October 31, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Last night I had a dream that I was trapped in an elevator with none other than President Barack Obama. As best as I can recall, our conversation went as follows:
PO: “Looks like the elevator is stuck. I can’t be stuck in an elevator at a time like this.”
DD: “We could be here for a while. Let me introduce myself since you need no introduction. I write for Human Life International, am a US citizen and live, most of the year, in Canada.”
PO: “Canada’s a great country.”
DD: “Well, we have our problems.”
PO: “Will you be voting for me in the upcoming election?”
DD: “I hope you don’t think I confuse science with faith, but I am deeply troubled about your position on abortion.”
PO: “Well, I believe in choice. My position on abortion is balanced. I am for a woman’s right to choose and believe in Roe v. Wade, but if re-elected, I will work hard to bring opposing sides together in an effort to reduce the number of abortions.”
DD: “Personally, I don’t believe in Roe v. Wade. It was an act of ‘raw judicial power,’ as one Supreme Court Justice put it. If anybody thinks that a woman’s ‘right’ to an abortion is ‘implied in the penumbra’ of the Constitution, that person will believe anything. No wonder no one saw that ‘right’ for 200 years. It is simply not there.”
PO: “We must honor a Supreme Court decision.”
DD: “Do you honor the Dred Scott decision?”
PO: “That was different and was eventually overturned. Roe v. Wade is still on the books after 39 years.”
DD: “If it hasn’t been overturned, it should be. How can anyone really believe that the US Constitution gives a mother the right to kill her child in the womb and denies that that child has a right to live?”
PO: “Ah, but the fetus in the womb is not a person and therefore has no rights. How long are we going to be stuck here? Hellooooooo … is anyone up there?”
DD: “Do you think I have a right to live?”
PO: “Don’t be silly. Of course you have a right to live.”
DD: “I’m not being silly. When do you think I acquired that right? Was it before or after birth?”
PO: “Well, as I stated a some time ago, trying to answer that question is above my pay grade.”
DD: “But you are running again for President of the United States! If knowing when human beings acquire rights is ‘above you pay grade,’ I think you should be trying to figure this out rather than running for the nation’s highest office.”
PO: “What’s wrong with this elevator?”
DD: “Are you going up or down?”
PO: “Down, naturally.”
DD: “Yes, and so is the economy. Excuse my sarcasm. I know that politicians are adept at not answering questions. Too much candor can destroy a political career. But let me ask you this: As an Illinois senator, you voted to kill a bill that would have stopped Christ hospital and other medical facilities from abandoning live infants from unsuccessful abortions so that they would die of neglect. If you don’t know when human beings acquire human rights, how can you be so sure that an infant outside the womb does not have a right to live? Roe v. Wade did not imply that a woman has a right to a dead baby.”
PO: “I have been misrepresented by anti-choicers. I don’t believe in infanticide, of course.”
DD: “Nonetheless, as your own people point out, facts are facts. How can you deny your own record?”
PO: “Look, abortion is a complex issue. The American people are divided on it. It is contentious, controversial, contorted . . .”
DD: “Excuse me, I thought we were talking about infanticide.”
PO: “No, we were talking about abortion.”
DD: “Call me a simpleton, but the abortion issue is simple enough for me – you either have a live or dead baby. There is no middle ground. That is the rock bottom reality that makes everything else peripheral, though certainly not unimportant.”
PO: “Ah, finally, thank God, the elevator is moving!”
DD: “At least we won’t be here for 9 months.”
PO: “What do you mean by that?”
DD: “I’m grateful we had this exchange, but I won’t be voting for you.”
PO: “Well that is your choice. That’s what makes democracy in this country so great.”
DD: “But you hope that voters will choose to re-elect you as president. Obviously, you believe that some choices are better than others. I believe that choosing life is better than choosing death.”
PO: “Well, here we are, ground floor and out into the fresh air, and . . . to more press conferences. Let me just say as we part company that a great American once spoke of his dream that all people would be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
DD: “I also have a dream, namely, that a candidate for America’s highest office should be informed about human rights, should have integrity and a coherent moral vision, should support religious liberty, and should not think that knowing when human beings acquire human rights is ‘above his pay grade.’”
PO: “Hasta la vista.”
DD: “This conversation, evidently, is terminated.”
Donald DeMarco, PhD, is a Senior Fellow of Human Life International. He is Professor Emeritus at St. Jerome’s University in Waterloo, Ontario and an Adjunct Professor at Holy Apostles College & Seminary in Cromwell, CT. Some of his recent writings may be found at HLI’s Truth and Charity Forum.