The Christian Left & Hey, MSW! Blog about Abortion: http:/xianleft.blogspot.com (The Christian Left Blogs Book 8)

This book is part of a series of notebooks containing posts from the Christian Left blog, http://xianleft.blogspot.com and Hey Michael Sean! http://heymsw.blogspot.com. The Christian Left blog was originally based on essays from my book, Musings from the Christian Left. In 2008, I began posting comments to Michael Sean Winters, first at America Magazine and then at his Distinctly Catholic Blog at National Catholic Reporter. In late 2016, I created Hey Michael Sean! and moved those comments to it.I did not start as a pro-choice author. As a Catholic school student from grade school to college, being pro-life was an unchallenged assumption. At Loras College, I was the pro-life point of contact for the Father Ray Center for Peace and Justice. I circulated a petition for the President to sign an agreement or treaty with the Holy Father to designate all unborn children as citizens of Vatican City. With time, I had a change of heart. It began to soften. The PBS Frontline Special, The Abortion Clinic, showed the reality of the practice. The doctor was no blood thirst fiend. He took on this kind of practice because he considered the option of self-induced abortion as unthinkable. In some parts of the nation, this problem is now coming back as clinics close.The book that launched the blog, Musings from the Christian Left, was subtitled the Christian Cooperative Libertarian International Manifesto. In writing it, I had to make a call about how much liberty did I desire? The converse is, how big a state do we want? In absence of the unanimous general will described by Rousseau, some type of police power is required to enforce the will of the majority. Any state that has the power to stop abortion through the criminal law can also require it. I have always believed that the best way to fight abortion was a kind of fiscal communism, as embodied by the Child Tax Credit. Even with support from presidents of both parties, some members of the pro-life movement consider it to be socialism. They want to control women's bodies, not save the unborn. That the Church is part of such a coalition is unacceptable.In graduate school at American University, I was browsing the Encyclopedia Britannica when I came across a description on gastrulation, which shows that embryologists have found that before it occurs, only the maternal DNA control development. If the genes from both parents do not mesh, the embryo dies (or rather is not viable so does not live) . I concluded that birth control is not murderous. If the Catholic Church could listen to reason, it might retain credibility on Life. Not a chance. If the Church ordained women, they would have more authority in teaching about abortion. No such luck. In 2010, Bishop Olmsted through a hissy fit when a therapeutic abortion was necessary at a hospital in his diocese, ignoring the natural law reasoning that, if God is not an Ogre, it is permissible to end a pregnancy with no chance of completion in order to save the mother.Catholic politicians have relied on religious pluralism (a view allowed by Vatican II) to not forcibly ban abortion. Sadly, they have been shy in explaining why abortion law in the United States will not permit such a ban. The truth is, the right to life covers execution only. Pregnant women cannot be executed, so this part of the right is upheld. A positive right to life, however, is impossible to enact in a free society. Any member of the clergy who does not understand this should read this book and give me a call. I will explain, using small words.