As John Allen reports, in July, Rocco Buttiglione announced that his support for laws banning abortion had been a mistake:
Perhaps the most prominent pro-life politician in Europe has said that he won’t support efforts to make abortion illegal, because “God entrusts a child to its mother in such a special way, that to defend the child against the mother is just, but impossible.”
The indefatigable C-FAM followed up this week with an interview, asking Buttiglione to clarify.
In that interview, he says, “There is one point where I was misquoted, or rather, quoted out of context, giving a wrong impression.” But I can’t quite see how he shows that the original impression was wrong. It looks to me that he merely confirms what people thought he said.
Am I wrong?
July 31st, 2009 | 10:11 am
With abortion and the movement of culture toward euthanasia, we are literally killing our future(the innocent babies) and past( the elderly). What remains is a culture of death with no reliance on God.
Interesting, Literature is indeed a mirror of sociey ; During the nineteenth century, if there was a problem, the characters relied on GOD for help and solace; during the last cetury, Freud and the couch replaced GOD for providing solace, and in our present society, Sex and immediate pleasure is the solution.
July 31st, 2009 | 11:14 am
I understand his explanation to mean that it is politically impossible now to ban abortion in Italy, not that a ban is wrong or undesirable in itself. His earlier comments could easily have been interpreted to mean that a ban would be actually undesirable — so, yes, I think the original impression, or at any rate my original impression, was wrong.
July 31st, 2009 | 11:48 am
It seems to me that Buttiglione’s original statement could be used to justify not just abortion but also parental abuse (physical, sexual, whatever sort) of children: “God entrusts a child to its [parents] in such a special way, that to defend the child against the [parents] is just, but impossible.”
July 31st, 2009 | 2:19 pm
I’m with Jim C. I think it’s quite clear that what he meant was that it is impossible politically to get rid of abortion in Italy because of public support for it, but that getting rid of it would still be the just thing to do. He did not mean that if the mother wants to kill the child she should be allowed to do so because she’s the mother — which is of course the pro-abortion stance. I don’t know why he said that part about God, it’s confusing. But sometimes people say confusing things they do not mean.
August 2nd, 2009 | 10:26 pm
> “not just abortion but also parental abuse (physical, sexual, whatever sort) of children”
Well, abused born children can be fostered to parents who want children. It’s not – at this time – technically feasible to foster an “unwanted” unborn child.
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