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The Human Life Foundation's Defender of Life annual award dinner this month was an eye opener. The award recipient was Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey, and in the brochure noting his accomplishments I learned that the congressman is co-chairman of the bipartisan pro-life caucus. Bipartisan? In amazement, I asked him if there really are pro-life Democrats in Congress. "Oh yes," he assured me, "about 30." He went on to name one, but I'm not going to repeat the name because he and the others probably get enough grief from other congressional Democrats.
A senior editor for National Review, Ramesh Ponnuru, introduced Mr. Smith. In his book, "The Party of Death" Mr. Ponnuru makes no bones about which political party deserves that description. I'm not sure whether it's wise to use such hyperbolic language about the nation's majority political group, and yet maybe strong words are overdue in describing the culture that's being promoted today. Abortion on demand, embryonic destruction, euthanasia, and animal rights now displace human rights. It wasn't the GOP pulling the plug on the disabled Terry Schiavo.
My sisters are Democrats, and one refuses to vote for any Republican. They are also Catholics, and Catholics have traditionally voted Democrat. I'm still amazed by how loyal Catholics are to a political machine that champions causes directly opposed to church teaching. Although I have never been a registered Democrat, I've voted for and campaigned for that party because it once fought for basic human rights. That is no longer the case. Senator Miller, who formerly represented Georgia in the upper chamber, had it exactly right when he wrote his book, "A National Party No More: The Conscience of a Conservative Democrat." He frequently says that he did not leave the Democratic Party. It left him. The Human Life Foundation, based in Manhattan, publishes a review of essays and reprints of articles exploring all aspects of respecting life. A self-described Jewish atheist, Nat Hentoff, was honored by the foundation a few years ago, and he declared that respect for life is not a religious issue: It is a fundamental human rights issue that has been clouded and deliberately distorted for a left-wing political agenda. The real horror of the Terry Schiavo case, Mr. Hentoff insists, is the danger it unleashed to the rights of the disabled................
Puzzling Over Why Catholics Back Democrats
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