In the New York Times today, I ran across an
op-ed piece by Bob Herbert which puts very clearly why Catholic voters following their religious values are closer to Kerry than Bush.
Much of this, like the importance of caring for others, came as no surprise to me. But I hadn't realized that Democrats are objectively better from the pro-Life point of view as well as pro-Choice:
Second, politics is the art of the possible. During the eight years of the Reagan presidency, the number of legal abortions increased by more than 5 percent; during the eight years of the Clinton presidency, the number dropped by 36 percent. The overall abortion rate (calculated as the number of abortions per 1,000 women between the ages of 15 and 44) was more or less stable during the Reagan years, but during the Clinton presidency it dropped by 11 percent.
The article goes on to conclude that while Republicans yell and scream against abortions, Democratic policy actually reduces demand for it. How interesting...
Update [2004-10-12 8:51:18 by Jake Beal]: Mea culpa: The article is by Dean Roche, not Bob Herbert (who wrote the article I read just before this one).