To the Editor:

One of the most profound moments in the presidential debate season came in the Biden-Ryan debate in response to the family planning question about faith and abortion. The exchange revealed a distinction between principle, on one hand, and compassion, on the other.

Ryan stood on a principle that human life begins at conception. Vice President Biden went deeper, in my view, giving priority to love. He said his church’s social doctrine talks about love: “the care of those who cannot take care of themselves, people that need help.”

After thus identifying the deepest value of all, Biden expanded his response to the particular issue of abortion and explained what love means in his personal decision making. He spoke passionately of his respect, his care, for people of differing convictions and religions.

Love needs, of course, to be acted out in particular life situations.

Consider, please, the documented situation of an Ecuadorian mother of eight children who unwillingly became pregnant with her ninth child. Living in extreme poverty under an unjust system and having no access to family reproductive health services, this mother became desperate about how she could care for her family. She threw herself from a moving truck in the hope of bringing on a miscarriage, succeeding only in breaking both her legs. Her situation is not only tragic but instructive.

Who would dare judge her? Invoking what principle? Is not the prior question, “What does love require in this situation?”

Moreover, what about women’s rights? And what about contraception education and the full range of family reproductive health services, including abortion counseling? Who in good conscience would deny these services to the mother and her family?

To care or not to care — that is the question.

In bringing it to the fore as he did, Biden gave a contentious debate its most solemn moment.

Alfred M. Niese
Woolwich