The case is closed. This core value prompted Kennedy and 41 of his colleagues to vote against confirming former Senator John Ashcroft as Attorney General. Ashcroft s Christian values, most particularly his opposition to abortion, were at odds with the core values of Catholic Senators Daschle, Dodd, Leahy, Harkin, Mikulski, Moseley-Braun, Murray, Kennedy, and Kerry. That was the essence of the argument leveled against Ashcroft. It also signaled to President Bush that any Supreme Court nominee who opposed abortion, irrespective of his or her qualifications or positions on any other issues, will not pass the pro-abortion litmus test.
Direct abortion is never a morally tolerable option.
It is always a grave act of violence against a woman and her unborn child . . . . Since the entry of Catholics into the U.S. political mainstream, believers have struggled to balance their faith with the perceived demands of democratic pluralism. As a result, some Catholic elected officials have adopted the argument that, while they personally oppose evils like abortion, they cannot force their religious views onto the wider society. This is seriously mistaken on several key counts. First, regarding abortion, the point when human life begins is not a religious belief but a scientific fact a fact on which there is clear agreement even among leading abortion advocates.