An Open Letter to Representative Jared Polis

An Open Letter to Representative Jared Polis (2nd District—Colorado)


Dear Mr. Polis,

Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever! I received your letter of July 17th in response to my postcard expressing opposition to the so-called “Freedom of Choice Act” or any other act of Congress that would further expand the abortion license, federal funding of abortion or erode legislative protections already in place for the unborn. I want to take this opportunity to thank you for your reply and your pledge to remember the opposition of many members of your constituency to these efforts and your willingness to engage in dialogue concerning these important matters. It is in this spirit that I address this letter to you. Obviously, this is an enormous and complicated topic and so I limit myself to responding to certain aspects of your letter that I find troubling rather than trying to rehash all the arguments in favor or against of the protection of the unborn.

In your letter, you use the phrase “freedom of choice” or “a woman’s right to choose” many times as your justification for supporting abortion. But you leave out entirely the justice or injustice of what is being chosen. Certainly you must be aware that the freedom to choose is simply an innate faculty or power of the human person that may be used for good or evil, for truth or falsehood, for life or death. I have the freedom of choice today to work hard or to rob a bank in order to provide for my family. Yet, one is rewarded and the other punished. Why? Because one is good and one is evil, one is just and the other unjust. In other words, the human person has the freedom of choice, self-determination, by nature not legislation.

The so-called “right to choose” and “freedom of choice” sound nice but this language is unhelpful in the current impasse concerning abortion. In other words, this language is a distraction, it does not illuminate the issues at hand, it obscures them. It is not “freedom of choice” that matters in questions of legislation and justice, after all, we all possess that; rather what is important is what is chosen. Is it good or evil? Does it respect the rights of others? Is it just or unjust? It is these questions that legislation should address.

I, of course, share your concern for the rights and health, physical and psychological, of women and think that we should do all in our power to help those who find themselves in troubling situations. But what of the unborn child? Is it really necessary, is it possible, for us to be only concerned about women or do we have a responsibility to protect and respect the rights of all human beings? Is it really necessary to put the rights of women and unborn children in opposition to one another? Besides, is abortion really good for women?

Mr. Polis, is the unborn child a human being? Science, philosophy and common sense all say that it is, so why doesn’t it deserve all the protections and rights of all other human beings in our country?

Your answer to this last question is evident in your letter: because the Supreme Court said so. But didn’t the Supreme Court also deny the humanity of African-Americans and exclude them from the protections of the law? I do not say this callously, as I believe there is a profound analogy between the denial of the humanity of African-Americans and the denial of the humanity of the unborn. Both have been denied their rights to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” despite the evident nature of their humanity and the precepts of the Natural Law and thus excluded from the community of those afforded rights under our Constitution. If the Supreme Court was wrong in the Dred Scott Case, isn’t it possible that it is wrong in Roe vs. Wade for the very same reasons?

Mr. Polis, I am a Catholic priest but these are not sectarian arguments; they are public and reasonable arguments, open to all regardless of their faith tradition. They are currently ignored in today’s partisan and sound bite culture. You say that “you will always fight for a woman’s right to choose how to handle the health of her body” but this is simplistic and narrow considering the fact that someone else’s rights are also affected, namely, the right to life of the unborn child. As my representative, I ask you to fight not only for the health of women but also for the equal protection of the law for all, not only those for whom it is convenient to fight.

With respect, prayers and blessings,


Father Kevin R. Augustyn
Pastor
St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Center
Boulder, Colorado