Doug Kmiec Claims Democrats Making "Steps Toward Honoring Life" in Platform [UPDATED]

Prof. Doug Kmiec, chief apologist and shill for Sen. Obama among the Catholics, is now claiming that the Democrat Party is making strides toward "honoring life" in their platform.

As Deal Hudson points out, does the following language sound like the Democrats are "honoring life"?

The Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v Wade and a woman's right to choose a safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay [ED.: Which, of course, means they advocate overturning the Hyde Amendment, which has been credited with saving at least a million lives, so that your tax dollars can be used to fund abortion.], and we oppose any and all efforts to weaken or undermine that right [ED.: Including the ban on partial birth abortion, parental consent/notification laws, ultrasound requirements, etc., and which opposition entails enacting the so-called Freedom of Choice Act, which would invalidate all such federal, state or local laws that deny or interfere with a woman’s access to abortion].

(emphasis and editorial commentary added)

Hudson also points out that the Dems no longer retain the "rare" part of the "safe, legal and rare" formula that has been part of the Democrat platform since 1992.

And funny how Kmiec's piece fails to mention this little tidbit from the Democrat platform that is making such "strides toward honoring life":

The Democratic Party also strongly supports access to affordable family planning services [ED.: Again, your tax dollars at work to fund the pill, Plan-B, and other contraceptive devices to prevent implantation of a fertilized egg.] and comprehensive age-appropriate sex education [ED.: Age appropriate? You mean like this? And do not think for one minute that abstinence education has any place in this so-called "comprehensive" sex education?] which empower people to make informed choices and live healthy lives.

(emphasis and editorial commentary added)

Particularly troubling in Kmiec's piece is this line:

Barack Obama is a different type of candidate. [ED.: How so? The next line gives lie to this assertion. Wait for it ... it's a doozy.] As he sees it, Roe is not an endorsement of abortion, so much as an affirmation that abortion is a moral question for which only the potential mother can give answer.

(emphasis and editorial commentary added)

The "potential mother"? Kmiec needs to be called on the carpet by pro-life Catholics for the brutal (and, from a Catholic and Natural Law perspective, nonsensical) formulation of "the potential mother".

Fortunately, one commenter at Catholic Online caught this and called Kmiec on it:

"Potential mother?" Someone has been drinking heavily from the Obama Kool-Aid, and that someone would be you, sir. There's no such woman as a "potential mother;" once her egg has been fertilized with the father's sperm, she's a mother. Calling her a "potential mother" makes no more sense than claiming that abortion makes her "unpregnant." Abortion makes a mother --not a "potential mother"-- of a dead baby.

(emphasis added)

For good measure, Creative Minority Report contrasts Kmiec's apology for the "new" language in the Democrat platform to the unequivocal statement in favor of life from the Kansas Bishops and finds Kmiec's pro-choice shilling to be wanting by comparison.

I'm sad to say that Prof. Kmiec continues to argue in bad faith in pushing Sen. Obama's candidacy. He should definitely vote for Sen. Obama if he believes his conscience is pushing him in that direction, and he should hold his nose in doing so just as many Catholic McCain supporters will hold their noses in voting for McCain (again, I'm not among the McCain supporters). But Kmiec should STOP trying to convince people that Sen. Obama and the Democrat Party are something that they quite clearly ARE NOT.


UPDATE
Brian Burch of Fidelis weighs in with an excellent post: "Kmiec’s new Platform shoes".

... There are many elements of Kmiec’s arguments that I find unpersuasive, but I cannot resist commenting on the underlying assumption carried in almost every Doug Kmiec “why I can (and you can too) justify voting for Obama” argument.

That is: if you are dedicated to the legal prohibition of abortion, you are somehow opposed to, or not adequately supportive of, efforts to assist women in crisis pregnancies, or properly addressing the economic and cultural conditions that make abortion possible or perceived as necessary.

Kmiec rarely misses an opportunity to knock pro-life supporters of Republican candidates as tunnel-vision-prone legal beavers, focused exclusively on repealing Roe. His favorite straw man is the focused abortion foe foaming at the mouth waiting for the next battle over a vacancy on the Supreme Court. In Kmiec’s view, this perceived strategy has proven to be a distraction from the practical and necessary attention needed to combat the underlying causes of abortion. He extends this argument to the proposed Democratic platform, arguing that the proposed new language is a step in the right direction.

For example, Kmiec applauded “a full-throated call for efforts to address the irresponsibility of kids having kids, through appropriate educational efforts emphasizing the maturity and responsibility that must accompany sexual intimacy.”

