Abortion Politics, Vatican's "Human Dignity," Missouri Execution...and the Eclipse!
2024-04-09 00:18:22
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Did you watch the eclipse, eh?
No, no, I was watching Bravo.
I mean, it's a very important moment that the entire country stopped to watch.
I'd rather watch Bravo than a real eclipse.
Have you not heard of DVR?
You can't DVR an eclipse.
You've seen one, you've seen them all.
Donald Trump wants to leave abortion policy up to the states.
You must follow your heart of this issue, but remember, you must also win elections.
Will Trump's attempt to thread the needle give him a boost?
I'm A. Martinez, that's Leila Fadal, and this is Up First from NPR News.
The Vatican calls surrogacy and gender theory grave threats to human dignity, along with
more familiar issues the Catholic Church has advocated against, such as war, poverty, and
abortion.
How are Catholics reacting?
And an execution tonight in Missouri.
In a case that some Republicans say shows the justice system is broken.
For example, the defendant's lawyers recommended he plead guilty.
Without even requesting that the death penalty be taken off the table.
That's insane.
Stay with us.
We'll give you the news you need to start your day.
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It's a high stakes election year, so it's not enough to just follow along.
You need to understand what's happening so you are fully informed come November.
Every weekday on the NPR Politics Podcast, our political reporters break down important
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Former President Donald Trump has taken a position on abortion, well, sort of.
You must follow your heart of this issue, but remember, you must also win elections
to restore our culture and in fact, to save our country.
In other words, now that Trump has emerged from the Republican presidential primary,
he's basically saying, leave it up to the states.
That video posted on a social media platform yesterday is the clearest attempt yet to address
an issue that has cost Republicans votes since the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade
in 2022.
NPR's senior political editor and correspondent, Domenico Montanaro, joins us now.
Hi, Domenico.
Hey, good morning.
Good morning.
So will Trump's abortion announcement help him, hurt him?
He's in a tough spot on this issue because it's his justices that made it possible for
Roe to be overturned.
He knows that, and in the video you played, he even thanked them.
Trump knows this issue has hurt Republicans in election after election.
Here's Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion, which conducts
polling for NPR.
Trump is very much aware of the mobilizing effect of the Supreme Court actions in favor
of the Democrats.
And I think he's trying to find some kind of position that is more tolerable and is
less of a negative for his campaign.
So a political calculation here.
Yeah, I mean, pretty much, you know, whether it works, though, is another question.
I mean, his position still leaves Republicans without a firm stance on what they should
believe when it comes to abortion rights.
That's something that they've really struggled with as states have come up with their own
laws in many cases in Republican states, very restrictive laws that have all but cut off
access to abortion for millions of women, particularly in the South.
So Trump is also saying Republicans can now move on and focus on other issues like immigration
and inflation.
I mean, will Republicans just move on because Trump says so?
Well, Trump is essentially abandoning the issue himself, saying that there is nothing
to see here.
But it's pretty unlikely that the country simply moves on.
You know, Biden, his campaign is going to do everything it can to remind voters that
it was Trump's justices who made the current chaotic state on abortion rights possible.
You know, and it came out with a new ad just yesterday highlighting a Texas woman who says
she almost died after a pregnancy loss and was denied an abortion to prevent infection.
No doubt about it.
You know, this is a major issue, a major motivator for millions of voters.
Again, here's Marislee Mearingoff.
There's little doubt that when you look at suburban women, when you look at women with
a college education, it's having an impact beyond all other things in this race.
So you hear they're beyond all other things in this race.
So there's no waving this away.
Remember, this is the first presidential election since the Supreme Court's Dobbs ruling that
got rid of Roe.
And it's one reason that we're seeing shifts in our latest poll, not just with college
educated white women, but with white men as well.
So what are the shifts?
Well, Biden is struggling with younger voters and Latino voters, groups that he did well
with in 2020, but he's being buoyed by college educated white voters.
They're essentially keeping him in this election right now.
And that's a big change from years past.
The biggest shift was with college educated white men.
Trump won them by three points in 2020, but our latest survey showed that Biden was ahead
with them by more than 20 points.
Now, is that abortion rights?
Is that Trump's language?
Is that January 6th?
Maybe it's all of the above.
