Biden & Abortion: Response to My Critics

My Washington Post article with Robert P. George, “Biden’s stance on abortion contradicts his Catholicism,” generated a fair number of criticisms over email, on Twitter, and in the newspaper’s comment section — too many for me to address individually or at length. Here I’ll try to provide an omnibus response to the critics, speaking only for myself. Most of the criticisms are composites, but I’ll include links when I have specific comments in mind.

“If you don’t agree with abortion, don’t have one.” This retort would be fine, though superfluous, if made after the discrediting of the key premise of the essay: that abortion is an unjust attack on a human being in violation of her most fundamental right. It is a non sequitur as a substitute for that discrediting, in the same way as it would be to say, “If you don’t like genocide, don’t commit it” or, “If you don’t like school shootings, don’t shoot up schools.”

My Washington Post article with Robert P. George, “Biden’s stance on abortion contradicts his Catholicism,” generated a fair number of criticisms over email, on Twitter, and in the newspaper’s comment section — too many for me to address individually or at length. Here I’ll try to provide an omnibus response to the critics, speaking only for myself. Most of the criticisms are composites, but I’ll include links when I have specific comments in mind.

“If you don’t agree with abortion, don’t have one.” This retort would be fine, though superfluous, if made after the discrediting of the key premise of the essay: that abortion is an unjust attack on a human being in violation of her most fundamental right. It is a non sequitur as a substitute for that discrediting, in the same way as it would be to say, “If you don’t like genocide, don’t commit it” or, “If you don’t like school shootings, don’t shoot up schools.”