This is a question I would like to ask my friends who are staunch practicing Catholics as well as staunch Democrats. “How do you reconcile the Catholic belief in the right to life from conception to natural death with the Democratic belief that abortion is a woman’s right to kill her baby?”

The reason I am not asking my friends is that I do not want to jeopardize our friendship. I am afraid they will be offended by the question. I am afraid they will not answer the question; or ask a diverting question about some Republican belief; or; give an indirect emotional response rather than a reasoned answer. I want them to be open and honest and truthful to me. I am afraid of what will happen to our friendship if they are not.

So, I am choosing this method to ask my question. Why do practicing Catholics espouse abortion?

Do they simply pay no attention to this part of the party platform?

Do they really believe a woman has the right to kill her own baby?

Do they see a human fetus as an “it” or a “thing” as the Democrats seem to do?

Do they agree with the Democrats that a human fetus is not a “human person?”

Yet there is extreme outrage when a teenager tries to flush her newborn baby down a toilet. Parents are put in jail if they mistreat their babies or neglect them. But a human fetus can be murdered by the thousands without thought.

How do practicing Catholics explain this to themselves? Would they consider explaining it to me?

There is an inherent illogic for a Catholic to abort a baby, whether her own or to participate in the abortion of another woman’s baby.

I understand that there are teenagers who don’t make the connection between sex and conception. There are girls who are raped and conceive. Our society says sex is fun and to hell with the consequences – there is always abortion to solve the problem.

I have a non-Catholic Democrat friend who has accused me of not caring about the girls and women who have been raped or suffered sexual abuse in the home environment. In her eyes, abortion is the only way to handle rape and sexual abuse. But she is no longer a Christian so she views the world as an atheist does. She will not answer the question as to whether a human fetus is a person. Instead she attacks me and my faith and diverts attention from the question. She firmly believes in the Democratic platform. But she is neither Christian nor Catholic Christian. Her conscience is clear. My question is not for her.

Many couples want babies, search for a baby to adopt, pay for a surrogate mother in order to have a baby. With widespread abortion, adoptable babies are fewer.

There are other ways to deal with unwanted pregnancies and babies, but many of these have been abandoned with the easy availability of abortion.

Since the concepts of the ‘right to life’ and ‘abortion is not killing’ are totally contradictory, how do my Catholic Democrat friends reconcile this difference with their own consciences.

I would really like to know.