"I oppose abortion, personally," says John Kerry.

* "I oppose abortion, personally," says John Kerry. "I don't like abortion. I believe life does begin at conception. But I can't take my Catholic belief, my article of faith, and legislate it on a Protestant or a Jew or an atheist ... who doesn't share it. We have separation of church and state in the United States of America." If Kerry believes that abortion kills a human being--and it is reasonable to infer from his comment about conception that he does believe that proposition--then it is awfully tepid of him to say that he does not "like" it. But then, it is also odd that he shrinks from prohibiting it. It takes a moment's reflection to see that opposition to abortion is not an "article of faith" in the way that the Virgin Birth is. Non-Catholics, indeed atheists, have reached the conclusion that abortion is a form of killing that should generally be banned. Can it really be Kerry's position that their conclusion is rendered suspect by the fact that the Catholic church agrees with it? Kerry wants to say that he agrees with his church about abortion (the practice is wrong) but not about public policy about abortion. But the "Catholic belief" about abortion is not just that it is wrong, but that it is wrong because it is a form of unjustified killing, that reason can demonstrate this point, and that allowing it is therefore unjust. Kerry's straddle is based on the idea that reason and religion are in conflict, and that the state must side with the former. But he's made a hash of both reason and religion. Which we oppose, personally.