#501 Kill it!, Supreme Court, Mr. Rogers March 6, 2020
“Kill it!” In the last Democratic presidential candidate debate, Elizabeth Warren took information from a 1997 lawsuit to say that Michael Bloomberg, as a company boss, said to a pregnant employee: “Kill it!” He denies saying this, but Elizabeth pressed him hard. In a later interview, she said she believed the woman. This was an accusation. The Saturday Night Live parody of the debate translated the phrase into “get rid of the baby.”
That the normal euphemisms to pretend abortion isn’t violence aren’t being used is interesting. The complaint wasn’t that Bloomberg used harsh terminology. It was that he was commanding what she should do, and engaged in pregnancy discrimination. Missing in most commentary is that this kind of behavior is common among men who feel entitled to have women do their bidding. Bullying bosses are one of the causes of abortions. When that happens, “choice” isn’t a choice, and the rhetoric that equates choice with abortion is exposed as being not so simple.
Doings at the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS)
The big news on abortion is that the Court on Wednesday March 4 heard arguments in June Medical v. Gee, challenging Louisiana’s health regulations on abortion. The bill at issue was written by Katrina Jackson (pictured), a Democrat. Katrina spoke at the conference of our member group Rehumanize International last October about the need to have good health care available, and had the honor of being interrupted by hecklers (read the story here, second section). Katrina is also sponsor of a referendum for Louisiana this November for a state constitutional amendment, the Love Life Amendment. In other news, with much less attention, we’re distressed to report that on February 25 SCOTUS decided that a family whose 15-year-old child was shot dead by border patrol had no right to sue. While the shooting came from the U.S. side of the border, the child was in Mexico. He was in his own country.
Member Group: National Council of Catholic Women CLN member group National Council of Catholic Women was written up in the Little Black Book (a popular prayer guide given out for Lent) in a way that highlights their consistency.
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In “A Consistent Day in the Neighborhood,” Andrew Hocking (pictured) relates the themes of the recent Hollywood movie in which Mr. Rogers (played by Tom Hanks) to those of us following the consistent life ethic – especially problems of cynicism, plus unrealistic expectations of perfection.
Kevin D. Williamson Fewer Abortions? Here Come "The Dark Ages" National Review, February 6, 2020 Note: This is another case where we quote someone who doesn’t follow the consistent life ethic, but makes a worthy point about issue connections. One need not agree with the anti-abortion position to understand the anti-abortion position, i.e., that abortion represents the immoral taking of innocent human lives by the thousands and millions. It takes a special kind of moral illiteracy to offer as a counterargument: “Well, if you say so, but it’s good for business.” When Kansas governor Samuel Medary vetoed [in 1860] the bill prohibiting slavery in Kansas, he, too, argued that it would be bad for business, that entrepreneurs might look askance at a regime under which “any particular species of property or ownership had been prohibited.”
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