Even worse than Republican policy

Looking at what I choose to comment on here, it's becoming clear that I delight in pointing out the absurd or insane in those I disagree with. Now, after just going after Republicans, I've read something that strikes me as even more absurd: some of the Catholic church's notions of what's most important.

In Brazil, a nine year old girl became pregnant with twins after being repeatedly raped by her step-father since the age of six. A doctor performed an abortion, which is legal in Brazil in cases of rape or danger to the mother's health.

The Catholic Church responded by excommunicating the girl's mother and the doctors -- but not the step-father. And a Vatican spokesman has defended that decision."It is a sad case but the real problem is that the twins conceived were two innocent persons, who had the right to live and could not be eliminated," he said. . . .

He also said the accused stepfather would not be expelled from the church; because, although he allegedly committed a heinous crime, the abortion - the elimination of an innocent life - was more serious.

Although I strongly disagree from my humanistic perspective, I do see the logical consistency of the church. If you believe, as they do, that an embryo is a human life from the moment of conception, then abortion for any reason is murder. So the doctor committed murder, and the mother was an accomplice, while the step-father was only guilty of sexual abuse and rape.

Although I strongly disagree with their basic belief, I do admire the consistency of pro-life people who make no exceptions on abortion, except possibly a threat to the survival of the mother which would also endanger the life of the fetus. To say that you oppose abortion because it takes human life, but then to make exceptions for rape and incest, is to say that this human being's survival is contingent on the circumstances of its conception; and that seems to back away from your convictions.

Would we excuse the murder of a 3 year old who is discovered to have been the product of rape? And yet they believe that a 6 week embryo is just as much a human being as the 3 year old.

My different position on abortion is not that I condone murder; I don't agree with their basic premise about when one begins to be a human being and when an embryo's rights supercede the mother's rights.

And I also sharply disagree with those who have such moralistic condemnations of abortion who also fight the kinds of comprehensive sex education, family planning, and anti-poverty programs that have proven to reduce abortions by reducing unwanted pregnancies.

Ralph