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Dubuque, Iowa, is a "heavily Catholic city," the Associated Press reported. And it's the kind of Catholic that supports church teaching that abortion is murder and a grave sin. So when Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry attended Mass Sunday at Dubuque's Church of the Resurrection, "several churchgoers separately quizzed Kerry about his legislative support for abortion rights," the news service reported.

"It's hard," the candidate said. "It's a difficult line to walk." He told another, "I'm against partial birth abortion," explaining that he voted against the partial birth abortion ban six times because Republicans "did it for a political reason. They tried to drive home the politics of it."

But Kerry's most notable comments—which have been widely published but not as widely as one might expect—came in an interview with the Telegraph Herald newspaper:

"I oppose abortion, personally. I don't like abortion. I believe life does begin at conception. But I can't take my Catholic belief, my article of faith, and legislate it on a Protestant or a Jew or an atheist . . . who doesn't share it. We have separation of church and state in the United States of America."

Since Kerry has voted to support abortion every chance he has had as a senator, his belief that life begins at conception comes as a bit of a surprise.

Spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter told The Washington Post that "she could not recall him ever publicly discussing when life begins."

The Bush campaign attacked Kerry's comment, saying, "John Kerry's ridiculous claim to hold conservative values and his willingness to change his beliefs to fit his audience betrays a startling lack of conviction on important issues like abortion that will make it difficult for voters to give him their trust."

Wall Street Journal blogger James Taranto makes a similar criticism:

Far from staking out a moderate position on abortion--pro-choice with limits, or pro-life with exceptions--Kerry expects us to believe that he stands for both pro-life and pro-choice absolutism. "Personally," he claims to agree with the Catholic Church's position that life begins at conception, full stop. That means abortion is murder. But politically he never met an abortion he didn't like--not even the partial-birth kind, which 17 of his fellow Senate Democrats voted to ban last year. This isn't nuance; it's trying to have it both ways.

And the National Right to Life Committee's Dave Andrusko called it a "shameless ploy … [of] blatant opportunism and stunningly transparent insincerity."

Concerned Women for America called it an "attempt to fool voters," but then suggested a less cynical—but more nefarious—reason for Kerry's remark. "Kerry's belief that life begins at conception and his support of pro-abortion legislation shows that killing babies is okay with Kerry," said CWA's Janice Crouse. "Pro-family constituents want to see a candidate's claims to personal moral conviction influence his voting record. Good intentions are useless without action."

Other commentators suggested that Kerry is simply confused and conflicted.

"It is morally outrageous and ethically indefensible for Senator Kerry to publicly acknowledge that life begins at conception, and then state that he is prepared to do absolutely nothing to safeguard innocent human life at every stage of development," said Catholic League president William Donohue. "He cannot have it both ways; if life begins at conception, then the newly formed human being is entitled to the full panoply of rights afforded all Americans. The time has come for Senator Kerry to follow the logic of his biological observation and rethink his position on abortion."

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July (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48