Carter is just plain incomprehensible

It should first be stated that I am fairly certain that this article misquotes Jimmy Carter on his 1976 position with regard to abortion. That position was, as I believe I rather clearly remember it, that while he opposed a constitutional amendment banning abortion (the "Human Life Amendment," which was being mooted at the time), he supported the notion of returning the right to decide upon the legality of abortions to the states. He even had to meet a requirement of the Democratic Party rules of the time, and submit in writing, within twenty-four hours of his nomination, an explanation of his rejection of a plank of the platform adopted by the convention which nominated him: the abortion plank, which unqualifiedly endorsed Roe v. Wade.

That having been said, his vehement and even fanatical espousal of the cause of the pro-death candidacies of those who have succeeded him as titular head of the Democratic Party has always amazed me. The ethical (as opposed to political) position on abortion expressed in the article linked to above was indeed, on my understanding, Mr. Carter's position during his presidency; I had assumed (understandably, I think) that he had changed it.

Understandably because to support the legality of abortion despite the convictions Mr. Carter previously espoused, and has now publicly reiterated, while effectively championing the cause of candidates who have embodied exactly what he condemns, is about as ethically incongruous a thing as it's possible for a public figure to do. And as is the case with Mario Cuomo, Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, Rudi Giuliani, and all the others who try to have it both ways where abortion is concerned, he ends up in an ethical position I regard as far inferior to that taken by people who honestly do not believe that life begins at conception, and who support abortion rights as a consequence. To believe that abortion is the murder- the taking of an innocent human life- and yet to favor the legality of murder is about as ethically craven a position as I can imagine.

I just don't understand this man. I spend many years as his supporter and admirer. During the time when I was striving to combine a concern for social justice in other realms with a consistent concern for social justice with regard to the weakest and most vulnerable of my fellow human beings- the unborn- while reconciling this double-edged concern with membership in the Democratic Party, Mr. Carter provided both my inspiration and my sense that what I was attempting was not altogether impossible.

And when I finally realized that it was, indeed, impossible, but saw the route Jimmy Carter was taking anyway, I assumed that he had changed his mind about abortion.

But apparently not. Apparently he has simply chosen to take a bizarre position no more defensible intellectually than it is ethically.

He has joined the ranks of those who try to have it both ways. But he has outdone them all. He wants to be both an apologist for the pro-life position, and a supporter of the pro-abortion position. And it just doesn't work.

Hat-tip: Gene Edward Veith's Cranach blog