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"Is the President getting at something important here? Or is he just playing politics?"

Brian,

With regard to your question concerning the President's call for civility on the abortion debate when he spoke at Notre Dame yesterday, the answer is "yes" - to both explanations.

The false dichotomy is one of the oldest, most enduring, and most thoroughly aggravating conventions/cliches in all of journalism. Surely you know this. And yet you continue to perpetuate it. Why?

Surely you must know that the false dichotomy is the enemy to nuanced precision of thought and expression - because it arbitrarily forces discourse into an artificial "box" of predetermined, mutually-exclusive choices. If the actual truth lives somewhere in between, it is conveniently - and routinely - ignored: simply because it doesn't fit the model.

Please, discipline yourself. Don't go there anymore. I expect so much more of you than to practice the same dark art as someone like John McLaughlin, or some fluffhead correspondent from one of the TV tabloid "news" programs. Frankly, I'm disappointed...

MVK

please stop letting your guests shape the discussion by using the term "PRO LIFE". this poisons the well, for those who understand the discussion as pro-choice or anti-choice.

I was moved by the words of both President Obama and the President of Notre Dame. We can find common ground with civility and love.

I'm pro-choice and pro-life; Pro-choice as a citizen of our country and pro-life as a catholic including the right of all for a sound education, health care, and clean environment. My own person faith cannot determine other people's right, but I can engage in a constructive dialogue for a better resolution to the abortion problem.

I believe that someone can be both pro-life and pro-choice.

That is, many people are in favor of life, but are also in favor of choice.

This points to a problem with the terms we use. I think that it would be more accurate to say that most people are either anti-choice or pro-choice. Use of the term "pro-life" is problematic.

Could we just establish the fact that no one is "PRO-ABORTION"??? People can be advocates for people to choose to have abortions, but no one is directly advocating the world to have abortions.

As a Pro-Choice/Pro Stem Cell Research Catholic,I applaud President Obama's willingness to engage in this most sensitive of issues. We must agree to disagree. We're never going to agree on everything 100% and move on, that's why we have elections, an overwhelming majority of Americans voted for the president.
Kenny from the Bronx

President Obama has a history of not acting until public pressure becomes untenable. For example, President Obama tolerated racism in his own spiritual house for 20 years. It is only when the public demanded action against racism that President Obama decided he should part ways with a church that preached racism. President Obama will do nothing more then the bare minimum to support his pro choice position until the Democratic party and the public at large demands otherwise. This goes for gay marriage as well. The Democratic party can not just rail against Republicans anymore. It is up to the Dems to decide the future of abortion and gay rights.

What common ground? The right to choose is just that, the right for the individual to decide for themselves. That is freedom. Additionally, it is an issue of equality. Women will only be truly emancipated and equal with the control of their own bodies.

The "Pro Life" movement wants to dictate their views. All of the arguments about innocence and "values" are red herrings or simplistic sentimentality. At the core, the Pro Life movement is about control.

The only thing the Catholic Church has going for it is that it is anti capitol punishment.

xone problem with abortion issueis that ithas become an industry and is listed under A in the phone book--- mot under physician, gunecologist etc. It is an indusgtfry not a medical procedure

About "Conscience Opt-Outs" for medical professionals:

Will we, then, allow doctors whose religion tells them that AIDS is a punishment for homosexuality to refuse to treat those who are HIV+?

If you are morally opposed to something, you should not enter a career that requires you to practice it. Doctors take an oath regarding their professional conduct. (And, as far as I know, performing abortions isn't a med-school requirement.) Making any exceptions to that, for any reason, is setting foot on the slippery-slope.

I am pro choice.

How about looking at making abortions less frequent by
-educating our kids (sex ed)
-making contraception more available

Do you think that abortion opponents would have less to say if women (feminists) honestly state why abortion is important: that is because it is fair; it enables women to be have sexual equality or sexual parity with men? Who could argue against that? Equality at all costs is the feminist mantra, after all.

It is not the governments right to tell someone what to do with their body. not everyone believes in the same beliefs, so why force your beliefs upon others. I agree with Eddie, separation of church and state!

The Gallup poll had an unusually larger number of self-described Republicans.

That causes an informed reader of that poll to seriously question it. Sometimes, there are outliers that should be dismissed, and this seems to be one of them.

