Dr. Hal Sobel ends his most recent letter ( Manhasset Times, Feb. 5, 2016) with these words: “Anti-abortion advocates may continue in their efforts to convince a majority of their fellow citizens that abortion is evil,but they cross the line when they urge the government to coerce all of us to follow their religious teachings.”
From this statement I deduce that, at least in Dr. Sobel’s opinion, Catholics like me are therefore excluded entirely from the public debate on abortion.
The U.S. Supreme Court,however, understands something that seems to escape Dr. Sobel’s grasp: the fact that a Catholic (or other faithful person) advocates for restrictive abortion laws is not an effort to establish the Catholic Church (or other religion) as a state religion.
In Harris v. McRae, 448 U.S. 297 (1980), a case in which pro-choice advocates challenged restrictions on Medicaid funding of abortions, the court rejected this Establishment Clause argument.
In a decision written by Associate Justice Potter Stewart, a member of the majority in Roe v. Wade, the Court said this:
“Although neither a State nor the Federal Government can constitutionally ‘pass laws which aid one religion, aid all religions, or prefer one religion over another,’ [citation omitted], it does not follow that a statute violates the First Establishment Clause because it ‘happens to coincide with the tenets of some or all religions.’ [Citation omitted.]
That the Judaeo-Christian religions oppose stealing does not mean that a state or the federal government may not, consistent with the Establishment Clause, enact laws prohibiting larceny.
The Hyde Amendment [restricting Medicaid funding for abortions] . . . is as much a reflection of ‘traditionalist’ values towards abortion as it is an embodiment of the views of any particular religion.
In sum, we are convinced that the fact that the funding restrictions in the Hyde Amendment may coincide with the religious tenets of the Roman Catholic Church does not, without more, contravene the Establishment Clause.
To insist, as Dr. Sobel appears to do, that some Americans have no business advocating for laws against abortion because that position “happens to coincide with the tenets of’ their religion is suggestive of a totalitarian view of politics.
I hope not to see that view carry the day in my lifetime. I fear, however, that I might.
Brian C. Dunning
Manhasset
