The 28,000 Babies That Die in the Seventh Trimester

Steven Waldman

To the post by Appalachian prof, I give a hearty “Amen.” More to your point about the U.S. Catholic Bishops’ web site being silent on your artificial dichotomy. The bishops simply do not traffic in artificial dichotomies. In legitimate dichotomies, they simply do not write position papers or instructions to the faithful on any two legitimate issues juxtaposed with one another.

The work of a conscientious Catholic is to not only read and synthesize the Scriptures and Catechism of the Church, but the many instructions given on matters of social justice at every level of Church Teaching. The late Pope John Paul The Great spoke unceasingly of matters pertaining to every dimension of social justice in his Encyclicals, Address to Te United Nations, homilies in Rome and around the world, etc. Pope Benedict XVI has similarly done so as Cardinal Ratzinger, and now as Pope. They are but two recent examples. There are many more at the level of Bishop’s Conferences.

You say, “We can argue whether there's a moral difference between a seven month fetus dying because of a mother's decision and an infant sentenced to death in her first year because of bad prenatal care, but I suspect it's a distinction that would not be meaningful to the dead baby.”

Forgive me, but I have come to expect better of you. There is simply no similarity to argue here. It is the worst dichotomy I’ve seen on the topic. There is all the moral difference in the world between a mother who procures a late term abortion and one who through ignorance, poverty, poor self-esteem, mental illness, etc… fails to secure adequate prenatal care. I worked for seven years with unwed mothers in Times Square before becoming a scientist. Many arrived at our shelter eight and nine months pregnant without ever having seen a doctor, unaware of the most rudimentary knowledge of their own bodies.

In Catholic moral theology, we maintain that in order for an act to be considered sinful:

1. There must be serious matter involved.
2. The person must give sufficient reflection.
3. The person must give full consent of the will.

So, yes, there is a difference between neglect born of ignorance and a volitional act to murder a child. The baby is just as dead, but such moral equivalence imputes to the mother who did not know any better the same degree of culpability as the one who with sufficient reflection and full consent of the will procures a late term abortion.

You also say, “I mean this as no diminution to the abortion issue but more babies' lives could be saved through a concerted effort on infant mortality -- largely through better prenatal care among the poor -- than through a late term abortion ban.”

Again, this is a false dichotomy. The only relationship between the two is that they share a lack of social justice. A just and decent people can, and should, address these as separate issues, each according to its own merits-or demerits.

Break down the statistics by race to understand why USA has such high infant mortality rates.
I guarrenteed you the children who are dying are vast majority black and mexican.

Why is our infant mortality rate so higher than Singapore, Macau, Anguilla, Slovenia, Malta and Cuba?

I have always believed that the prolife religious viewpoint is pure hypocrisy because they always seem to believe in protecting life from conception to birth and not anytime thereafter. This kind of thing is part of the reason why.