Is Surgeon General Pick Regina Benjamin Pro Abortion?
by Thomas Peters
This is an important story but one I don't have a great deal of time to delve into at present. Hopefully AmP readers can work towards some conclusions in the comment box after I present what I've found out (which does not appear to be very encouraging).
First what happened....
NYT: "President Obama selected Dr. Regina Benjamin, an Alabama family physician, as the U.S. surgeon general on Monday, announcing the appointment during a ceremony in the Rose Garden."
AP: "Benjamin became the first black woman and the youngest doctor elected to the American Medical Association's board. She also received the Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights in 1998, and Pope Benedict XVI awarded her the distinguished service medal Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice."
That last point raised my eyebrows when I first read it.
Catholic News Service was quick to point out: "Dr. Regina Benjamin, a member of the board of trustees of the Catholic Health Association, is being nominated as surgeon general this morning."
Then this factoid emerged (via LifeNews): "Obama Surgeon General Pick Regina Benjamin Wanted Docs to Learn Abortions"
Original reporting at McClatchy Newspapers gives more cause for concern: "President Barack Obama's nominee for surgeon general is a Catholic best known for founding an Alabama clinic that treats the poor, but her lesser-known support for abortion rights puts her at odds with her church and some of the groups that have praised her work.... White House spokesman Reid Cherlin said that Benjamin "supports the president's position on reproductive health issues. Obama supports abortion rights and public funding of contraception and sex education."
Now, Benjamin's nomination for surgeon general requires Senate confirmation the Associated Press reports. So there is some chance of influencing the process.
CNA and Whispers both have long posts on the subject. Fr. Z adds this quote from the Catholic League: "Dr. Benjamin should not wait until the Senate considers her appointment to let the public know where she stands. As a practicing Catholic, she cannot chair a committee that would support mandated abortion coverage in employer insurance plans."
In the meantime, my initial take ... yet another pro-abortion Catholic pick by President Obama ... which adds support to my frequently-stated claim that the kind of catholic the Obama administration likes ... is a bad catholic.
Read more on OpposingViews.com: Obama Picks Family Doc Regina Benjamin as Surgeon General
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I posted this on another article on this site about this topic:
According to the 2009 Official Catholic Directory ( http://www.usccb.org/comm/archives/2009/09-124.shtml ) there are "68,115,001 Catholics in the United States, making up 22 percent of the U.S. population." I think that is probably a little high considering the Catholic church doesn't publicize a way off their rosters, that I'm aware of, but we'll just assume it's accurate for now.
Combine that with the Gallup poll I posted previously ( http://www.gallup.com/poll/117154/catholics-similar-mainstream-abortion-stem-cells.aspx ), 41% of those (or about 27,246,000.4 give or take) would agree that abortion is morally acceptable. Let me put that into words: Twenty-Seven Million Two Hundred and Forty-Six Thousand Catholics in America likely believe that abortion is morally acceptable. Outrageous, I know! Further, that means around 9% of the American population, or almost 1 in 10 Americans(!) are " pro-choice " Catholics!
So, in fact, not only it is easy to find a Catholic that is "pro-choice," but it's pretty darn likely that most people run into at least a few every day (assuming you run into only 30-40 people a day! And live in a somewhat diverse population... i.e. No FLDS ranches included).
This is a one single issue! You can't demand consensus from 68 million people, no matter how tall your hat is!
Sure it may suck from your perspective, but how do you not understand this?
Being honest with yourself is the first step to being honest with others
Do you regularly spam websites with the same comment from your clipboard?
It's not spamming when you do it on only two threads and fully disclose the fact that you are re-posting a comment in advance.
Why don't you just respond to what I said? The reason I re-posted it is because I want to talk about this with more than one Catholic that thinks it's absurd that Obama found a few " pro-choice " Catholics and I thought it was a good post the first tine I posted. I post here via my iPhone, so not retyping long posts worked for this.
And btw, this is my first time doing that here and I figured that anyone with some sense would see that I am fully disclosing what I have done in advance. But thanks for ignoring what I said.
Simply because large numbers of “Catholics” view abortion as morally acceptable does not prove that it is a legitimate Catholic belief. Church teachings describe abortion as inherently evil, inherent defined as "existing in something as a permanent and inseparable element" ( www.dictionary.reference.com ). Therefore, this is fundamental to a genuine Catholic belief system. To call oneself a Catholic while embracing, promoting and living by values that contradict the teachings of the Magisterium is self-delusional.
To be a practicing Catholic in good standing, believers must reject such intrinsically evil practices as would rob a human being of his or her life, regardless of where he or she resides - womb, nursing home , or Petri dish.
I want to add this, provided this turns into a discussion.
This poll, also Gallup: http://www.gallup.com/poll/118399/More-Americans-Pro-Life-Than-Pro-Choice-First-Time.aspx slightly disagrees with the previously posted poll in that the previous poll shows 40% of non-Catholics think that abortion is morally acceptable... Which is strange considering the latter poll shows that a combined 75% think that abortion should be legal in at least some cases (half of those, 37% of total, think it should be legal in most or all cases, the words for the other half were legal in only a few cases) and only 22% think that abortion should be illegal in all cases.
I posted this second poll because first I think it clarifies how confusing poll watching can be, making sure we all have some perspective in this. Secondly, I think this also points out that while only 40-41% may find abortion morally acceptable according to the first poll, only 22% of those polled in the second poll felt that abortion should be illegal in all cases.
Food for thought