“Personally Opposed to Abortion, but…”

This quote is from Al Mohler’s blog:

Speaking Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Senator Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee for Vice President, made headlines by stating that he accepts “as a matter of faith” that human life begins at conception, but he would not impose that view on others as a matter of law. Sen. Biden’s statement is similar in form to those offered by other Catholic politicians like former New York Governor Mario Cuomo.

Biden’s remark, which made Mohler think of Cuomo, made me think of another New York politician who thinks likewise. During his bid for President, Rudy Giuliani explained his pro-choice stance to include that he “hated abortion.”

This line of thinking is what the pro-life debaters, such as Stand to Reason’s Gregory Koukl calls, “personally opposed to abortion.” Koukl reminds pro-life spokesmen to follow up these kinds of statements with, “Why are you personally opposed?” Or, “Why do you hate abortion?” Their answer almost invariably is, “Because it takes a life.”

By taking them to the logical end of their position, I have even known some to abandon the “personally opposed” position for the solid ground of “personally opposed and publicly opposed.”