The premise of his argument here and too often in the past, is that non-Barack backing pro-lifers don’t care enough about anything other than the legal do’s and don’ts. Really?

Tell that to the thousands of volunteers and underpaid staff of crisis pregnancy centers across the United States. Tell that to the hundreds of thousands who pray, counsel, and protest outside abortion clinics every day, sometimes for 40 days straight. Tell that to the millions of pro-life families who make sacrifices every day to raise responsible, virtue seeking children. It is here that that the real pro-life work is done. And while I am not suggesting Kmiec is belittling these people, more often than not, these people are Republicans. And people that believe another judge on the Supreme Court could make more than a small difference when it comes to abortion.

These people care more than Barack Obama or ANY government program will ever care about the real needs of women and children. And while they are hopeful that another judicial conservative might sit on the hight Court, they go about their pro-life, women-centered work every day. And will continue to do so regardless of what happens on the Supreme Court. These aren’t either/or people. They are both/and types. I know, because I am one of them.

[More]

Outstanding response to Kmiec's either/or nonsense! It's been said here before. It may be a lot for you to get your ivory-tower-pointy head around, Prof. Kmiec, but we folks out here in flyover country who do the REAL pro-life heavy lifting DO know how to walk and chew gum at the same time, thank you very much.


Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
Prof. Garnett Takes on Prof. Kmiec ... Again

Casey Jr. to Get Prime-Time Slot in Denver to Appease Catholics [UPDATED]

Fr. Neuhaus Responds to Doug Kmiec

Deal Hudson's Open Letter to Doug Kmiec

National Catholic Register on Catholics, Kmiec, and Obama

Prof. Hadley Arkes: "Political Distraction Among the Catholics"

Doug Kmiec - What He Said Then vs. What He Says Now Re: Constitutional Jurisprudence

What is the "Pro-Life Position" Regarding Abortion?

Traumatized

Unrequited Love

Doug Kmiec: "After Meeting with Barack" [UPDATED]

Cranky Conservative: "But At Least He Says It with a Smile"

Doug Kmiec Again Places Platitudes Above Policy [UPDATED]

Prof. Bainbridge on "Obama, Abortion, & Catholics"

Prof. Rick Garnett on Kmiec's Latest Nonsense

Deacon Keith Fournier: "Why I Disagree with Doug Kmiec, Once Again"

Give It a Rest Already, Prof. Kmiec!

Deacon Keith Fournier: "No More ‘Left’ or ‘Right’, Time for a New Catholic Action"

Doug Kmiec's Newfound Celebrity Status Among Those on the Left

Doug Kmiec Soon To Be Sorely Disappointed

E.J. Dionne on Kmiec Being Denied Communion [UPDATED]

Archbishop Chaput: Thoughts on “Roman Catholics for Obama ’08”

Deal Hudson on Prof. Kmiec and Blurring the Lines Between "Pro-Choice" and Pro-Abortion

Did Doug Kmiec Just Now Catch On That Obama and NARAL Are Politically Conjoined? [UPDATED]

Deal Hudson on "How Obama's Catholics Will Dodge the Infanticide Question"

Kmiec's Dishonesty [UPDATED]

Catholic Teaching and Political Risk Taking: When Credit Isn't Given Where Credit is Due [UPDATED]

Kmiec's Wishful Thinking on Obama and Abortion

The Curt Jester: "Shameless Garment" [UPDATED]

So-Called "Catholic Reaganite" Doug Kmiec Endorses Obama [UPDATED]

"No'bama for Me, Thanks"Can a Catholic Vote for Obama?

Obama's Pledge to Planned Parenthood: “I Will Not Yield"

Deal Hudson: "Barack Obama's Catholic Problem"

"Why American Catholics are Supporting Barack Obama"

Catholics at the Ballot Box

How the Catholic Left Will Tackle McCain

Why Does Kmiec Criticize McCain for Positions on Which He Gave Romney a Pass?

Deal Hudson on "Douglas Kmiec and the Lure of Obama"

Douglas W. Kmiec on "The Moral Duty to Inquire"

Professor Bainbridge: "Will Catholic Reaganites Go for Obama?"

Deal Hudson: "Preacher Man: Barack Obama and the the Gospel of Liberalism"

"Sorry, Doug Kmiec, But This Catholic Isn't Buying Obama"

Ramesh Ponnuru on Douglas Kmiec and "Catholic Reaganites for Obama" [UPDATED]

Romney Advisor Says Obama "a Natural for the Catholic Vote"

Obama "Post-Partisan"? Ask John Roberts

Obama and the "Pragmatic Center"