Carl Anderson, CEO of the Knights of Columbus, implores Catholic politicians to disregard the will of their constituents and toe the hierarchy’s line on abortion policy (“Catholic politicians should follow conscience, consensus on abortion,” 17 August). Anderson cites Catholic and former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, who, in 1984, remained personally opposed to abortion but refused to ban it. Anderson asks how Catholic politicians like Cuomo who express a personal opposition to abortion can continue to support abortion being legal. Anderson also wrongly lumps all Catholic politicians together and presumes that they oppose abortion rights.
In law, we call this a straw man argument: build up a straw man and it’s easy to burn him down. Anderson’s straw man is built from a long-since discarded Potomac two-step. The political generation after Roe v. Wade began to embrace women’s bodily autonomy, but it still respected the Catholic hierarchy’s heartburn over its declining influence in American society....
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/healthcare/292036-catholic-politicians-are-following-their-conscience-on
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