Damn-nation

So the Catholic Church has now thrown down the gauntlet. They have now threatened the President with excommunication if he proceeds with his support for the reproductive health bill.

But wait.There are equivocators, people who frantically assure the enraged populace, in an attempt to defuse tempers, or maybe divert the argument, or both, that no such threat has been made.But how else can you interpret mentioning the word 'excommunication' in the same breath as the bill on reproductive health while being asked about what the church intended by way of reaction of the President?

To make matters even more clear, the sequence of events is reported to be as follows.Bishop Odchimar, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) is quoted as saying that "Abortion is a grave crime.Excommunication is attached to it.There is an issue of gravity."Then he is reported, when asked to respond to President Noynoy Aquino's support for contraceptives, to have responded "That is a possibility. Right now it is a proximate possibility."

Given this sequence, I don't know how the equivocators can manage to say, with a straight face, that no such threat was ever made by the bishop.Sure, it wasn't couched in an equation (you push the bill is equal to we push you out of the church).But how do we expect any rational person to react when he is told that, "oh yes, by the way, if you put your hand to the flame, is it a proximate possibility that your hand will get burned"?Don't we expect him to get the hint?

President Noy has just been given a not-so-subtle message.Toe the line, or else.

The President's situation reminds one of the deeply-Catholic US Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. Faced with a decision between being swayed by his faith and voting in accordance with the law, Justice Kennedy shrugged off the heavy pressure being exerted on him, and even despite the inner turmoil he was rumoured as facing, he cast his deciding vote in favor of yes, this very matter that Bishop Odchimar was contemplating, abortion.

Everybody has heard of Roe v. Wade, that seminal US Supreme Court case which recognized a woman's constitutional right to abortion.But not everybody has heard of Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which was the case that the conservatives thought would lead to Roe v. Wade being overturned.Wending its long way through the rigorous American court system, the conservatives nursed this case and brought it all the way up, where they thought they had the numbers, what with only a minority of the sitting justices being "liberal" in ideology.But Justice Kennedy, despite his Catholic faith, surprised everyone when he voted to uphold Roe v. Wade.

Did the Catholic Church excommunicate Justice Kennedy?Not at all.Not even when, in 2003, he wrote the opinion ruling that Texas was wrong in criminalizing homosexual conduct (Lawrence v. Texas), or just this very year, when he voted against Christian law students who didn't want to allow the entry of gay members into their organization.(And these are part of the reasons why he was tagged by the bible groupies as "the most dangerous man in America.")

So, President Aquino, these snippets from the life of a person I consider a great man might just help you in standing fast.You know our population growth is way out of control.You know women die from inserting coat hangers in their wombs because they have no access to safe medical care.You know about the unwanted baby dumped inside an airplane trash bin. You know about the crushing poverty already faced by those already alive, and about how this government cannot deliver the basic educational and medical services to each and every one of its citizens.

We elected a leader to guide the nation out of this quagmire.Not to damn it - which is what will happen if you're cowed by these softly-veiled threats.