Nov 8, 2008 / 16:56 pm
Discussion continues over Pepperdine University law professor and pro-life Catholic Doug Kmiec’s arguments on behalf of the pro-abortion rights President-elect Barack Obama. Ross Douthat, a political commentator writing on Slate.com, critiqued Kmiec while defending the pro-life political strategy focused upon appointing Supreme Court nominees to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Douthat expressed his astonishment at Kmiec’s position, which he said seems to be “that the contemporary Democratic Party, and particularly the candidacy of Barack Obama, offered nearly as much to pro-lifers as the Republican Party does.”
Critiques of Obama’s abortion stand, which Kmiec labeled as “outright lies and falsehoods,” were, according to Douthat, “more or less the truth.” Obama’s record can only be described as “very, very pro-choice,” his positions involving a rollback of “nearly all the modest—but also modestly effective—restrictions that pro-lifers have placed upon the practice and/or appointing judges who would do the same,” Douthat wrote.
While granting that anti-abortion voters might have reasons for voting for Obama despite his abortion position, Douthat argued “Kmiec's suggestion that Obama took the Democrats in anything like a pro-life direction on the issue doesn't pass the laugh test.”