031774 Four cardinals, USCC urge amendment to Constitution to preserve the right to life

WASHINGTON - Four American cardinals and the U.S. Catholic Conference urged a Senate subcommittee to frame an amendment to the Constitution which establishes the unborn child as a person from conception and preserves to "a maximum degree" a commitment to universal preservation of life.

Appearing before the subcommittee chaired by Senator Birch Bayh were Cardinal John Krol of Philadelphia, Cardinal John Cody of Chicago, Cardinal Timothy Manning of Los Angeles and Cardinal Humberto Medeiros of Boston.

Their testimony was supplemented by a 41-page statement from the U.S. Catholic Conference that spelled out in detail the position of the Catholic Church on the issue.

The U.S. Catholic Conference testimony repeated the "two central themes" on the abortion issue: "the right to life is a basic human right which should be protected by law and that abortion is contrary to the law of God and a morally evil act."

The testimony pointed to voter rejection of liberal abortion laws in North Dakota and Michigan - states where the Catholic population is less than 30 percent - as proof the pro-life movement represents more than just Catholic morality.

The statement said the Declaration of Independence says men were created equal - "it does not state that we are born equal, nor that we achieve equality after we have been in our mother's womb for three months, or six months, or after we are capable of 'meaningful, existence.' "

The statement said the Supreme Court violated the Constitution in its abortion ruling by giving precedence to the right of privacy - "nowhere mentioned in the Constitution" - over "an explicit right, the right to life itself' which the Constitution guarantees.

The U.S. Catholic Conference said, "The court has set the stage for society - or government - to decide that some lives are 'devoid of value' and are lacking in 'meaningfulness' or are unworthy of protection because their ' continuation is a threat to the convenience of others."

The Catholic Conference rejected the Supreme Court's statement in Roe vs. Wade - one of the 1973 abortion cases - that "the fetus, at most, represents only the potentiality of life." Such a decision, the USCC charged, ignores the scientific evidence on when life begins.

The USCC statement said the constitutional amendment is not the final goal of the USCC's legislative activity on the abortion question. The USCC pledged to work for provision of services to pregnant women and to unborn children, including pre-natal, childbirth, postnatal and nutritional care for the mother and for the child in its first year of life.

Counseling services, adoption facilities and financial assistance are also 46part of the panoply of services" which the USCC said should be available to pregnant women and their children.