After returning from the inauguration Pepperdine Professor of Constitutional Law Douglas Kmiec defended his choice to support President Barack Obama despite criticism from the anti-abortion community. Kmiec who is also Caruso Family Chair sat down on Friday with John Jones Seaver College communication professor to discuss “Obama Religious Faith and the Public Square.”
Moderated by Kmiec’s colleague Robert Cochran professor of law and director of the Nootbaar Institute on Law Religion and Ethics the discussion at the law school used videos clips of Obama to fuel talking points which largely focused on abortion.
Kmiec originally a supporter of Republican presidential candidate Gov. Mitt Romney (Mass.) used his knowledge of Obama’s beliefs to clarify the president’s religious views.
Kmiec confirmed in the Jan. 22 issue of the Graphic that he thinks his name may possibly be considered for the position of Vatican Emissary in Obama’s administration.
Although some members of the Catholic community criticized him for supporting a politician who is in favor of abortion rights Kmiec made clear that he does not agree with Obama’s support for abortion.
“The teaching of the Catholic Church is quite absolute Kmiec said. Abortion is an intrinsic evil that can be justified under no circumstances. The Church takes the position it does … not because of the Bible – although it believes in the inerrancy of the Bible – but also … as a matter of objective scientific fact that this human zygote is human and if you don’t interfere with it it will become a person and by virtue of that it’s entitled to legal protection.”
Nevertheless Kmiec said he agrees with Obama’s view that ending abortion through the law is not the best method especially because according to Obama abortion rates did not decline under an anti-abortion president.
“My proposition is that the effort to solve the ‘abortion dilemma’ through law has been a notable failure Kmiec said. [Obama said he wants] to reduce the number of abortions and the way to do that is by addressing the cause of abortions.”
With President Obama’s Jan. 23 repeal of the Mexico City Policy many are questioning the validity of his campaign promise of lowering abortion rates. The Mexico City Policy also known to critics as the Global Gag Rule prohibited federal funds to support non-government organizations that perform or counsel for abortions.
Kmiec said he does not agree with Obama’s decision to repeal the Mexico City Policy in its entirety.
“My response was to say that you can redraw the Mexico City Policy to allow those funds to go toward generalized healthcare …” Kmiec said. “But that’s not the course he’s chosen to take which is a difference between us but that doesn’t mean the common ground [of reducing abortions] doesn’t exist.”
The discussion featured a video clip in which Obama responding to a question posed by Pastor Rick Warren stated that answering the question of when life begins “with any specificity would be above my pay grade.”
This answer to many represented Obama’s decision to separate his political and religious views.
“I may be opposed to abortion for religious reasons … but if I seek to pass a law banning the practice I can’t simply point to the teachings of my church or evoke God’s will Obama said earlier in his 2006 Call to Renewal” keynote address. “I have to explain why abortion violates some principle that is accessible to people of all faiths – including those with no faith at all – and this is going to be difficult for some who believe in the inerrancy of the Bible but in a pluralistic society we have no choice.”
Although Jones said he appreciated that Obama made faith an overt part of his rhetoric referencing man’s fallen nature and the existence of moral solutions in addition to policy solutions he said Obama’s position on abortion is not only mistaken but also difficult to maintain.
“I would have a hard time being personally or religiously one thing and politically something else said Jones, who is anti-abortion. We are dealing with a clash of two values that Americans esteem most highly – one is the value of human life and the second is individualism.”
Students from the School of Law came to hear Jones’ and Kmiec’s thoughts regarding Obama and his views on religion affecting policy decisions.
“I’m not a Barack Obama supporter. So I want to know more about his position especially in terms of religion because there’s obviously a number of Christians in the Pepperdine community and there’s some concern about abortion said first-year law student Ben Gifford. Professor Kmiec has come out strong advocating that Obama’s position is somewhat more favorable to progress than McCain’s position was. So it’s an interesting perspective to hear.”
Seaver freshman Mimi Rothfus also attended the discussion to better understand Obama’s stance on abortion.
“What really stood out to me was hearing … that Obama wanted to limit abortions [when] that very day the Mexico City Policy was reversed said Rothfus, who was disappointed that the Thursday, Jan. 22 March for Life in Washington D.C. was overlooked. Pepperdine a Christian institution should have made some mention of the [March for Life].”
