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We hear a lot about "pro-choice" from political candidates. We, too, want to avoid "legislating values and claiming there are moral absolutes."

Ethics is a personal choice, not a political or religious concern. That's why we've established "Planned Bank Robbery." Now, we personally don't approve of bank robbery, but we don't want to inflict our morals on anyone else either.

It must be a personal decision of each individual.

Education is the key since our studies reveal that 99 percent of senior high teens know that banks are robbed. But it is shocking the number of teens who don't know how banks are robbed. Or even how to load a .357 magnum, drive a get-away car, or demand, "Give me all of your unmarked, non-sequentially-ordered twenty-dollar bills." Young people need to know the wide range of career options available to them.

And we're also concerned that a lot of young people are robbing banks without proper protection. Personal injury and irresponsibility are much greater crimes than actually knocking over the First National. At Planned Bank Robbery we don't approve of unauthorized withdrawals. But we do want to offer--free of charge--bullet-proof vests, ski masks, and if necessary a get-away car. This is the compassionate thing to do!

And young people who need some extra cash from their local 7-11 shouldn't have to get their parent's permission to obtain this protection. If that were the case, hundreds more teens would be needlessly injured by narrow-minded parents who are trying to inflict their morality on their children.

Again, let me emphasize that Planned Bank Robbery does not condone or encourage grand larceny. We only want to stress it is a personal decision. We're "pro-choice."

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Seriously, the Roman Catholic Church is also pointing out the hypocrisy of pro-abortion candidates who are hiding behind equally silly reasoning.

George Weigel, director of the Catholic Studies program at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C., reminds legislators and candidates that "pro-choice Catholic" is an offensive oxymoron.

Weigel writes, "Abortion, as the bishops have consistently taught, is a matter of the fifth commandment . . . 'Thou shalt not kill.'' Abortion involves taking the life of an indisputably human creature, endowed with an inalienable right to life. That is a serious public matter, not a private choice, because protecting innocent life is one of the first requirements of justice in any decent society.

"Another point of confusion is the common belief that Supreme Court decisions are irreversible. Just as the Court was wrong when it decided in the 1857 Dred Scott case that African-Americans were legal non-persons, so the Roe v. Wade and Casey v. Planned Parenthood decisions were also mistaken. Legislators have an obligation to state publicly that the Court got it wrong." He argues that legislators must work "to reverse the Court's wrongheaded abortion decisions."

Weigel also challenges the claim that the Church's pro-life teaching is "a sectarian position which cannot be imposed on a pluralistic society." He points out that the church has never tried to force everyone in the United States to abstain from meat on Fridays.

However, he writes, " The Church's pro-life teaching is something that can be engaged seriously by anyone. You don't have to believe that there are seven sacraments to deal with this, you don't have to believe in the primacy of the bishop of Rome to engage this position. You don't even have to believe in God to engage this [pro-life] position because it's a position rooted in basic embryology and in basic logic, and anybody can engage that."

It's not anyone's "right" to take life. And it's not even a woman's choice involving her body. It's a separate life with separate circulatory system, often a different blood type, and 50 percent of the time a different gender.

The "pro-choice" candidates need to make a true choice. "Are you for or against abortion?" Quit hiding behind "Planned Bank Robbery" arguments.

(c) 2004 James N. Watkins

well said

Excellent post Candace!