How
Support for Abortion Became Kennedy Dogma
By Anne Hendershott
For faithful Roman Catholics, the thought of yet another pro-choice
Kennedy positioned to campaign for the unlimited right to abortion
is discouraging. Yet if Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of Catholics
John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, is appointed to fill
the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Hillary Clinton, abortion-rights
advocates will have just such a champion.
Ms. Kennedy was so concerned to assure pro-abortion leaders in New
York, Britain's Guardian newspaper reported on December 18, that on the
same day Ms. Kennedy telephoned New York Gov. David Patterson to declare
interest in the Senate seat, one of her first calls was to an
abortion rights group, indicating she will be strongly pro-choice.
Within the first week of her candidacy, Ms. Kennedy promised to work
for several causes, including same-sex marriage and abortion rights.
In responding to a series of 15 questions posed by the New York Times
on December 21, Ms. Kennedy said that, while she believes young women
facing unwanted pregnancies should have the advice of caring adults, she
would oppose legislation that would require minors to notify a parent
before obtaining an abortion. On the crucial question of whether she
supports any state or federal restrictions on late-term abortions,
Ms. Kennedy chose to say only that she supports Roe v. Wade,
which prohibits third trimester abortions except when the life or health
of the mother is at risk. Presumably Ms. Kennedy knows that this
effectively means an unlimited right to abortion — including late-stage
abortion — because the health of the mother can be so
broadly defined that it includes the psychological distress that can
accompany an unintended pregnancy.
Ms. Kennedy's commitment to abortion rights is shared by other prominent
family members, including Kerry Kennedy Cuomo and Maryland's former
Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend. Some may recall the 2000 Democratic
Convention when Caroline and her uncle, Senator Ted Kennedy, addressed
the convention to reassure all those gathered that the Democratic Party
would continue to provide women with the right to choose abortion — even into the ninth month. At that convention, the party's nominee,
Al Gore, formerly a pro-life advocate, pledged his opposition to parental
notification and embraced partial-birth abortion. Several of those
in attendance, including former President Bill Clinton and the Rev.
Jesse Jackson, had been pro-life at one time. But by 2000 nearly every
delegate in the convention hall was on the pro-choice side — and those
who weren't simply kept quiet about it.
Caroline Kennedy knows that any Kennedy desiring higher office in the
Democratic Party must now carry the torch of abortion rights throughout
any race. But this was not always the case. Despite Ms. Kennedy's description
of Barack Obama, in a New York Times op-ed, as a man like my
father, there is no evidence that JFK was pro-choice like Mr.
Obama. Abortion-rights issues were in the fledgling stage at the state
level in New York and California in the early 1960s. They were not
a national concern.
Even Ted Kennedy, who gets a 100% pro-choice rating from the abortion-rights
group (NARAL) National Abortion Rights Action League was at one time pro-life. In fact, in 1971, a full year
after New York had legalized abortion, the Massachusetts senator was
still championing the rights of the unborn.
In a letter to a constituent
dated Aug. 3, 1971, he wrote:
"When history looks back to this
era it should recognize this generation as one which cared about human
beings enough to halt the practice of war, to provide a decent living
for every family, and to fulfill its responsibility to its children
from the very moment of conception."
But that all changed in the early '70s, when Democratic politicians
first figured out that the powerful abortion lobby could fill their
campaign coffers (and attract new liberal voters). Politicians also
began to realize that, despite the Catholic Church's teachings to the
contrary, its bishops and priests had ended their public role of responding
negatively to those who promoted a pro-choice agenda.
In some cases, church leaders actually started providing cover for
Catholic pro-choice politicians who wanted to vote in favor of abortion
rights. At a meeting at the Kennedy compound in Hyannisport, Mass.,
on a hot summer day in 1964, the Kennedy family and its advisers and
allies were coached by leading theologians and Catholic college professors
on how to accept and promote abortion with a "clear conscience."
The former Jesuit priest Albert Jonsen, emeritus professor of ethics
at the University of Washington, recalls the meeting in his book "The
Birth of Bioethics" (Oxford, 2003). He writes about how he joined
with the Rev. Joseph Fuchs, a Catholic moral theologian; the Rev. Robert
Drinan, then dean of Boston College Law School; and three academic
theologians, the Revs. Giles Milhaven, Richard McCormick and Charles
Curran, to enable the Kennedy family to redefine support for abortion.
Mr. Jonsen writes that the Hyannisport colloquium was influenced by
the position of another Jesuit, the Rev. John Courtney Murray, a position
that distinguished between the moral aspects of an issue and
the feasibility of enacting legislation about that issue. It
was the consensus at the Hyannisport conclave that Catholic politicians "might
tolerate legislation that would permit abortion under certain circumstances
if political efforts to repress this moral error led to greater perils
to social peace and order.
Father Milhaven later recalled the Hyannisport meeting during a 1984
breakfast briefing of Catholics for a Free Choice:
"The theologians
worked for a day and a half among ourselves at a nearby hotel. In the
evening we answered questions from the Kennedys and the Shrivers. Though
the theologians disagreed on many a point, they all concurred on certain
basics . . . and that was that a Catholic politician could in good
conscience vote in favor of abortion."
There are signs today that some of the bishops are
beginning to confront the Catholic politicians who consistently vote
in favor of legislation to support abortion. Charles J. Chaput, the
archbishop of Denver, has been on the front lines in encouraging Catholics
to live their faith without compromise in the public square. Most recently
in his book Render Unto Caesar, Archbishop Chaput has reminded
Catholic politicians of their obligation to protect life.
The archbishop is not alone. The agenda at November's assembly of the
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops included a public discussion of
abortion and politics. The bishops' final statement focused on concern
about the possible passage of the Freedom of Choice Act, and
referred to it as "an evil law that would further divide our country." The
bishops referenced their 2007 document, "Faithful Citizenship," which
maintains that the right to life is the foundation of every other human
right. In it, they promised to persist in the duty to counsel,
in the hope that the scandal of their [Catholic congregants'] cooperating
in evil can be resolved by the proper formation of their consciences.
Whether the bishops truly will persist remains to be seen. New York's
Cardinal Edward Egan, for instance, has not publicly challenged Ms.
Kennedy's pro-choice promises. This is unfortunate. Until the clerics
begin to counter the pro-choice claims made by high-profile Catholics
such as Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden and, now, Caroline Kennedy, faithful
Catholics will continue to be bewildered by their pastoral silence.
Ms. Hendershott is a professor of urban studies at The King's College
in New York. She is the author of "The Politics of Abortion" (Encounter
Books, 2007). |
