Aug 18, 2016 / 13:09 pm
Since it was first used by Mario Cuomo in 1984, many Catholic politicians have taken up the argument that they are "personally opposed to abortion" but still "pro-choice." The argument "has always been a poor one, but it has never made less sense than it does today," writes Carl Anderson, CEO of the Knights of Columbus, in an opinion piece published yesterday in The Hill.
In a speech at Notre Dame in 1984, Cuomo famously declared that: "As a Catholic I accept the church's teaching authority. … I accept the bishops' position that abortion is to be avoided." Cuomo added: "My wife and I were enjoined never to use abortion to destroy the life we created, and we never have." Still, he maintained that abortion should be protected legally.
In his piece, Anderson says the Cuomo argument was never morally coherent, that its premise that opposition to abortion is the minority view is no longer valid, and that the intervening history proves that Cuomo's claim that such actions will bring tolerance for Catholic positions has been disproven by new attempts to force religious individuals and entities to act against their beliefs.
Anderson notes that if we apply the "personally opposed" rationale to another evil we see how quickly the logic breaks down.