The Catholic Church and the 9-year-old rape victim

The family of a 9-year-old rape victim in Brazil was excommunicated by the Catholic Church for allowing her to get an abortion. This is prompting a lot of outrage on the Web, with Dana Goldstein calling it "disgusting" and Steve Benen remarking that "A lot of phrases come to mind when describing all of this, but 'pro-life' isn't one of them."

I'm pro-choice (not just for rape victims but for anybody old enough to become pregnant), but I can identify with Church officials in this situation. I'm also against the death penalty, and I've encountered a lot of people who think they can change my mind on the issue if they can just come up with a horrific enough example of murder. They're completely missing the point.

In the same vein, the Catholic Church believes that it's not truly against abortion unless it's against abortion even when faced with this kind of extreme situation -- a situation that, if you believe in the devil, might have been devised expressly to break the Church's will on a moral principle. The Catholic Church's stance on abortion is similar to the ACLU's stance on the First Amendment and its protection of hateful or "disgusting" speech. I happen to think the Catholic Church is on the wrong side and the ACLU is on the right side in this analogy, but they are both behaving similarly.

Comments

[Phinneus T]

THE ACLU IS NEVER ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF ANYTHING..EVER. THE HARM THEY DO FAR OUTWEIGHS ANY OTHER ACTION THEY TAKE!