My insurence woul't pay for the pills which were good for me, the generic had side efffects, I stopped taking it got pregnant while using condom and had an abortion- which was paied by the insurance...

It is unfortunate that the President of the US is forced to respond to outside protesters about the abortion issue, an issue which is perfectly legal in the US, to college graduates who are facing an unsettling economy. Here is a brilliant man who could give his wisdom to these graduates without allowing the church to dominate the state.

Obama’s Notre Dame speech was another really impressive attempt to use the bully pulpit to good effect. It may have cost Notre Dame in alumni contributions, public relations, and stress. But I can't imagine that they could have had a better commencement speaker. His appearance was another contribution to civil discourse. [I sent them a note of support at: http://president.nd.edu/contact-us.]

Although I don't always agree with Obama's positions or policies, I trust his ability to negotiate treacherous waters. It's the difference, as David Foster Wallace and others have said so well, between salesmanship and true leadership. By all means, let's really discuss abortion, rather than shouting each other down.

As with health care, Iraq and Middle East policy, torture, detainee rights, and economic justice, Barack Obama again shows there is no principle he won't compromise in the search for votes.

As for abortion issues and ethics: We are rapidly approaching a kind of "Gattaca" (sci fi movie) scenario where people will be able to pick and choose features of their developing child. How will Obama hedge when people can effectively shop for a biological child of their choice?

I am very pro-chice- donate to Planned Parenthood, etc. However, I agree with the president's position- I want to live in a country where abortions aren't ever needed and all babies are planned and wanted because birth control is available, affordable, and research has created 100% effective and safe methods of birth control. I think, like all other medicine, the best methods are preventative.

I think Obama is doing what he'd said he'd do: talk to the other side with respect. This defuses the issue enough so that we can at least discuss the issue together and find some common ground: well done!

I am pro-life. I voted for Obama. My last child I did not abort, so I am a living example of keeping a child during a crisis. I think people just focus on the act of the abortion and need to address the issues of how do I support and take care of these unaborted children after choosing life? As a single mom I still only make 75 cents to every dollar a man makes. After divorce a woman's lifestlye goes down 35 percent when the man's lifestyle rises 35 percent after divorce. Dead beat dad's. etc. We need to address these very important issues especially in this climate.

Being old enough to remember when birth control was ILLEGAL in New York, it is hard for me to accept common grounds with people who I suspect have that as their ultimate position.

Republicans are against abortion but for war. Save the life of an unborn baby but kill hundreds if not thousands for sometimes unjust reasons. As in Iraq. Why do Jesus's words of thow shall not kill only apply to abortion. Can a Christian Republican please explain this to me.

I am pro-choice and I fully respect and understand why people may not agree with me on the issue. I think we can agree on reducing unwanted pregnancies. BUT, I find that this issue is so divisive, that my efforts to be understanding of other points of view is often perceived as being condescending, and it sometimes makes people even angrier with me for expressing my opinion while being understanding of their view.

3rd of all most american catholics ignore the pope and his bishops on abortion and many other issues.
religion is dead

I am pro choice and totally understand the pro life position. I completely understand that if a person believes abortion to be murder, the only right belief is to be against abortion. If I believed it was murder, I would be active against it the way I try to be active against the tradgey in Darfur. I do not respect the positions against birth control - I think that is antiethical to a real pro life position.

SEPERATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
SEPERATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
SEPERATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
SEPERATION OF CHURCH AND STATE

Correction: Brian, Obama was referring to changing the wording on his SENATE campaign website about "right wing ideologues," not his Presidential run.

I am pro-life. However, I don't believe the choice of a mother should be regulated by the government.

my commencement speaker was the late bowtied professor without a graduate degree who worked on the kennedy administration arthur schlesinger junior. He didn't concern himself with ending pregnancies but with the cycles of history. yes i remember the speech

first of all, the president of the USA is almost never catholic and doesn't support catholic ideology.
2nd where were these protesters during pro death penalty pro war bush years??

"At Notre Dame we have always maintained an open speakers policy. That means we do not have hard-and-fast criteria for speakers, other than that they have something intelligent to say and can attract an audience. Most particularly, we do not require speakers to agree with what we stand for as a university or as Catholics."
—Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., from his 1990 autobiography "God, Country, Notre Dame"