IN MY SHOES: Why I Oppose Abortion, But Support Rudy
Writing in The New York Times, Eric Johnston, a graduate student in theology at Catholic University, explains why "I am a fervent pro-lifer, and I like Rudy Giuliani":
[I]t’s not because, as some suggest, I think national security is more important than abortion. I think Mr. Giuliani will be the most effective advocate for the pro-life cause precisely because he is unreligious and a supporter of abortion rights.
Unlike Mr. Huckabee or Sam Brownback, who are deeply religious and reliably pro-life, Mr. Giuliani has said he attends Catholic Mass only "occasionally" and he ducks questions about his personal faith. Mr. Giuliani’s lack of religious devotion gives him the potential to upend the nation’s moribund abortion debate.
In 2004, John Kerry said he was personally opposed to abortion but supported Roe v. Wade. With Mr. Giuliani, Republicans have the chance to nominate a candidate who is the reverse: He says he personally supports abortion rights, but he opposes the constitutional logic of Roe v. Wade. …
Mr. Giuliani’s ambivalence about the end of Roe is consistent with his belief that judges should not seek to achieve political ends. This is a judicial philosophy that pro-lifers should applaud, not condemn. It is, after all, the position consistently articulated by the pro-life movement’s favorite Supreme Court justices: John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia. …
By taking the side of pro-lifers for democratic, but not devout, motives, a President Giuliani could shake up the nearly 35-year-old debate over Roe v. Wade.
A pro-life evangelical president like Mr. Huckabee would preserve the status quo for the abortion debate. Mr. Giuliani, on the other hand, just might win it.
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