But the fact is there used to be a place in the Republican Party for someone who was fiscally
conservative, socially liberal, wanted a strong hand when it came to foreign policy
and American leadership.
But that's just not the case anymore.
And this resorting along educational lines in particular has become more and more cohesive.
And PRs Domenico Montanaro.
Thank you, Domenico.
You're welcome.
The Vatican is drawing scrutiny for a newly released document that lays out what it calls
threats to human dignity.
That list includes war, poverty, abortion, and the suffering of migrants, all very familiar
stances to those who follow the Catholic Church.
Then it goes further.
The document describes surrogacy, gender theory, and what it calls sex change as, quote, grave
threats facing humanity today.
Joining us with more is NPR religion correspondent Jason Derose.
Hi, Jason.
Good morning.
Good morning.
So how does the Vatican define, quote, human dignity?
Well, the document describes it as this inalienable character of being human.
Because a person exists, he or she has intrinsic value.
And people have this value regardless of the circumstance of their life, poor, undocumented,
male or female.
It references the Bible as describing human beings made in God's image.
In fact, the document says each person's dignity comes from the love of the creator, quote,
who has imprinted the indelible features of his image on every person.
And then it details grave threats, as it says, to that dignity.
What are those?
Right.
It talks about poverty and how unequal distribution of wealth denies humans God-given dignity.
It also describes war, the abuse of migrants, sexual abuse, violence against women.
All of them affronts to dignity and therefore reasons to not wage war, to care for migrants,
et cetera.
Again, these are not new issues for the Catholic Church.
But then it also lists these issues, surrogacy, gender theory, and what it calls sex change.
So what's the reaction been to this?
Because it seemed like the Vatican was moving kind of in a different direction.
I mean, just last year, Pope Francis allowed priests to bless people in same-sex relationships.
Well, I think the Vatican would say this is not a change, but rather it's just an extension
of already existing teaching.
As far as reaction goes, conservative Catholics seem largely pleased, especially after years
of their thinking Pope Francis was too interested in LGBTQ rights.
And the church does still allow priests to bless people in same-sex relationships, as
you said.
But people who've been working for LGBTQ rights in the Catholic Church are very unhappy with
this new document.
Francis DiBernardo is with New Ways Ministry.
It shows no evidence that they have examined new scientific, medical, psychological understandings
of gender, which have been very healing and really very holy for some people.
DiBernardo worries that in a church already losing members, even more people will leave
Catholicism over this document.
So how is the Vatican explaining its rebuke of gender theory?
Well, Leila, what gender theory argues is that a person's gender identity or self-understanding
can be different from the sex that person was assigned at birth.
If God creates people in his image, as this document says, and creates them good, how
could a person be born the wrong gender?
It's like saying God made a mistake.
The church argues that there are two genders, male and female, for good reasons, among them
procreation.
It says the concept of human dignity can be misused to justify what it calls arbitrary
proliferation of new rights.
And it describes those rather as individual preference, and that language echoes what
we often hear from those who oppose transgender rights, that being trans is a choice.
And of course, that's something most medical and psychological groups dispute.
NPR's Jason Derose, thank you, Jason.
You're welcome.
Missouri plans to execute a man tonight who shot and killed two of his family members
nearly 20 years ago.
That's despite an unusual coalition advocating against his execution.
Brian Dorsey pleaded guilty to a crime that shocked the residents of New Bloomfield, a
small city in the central part of Missouri.
The victim's four-year-old daughter was found at their home after the shooting.
She was unharmed.
St. Louis Public Radio's political correspondent, Jason Rosenbaum, has followed this case from
its beginning and joins us now.
Hi, Jason.
Hello.
So there's no question that Dorsey killed his cousin, Sarah Bonney, and her husband,
Benjamin Bonney.
So what is this group arguing?
Is it a push against the death penalty itself?
There are two main issues.
The first is that Dorsey's attorneys were paid a flat fee of around $12,000 by the Missouri
Public Defender's Office, which his current lawyers say incentivized these other attorneys
to do as little work as possible.
And they point to how the original attorneys pushed him to plead guilty without trying
to get the death penalty off the table.
And the second legal issue?
It's whether Dorsey was in a drug-induced psychosis when he committed the murders.
And if he was, his attorneys argue he wouldn't fit the confines of first-degree murder and
therefore isn't eligible for the death penalty.
