Ramesh Ponnuru points out that Barack Obama and Joe Biden are trying to dismiss questions about abortion as theological matters. In an interview that aired on This Week yesterday, Obama said that his statement at Rick Warren’s saddleback forum – that determining when a baby gets human rights is “above my pay grade” – was “probably” too flip. Obama explained: “What I intended to say is that, as a Christian, I have a lot of humility about understanding when does the soul enter into … It’s a pretty tough question. And so, all I meant to communicate was that I don’t presume to be able to answer these kinds of theological questions.” Ponnuru writes: “the ensoulment question is a dodge. People disagree about whether 40-year-olds have souls. We don’t leave 40-year-olds unprotected against homicide in order to avoid imposing our theological views on each other.” Indeed, Warren asked Obama a question about human rights: “At what point does a baby get human rights in your view?” This is a question that can be and ought to be answered by human reason. Only a theocrat would argue that human rights are subject to theological views on ensoulment. Update: See Yuval Levin’s take here:
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