarchy of rights as all rights necessarily interfere with each other, particularly in interpersonal situations).

2) By Kerry's logic (life begins at conception), that makes him an active supporter of baby killing (and not even in the Swiftian sense). (this point is what caused me to put "polemic" in the post title as I can think of no worse charge to make)

So here's my conundum, is Kerry lying when he says that he believes life begins at conception (saying what he thinks will get him elected - a time honored political tradition), or are his morals that out of whack with America's (believing that life begins at conception, but thinking that someone's mental discomfort outweighs another's life)? Or is there some other explanation that I'm missing?

Add your two bits in the comments - inquiring minds want to know.

Update
The Democratic party wasn't always conformist on abortion. It wasn't until 1992 that the Dems forbade pro-life speakers from the Presidential nominating convention. This decision, which I feel was to the great detriment of the Democratic party and the country, prompted an open letter published in the NYT giving a liberal argument against abortion. If you read the letter, you'll see that their rationale is also premised on the idea that life begins at conception and the conflict of rights must be decided in the favor of life trumping personal convenience (ex post facto contraception is the phrase the authors use).

Oh, and the letter was signed by Sargent Shriver, the 1972 Democratic Vice Presidential nominee (and father to Maria).

Footnotes
1. Many pro-abortion friends of mine make their limit at viability - a principled position I can respect, though disagree with.

2. Physical health is not an issue as in a PBA the baby is almost to term and is almost completely extracted before being killed so the difference with a normal birth is trivial. I would have stats to back this up, but various courts are blocking the gathering of statistics related to PBA.
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