11 October 2012

Biden on Abortion

Biden's response on abortion in tonight's debate was to the point. He essentially said that personally he believes the Catholic Church's teaching that life begins at conception yet he would not enforce that belief on other people. He made clear that this is a personal, religious belief and that he felt he had no right to impose that on anyone else.

Still, I would have liked to hear an answer like this. "Asking men what their personal beliefs are about abortion is liking asking women what their personal beliefs are on circumcision or vasectomies. Men's personal beliefs aren't particularly relevant. It's only their policy beliefs that are relevant and my policy is that women's personal beliefs should be what matters. Abortion should be a woman's personal choice."

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Biden's response from the transcript:


BIDEN: My religion defines who I am, and I've been a practicing Catholic my whole life. ... With regard to -- with regard to abortion, I accept my church's position on abortion as a -- what we call a (inaudible) doctrine. Life begins at conception in the church's judgment. I accept it in my personal life.
But I refuse to impose it on equally devout Christians and Muslims and Jews, and I just refuse to impose that on others, unlike my friend here, the -- the congressman. I -- I do not believe that we have a right to tell other people that -- women they can't control their body. It's a decision between them and their doctor. In my view and the Supreme Court, I'm not going to interfere with that.




2 comments:

Damon said...

well good thing he upholds the catholic position on murder then. Sure glad he doesn't separate himself from THAT. ;-)

Ron Davison said...

Damon - ha!
Seriously, though, you make no distinction between what someone would hold as religious beliefs and what they'd expect as laws for the community they live in? That's a pretty intriguing position to hold - particularly someone whose faith makes up less than one-tenth of one percent of the population.