Abortion and the Death Penalty (To Rakesh)

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

Rakesh wrote:
>Murray and Herrnstein advocated that "the extensive network of cash and
>services for low income women to have babies be ended." The State of New
>Jersey acted accordingly. The family cap which cut off extra benefits to
>welfare recepients who have additional children may have caused some women
>to abort their pregnancies, as reported in the NYT today (Jun 8, p. A10).
>The Roman Catholic Church and conservative Christian groups have joined
>with advocates of the poor to argue against family caps. There are serious
>methodological difficulties in establishing a cause and effect
>relationship between the cap and abortion; it seems that there would be a
>much clearer relatoinship between the caps and the poverty of children
>women decide to have. At any rate, here in this dreadful case are many of
>things we have been talking about: abortion, religion and race
>(implicitly, I would argue).

Oh yes, I read the same article today. If religious groups had been worth
their salt, they would have issued more than polite murmurs against family
caps _before_ the 'Welfare Reform.' Why didn't they use good old-fashioned
fire and brimstone, hell and damnation talks to condemn their president,
congressmen, senators, governors, etc.? Why didn't they call Clinton & Co.
'The Great Satan' as pluckier fundamentalists in, say, the Middle East
have? Where was _uncivil disobedience_, a la Operation Rescue?

Judging by their performance in the face of the 'Welfare Reform,' I
wouldn't look to organized religion for the 'salvation' of the American
Left, as some on this list would have us do.

Yoshie