My colleague, Professor Schaff, defends me against my friend Chad at CCK, and contrary to the usual case he employs stronger language than I would. Here is Chad's post:
... I think you had better ask Leslee Unruh, the leader of the "pro-life" movement in South Dakota where she stands on contraception.
And it's pretty disingenuous to discount the influence of the Catholic Church on the "pro-life" movement and contra-contraception in this country.
I think the comment misses my point, and I do think that Chad is making something of a straw man here. Chad often takes me to task, rightly or wrongly, for picking out some extreme element of the left pretending that such an element represents the left as a whole. I think Chad is doing much the same thing here. But I don't think that the comment above was over the line.
My point was that there has not been any organized political opposition to birth control as such. I know of no bills at the state or federal level that would ban contraception except in such cases where the form of contraception is believed to amount to abortion. If Chad knows of such bills or organizations actively campaigning for such legislation, I would be interested to hear of them. Both the pro-life movement and the pro-choice movement build their arguments on the same list of unalienable rights found in the Declaration. There is no doubt that the pro-life movement is heavily influenced by religion, as were the civil rights and anti-slavery movements. But the framework of liberties that dates to the founding controls the expression of such sentiments. This is a sign of the strength of American political culture, and I for one am glad for it.
I do not doubt Chad's point that there are Americans who consider contraception to be immoral, but that is not the same thing as believing it should be illegal, let alone trying to make it illegal. I have known a lot of conservative Catholics, and I have not yet heard one of them say that the pill, or the diaphragm, or prophylactics, should be outlawed. So I do not discount the influence of the Catholic Church on the pro-life movement. Professor Schaff backs me up on this.
While I think that Chad's comment was reasonable (though I disagree with it), the same cannot be said for the comments of his readers. They do not bother to engage in the argument or present their evidence. They accuse me of all sorts of personal, psychological flaws on no other grounds than that I frequently express my opinions in writing. They are left-wing bigots.
Just for the record, I do not suggest that they are representative of the left in general or Democrats in particular. I have a lot of friends who are staunch Democrats and firmly pro-choice. They somehow seem to know how to disagree with me while none-the-less maintaining an attitude of respect. They would be ashamed to say once what rolls out of Chad's comments section again and again.
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