That's the result of the 'Seamless Garment' gang. I forget if it was Bernadin or Weakland that started it.
Actually, the point of the original "Seamless Garment" idea --- and the first person I heard preach it was Mother Teresa's great friend and promoter Eileen Egan --- was exactly the opposite of what you describe: it was that "respect for life" is unbroken and seamless, i.e. NOT a patchwork quilt where you could gash a huge hole in one square of cloth but patch it with another.
Even "Seamless Garment" as preached by Cardinal Bernardin, back in 1983, similarly was based in a consistiency thing, starting with "You can never intentionally kill any innocent person, born or unborn, period."
The problem came in when the patchwork people (the "pro-choice" liberal Democrat Catholics, prominently Mario Cuomo and his posse) turned the concept upside-down and started saying it's OK to throw the baby to the wolves if you're also antiwar or pro-food-stamp or something.
And Bernardin --- and most other USCCB Bishops ----let them get by with it: they did not confront, challenge and repudiate them.
That was the hell-bent scandal of it all.
Email from 40 Days for Life (which BTW, everybody, was started by Catholics!)
While we’re waiting to announce the BIG NEWS about this
fall’s 40 Days for Life campaign (next week) we wanted
to invite you to attend an important event!
As you know, 40 Days for Life is a POWERFUL way to save
lives in your community. Over just the last four years,
your prayers and participation have contributed to
amazing results around the world:
* 400,000 participants have joined in prayer and
fasting, peaceful vigil, and grassroots outreach
* 1,332 individual campaigns have taken place in 387
cities across all 50 American states and 10 countries
* Reports document 4,313 lives spared from abortion —
and those are just the ones we know about
* 53 abortion workers have quit their jobs and walked
away from the abortion industry
* 14 abortion facilities completely shut down following
local 40 Days for Life campaigns