Secular supporters of abortion often complain that abortion bans and pro-life laws to protect babies from abortions are a method of “imposing religion” on society. But a Catholic Archbishop says that’s not the case because killing babies in abortions is a human rights issue and anyone of any faith or non-faith can agree that unborn children are human beings with a right to life.
Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City in Kansas says “reason alone is sufficient to know that it is wrong to destroy an innocent human life.”
Writing in the Wichita Eagle July 8, Naumann addressed opposition to the Value Them Both Amendment that will be on the Kansas ballot in two weeks — that ensures the state constitution does not confer a right to kill babies in abortions. He assured state voters that it does not impose religion on the state.
“From a Catholic perspective, abortion is not primarily a religious issue but a fundamental human rights issue,” he wrote. “Our faith helps us understand the dignity of every human life created in the divine image as taught in the Hebrew scriptures, but reason alone is sufficient to know that it is wrong to destroy an innocent human life.”
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“The mere fact that a law coincides with religious beliefs does not mean it is an impermissible imposition of religion,” Naumann pointed out.
“Value Them Both is not a Catholic issue. Preserving current laws and reclaiming the authority of the people of Kansas to determine public policy on such an important societal issue is something every Kansan should be eager to support,” the archbishop concluded.
Naumann also explained how former abortionists Bernard Nathanson, who was raised Jewish but became an atheist, eventually converted to the pro-life position.
Nauman says abortion imposes a secular position on society and on unborn children who are victims of abortions. He said the best way to ensure that religion is not imposed on society is to allow the people to make the decision about abortion policy, which is what the amendment does.
“The rabbi accuses me of trying to deprive Kansans of personal choice regarding their destinies. Yet, this is exactly what the Kansas Supreme Court did by making the outlandish claim that a right to abortion exists in the Kansas Constitution, taking abortion policy out of the hands of the people and their duly elected representatives and putting it in the hands of the court,” Naumann wrote.
Ultimately,laws against killing babies before birth don’t impose religion on society any more than laws against killing babies after birth.
