Politicians, church diverge on abortion

Full reproductive rights for women in public-run health care? And it's a House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., thing?

Perhaps, along with Vice President Joe Biden, D-Del.; Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, D-Kan; U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, D-Iowa; Senators Mark Begich, D-Ala.; Maria Cantwell, D-Wash; Robert Casey, D-Penn.; Susan Collins, R-Maine; Chris Dodd, D-Conn; Dick Durbin, D-Ill.; Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y.; Tom Harkin, D-Iowa; Ted Kaufman, D-Del.; John Kerry, D-Mass.; Mary Landrieu, D-La.; Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.; Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.; Robert Menendez, D-N.J.; Barbara Mikulski, D-Md.; Lisa Murkowski, R-Ala.; Patty Murray, D-Wash.; and Jack Reed, D-R.I.

What do all have in common?

They are pro-choice Catholics. Eleven of the senators are 100 percent favorably rated NARAL voters.

However, the U.S. Conference on Catholic Bishops states: “ ... the killing of an unborn child is always intrinsically evil and can never be justified. ... The legal system as such can be said to cooperate in evil when it fails to protect the lives of those who have no protection except the law.”

A Grand Canyon-sized disconnect exists between what these public servants promote as abortion rights and what their church promulgates as anathema. Given a conservative-extreme shift in Catholic leadership and flock, they stand to be excommunicated as heretics - then op-ed lauded as rebel heroes.

Meantime, political correctness remains the ally of the pro-choice. And popular culture will endure as the insurmountable enemy of the pro-life.

Gerald R. Eberle

Pocahontas

(formerly of Cedar Rapids)