Rick Garnett over at Mirror of Justice blog has recommended Commonweal’s new story, “Can we talk about abortion?‘ It will come as no surprise to Catholic readers of this blog that none of the three contributors to the article, Dennis O’Brien, Peter Steinfels, and Cathleen Caveny, give a robust defense of the view that innocent human life should be legally protected from conception. Of the three Professor Caveny comes the closest, arguing what she describes as Professor Mary Ann Glendon’s view, ” “what is important is that the totality of abortion regulations—that is, all criminal, public health, and social welfare laws relating to abortion—be in proportion to the importance of the legal value of life, and that, as a whole, they work for the continuation of the pregnancy.” There is little to quibble with in this statement, but I doubt Professor Glendon, a heroine to me and others in the prolife movement, intended that statement to foreclose or even delay inclusion of the unborn in our laws criminalizing the intentional taking of innocent human life.
Teresa Collett
Teresa Stanton Collett is a professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where she teaches bioethics, property law, and constitutional law. A nationally prominent speaker and scholar, she is active in attempts to rebuild the Culture of Life and protect the institutions of marriage and family. She often represents groups of state legislators, the Catholic Medical Association, and the Christian Medical and Dental Association in appellate case related to medical-legal matters. She represented the governors of Minnesota and North Dakota before the U.S. Supreme Court as amici curiae regarding the effectiveness of those states’ parental involvement laws. She has served as special attorney general for Oklahoma and Kansas related to legislation designed to protect the well-being of minors and unborn children. She is an elected member of the American Law Institute and has testified before committees of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittees on the Constitution, as well as numerous legislative committees in the states.