On 4 November 2008 THE PRIMARY ISSUE IS THE RIGHT TO LIFE!!!!!

The Weight of Our Vote

By: Father Jerome Magat

As Americans flock to the polls on November 4, they will have formed their opinions about who will make the best Chief Executive for our country. In forming these opinions, it seems that public attention has shifted away from the war in Iraq and Afghanistan to the current economic crisis and that it is this crisis that will become the chief determinant in how Americans will vote.

While the current economic woes and the future of national security are important issues, they are what the Catholic Church considers secondary issues when weighed against fundamental life issues such as abortion. After all, politicians can negotiate as to how to handle the economy. Moreover, the future strategy for the war is also negotiable, and war itself is not intrinsically evil, as the Just War theory demonstrates. However, the fundamental right to life, which abortion threatens, is never negotiable and is intrinsically evil. The abortion holocaust has killed more than six times the number of Jews who lost their lives in the Nazi Holocaust. And yet, the silent scream of the unborn goes relatively unnoticed and mostly forgotten.

The outcome of this November's election will determine the face of the Supreme Court for the next 20-30 years. The Court is just one vote away from overturning the most unjust decision it has ever rendered: Roe v. Wade. The question that every Catholic must answer is this, "Will I place issues of liberty and happiness ahead of the right to life that the foundational documents of this country seek to preserve and foster?" From the perspective of those in our midst without rights (the unborn), is the economy and its recovery more important than the right to life itself? Without the guarantee of the right to life, can one even discuss the economy?

It is important to note that Catholics are not single-issue voters with a perennial hang-up with abortion. Rather, Catholics are primary-issue voters, and the primary issue is the right to life, without which any discussion of issues regarding liberty and the pursuit of happiness are meaningless.

The outcome of this November's election is much less about parties and allegiances. Rather, it is about a fundamental vision of what American is all about. Who we elect will have a significant influence upon foreign policies that may threaten the lives of the unborn here and overseas. We would do well to choose carefully, knowing that our vote will mean either the demise of many or their chance to live outside the womb.

Filipino Family Fund