Abortion's Foes -- on Both Sides of the Aisle

If the 2008 campaign has established one indisputable fact, it is that Nancy Pelosi is no St. Augustine. Nor is Joe Biden another Thomas Aquinas. The two Democrats -- and Roman Catholics -- invoked both those church heavyweights recently on separate "Meet the Press" appearances, responding to a question from Tom Brokaw as to when life begins and what that means to their support for abortion rights.

Mrs. Pelosi, the speaker of the House, boldly, if unwisely, tried to frame her stance in theological terms, arguing that the church has been debating the issue since Augustine in the fourth century. She got hammered by conservatives (liberals averted their gaze), and was schooled by a few bishops who, with varying degrees of charity and bluster, pointed out that the church -- the old Augustinian debates about "ensoulment" notwithstanding -- has always held that abortion is wrong. The speaker quickly amended her position, noting that while "Catholic teaching is clear that life begins at conception," she wants to work to reduce abortion through social policy.

Delaware senator and now Barack Obama's running mate, has a more sophisticated understanding of Catholic tradition, as well as a mixed record on abortion rights (opposing public funding and late-term abortion, for instance), and he was better prepared when he sat down to face Mr. Brokaw last Sunday. Yet after reiterating his agreement with Catholic teaching on when life begins, Mr. Biden couldn't resist the temptation to cite Aquinas's view that "animation" did not take place until 40 days after conception. Oops. It seemed like the senator was implying that St. Thomas would be OK with legalizing abortion.

The so-called communion wars -- the quadrennial intramural Catholic feud over who is in a state of grace -- had broken out yet again. Mrs. Pelosi's misstep jarred the start of the Democratic convention, and Mr. Biden's comments came just as John McCain's surprise pick for running mate, Sarah Palin, was wowing fellow evangelicals with her pro-life persona. By week's end, the usual storyline was playing out -- secular pro-choice Democrats versus godly pro-life Republicans, with millions of unborn lives in the balance.

Obscured by the polemics and theologizing, however, is the hard reality that abortion rates in the U.S., and legalized abortion, will not soon yield to restatements of the catechism or the notion that abortion is a violation of "natural law." Such arguments have not yet proved persuasive to the American public, and minds are not likely to be changed by judicial fiat, even from the Supreme Court.

That means that abortion today is primarily a political challenge, and in that context Democrats have been embracing a more effective strategy than the GOP. In an interview with ABC last week, Mr. Obama wisely noted (a month after his "above my pay grade" gaffe) that the theological question was one "I don't presume to be able to answer" for everyone else. "The better answer," he said, "is to figure out, how do we make sure the young mothers, or women who have a pregnancy that's unexpected or difficult, have the kind of support they need to make a whole range of choices, including adoption and keeping the child."