So tell us about this group that's trying to get his sentence commuted to life without
parole.
Who were they?
What were their arguments?
A former Missouri Supreme Court judge, some corrections officials who oversaw Dorsey in
prison, and several GOP lawmakers opposed to the death penalty are trying to stop his
execution.
And they say that Dorsey was a model prisoner and even was trusted enough to cut some corrections
officers' hair.
And this dovetails with the argument that he's rehabilitated and just doesn't deserve
the death penalty.
And they wanted his sentence commuted to life without parole.
So knowing Dorsey did, in fact, kill these people, I imagine this entire debate might
be painful for Sarah and Benjamin Bonney's family members.
Oh, absolutely.
And some of their family members have found the arguments about his rehabilitation deeply
off-putting and have argued no amount of good behavior in prison can erase the wave of trauma
Dorsey inflicted.
And State Representative Tony Lovasco, a Republican who wanted the governor to commute
Dorsey's sentence, says he understands why those arguments wouldn't resonate with people
who knew and loved the Bonneys.
They don't probably care all that much about someone's rehabilitation because they're still
hurting.
I understand that completely.
I don't minimize that.
But I think it's important that we focus on the technical aspects of the case and the
criminal justice system and really how this fits into public policy at large.
But Dorsey is set to be executed tonight, right?
So these arguments haven't worked?
No.
And the Missouri Supreme Court unanimously rejected an attempt to stop Dorsey's execution,
pointing out how some of his actions during the murders, including loading and reloading
a shotgun and stealing some of the Bonneys' belongings, showcased intent.
And what about Missouri's governor, Mike Parson?
Where did he land on this?
Did the group want him to intervene?
Yes.
He's a Republican with an extensive law enforcement background.
But he denied pleas to commute Dorsey's sentence to life in prison without the possibility
of parole.
He said in a statement, the pain Dorsey brought to others can never be rectified.
And carrying out Dorsey's sentence, according to Missouri law and the court's orders, will
deliver justice and provide closure.
So Dorsey is set to be executed in Bontair tonight at 6 p.m. and the death penalty remains
an option in Missouri for the foreseeable future.
St. Louis Public Radio's Jason Rosenbaum.
Thank you, Jason.
You're welcome.
And finally today, tens of millions of people across the U.S. watched yesterday's solar
eclipse.
Now, for some, the day started with tailgating.
Steve Ryden cooked up bacon for his kids as they waited in northern Vermont.
We're actually in a parking lot of an old mall.
There are families around us playing cards.
There are kids running around.
There's dogs.
And there is not a cloud in the sky here in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, today.
And just before totality, the sky turned gray, the wind died down, and people got quiet.
It is remarkable how dark everything is getting right now.
It went from a warm, sunny day to now.
Oh my gosh.
It's happening.
It's happening.
Oh my gosh.
Look.
Take off your glasses.
Wow.
Wow.
Oh my gosh.
That looks awesome.
I've never seen anything like that.
This is wild.
This is unbelievable.
The sound of wonder.
Now, some made plans far in advance.
Will Pettigo and his family got hooked after the eclipse of 2017.
We booked a farmhouse in Schuyler Falls, New York almost two years ago, and now I'm standing
out in the middle of a field and about six inches of snow with crisp, clear blue skies.
Look!
Look!
Sunset!
There's a 360 sunset!
Wow!
There's a 360 sunset!
Oh, wow.
This is unreal.
And the stars are out.
Yeah.
I know.
Six-year-old Simon Giles from Pittsburgh packs snacks for a road trip.
I'm skipping school to drive to Buffalo to watch with my grandparents and uncles.
Another family, Gina Montana and her daughter Jahia Montana Forbes, travels from New Orleans
to Terrell, Texas.
That's Jamie Foxx's hometown.
And we have our glasses and our matching t-shirts and matching earrings with little
suns on them.
And they witnessed their second totality together from a field of wildflowers.
This is so amazing.
It's amazing and beautiful.
You can see the corona.
The middle of the sun is completely black.
There's a planet.
I don't know if it's Venus or Jupiter.
We're citizens of the planet Earth, and we pray for peace.
Peace of mind.
Peace throughout the world.
And that's Up First for Tuesday, April 9th.
I'm Layla Falden.
And I'm A. Martinez.
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Listen to Consider This from NPR.
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Lisa Thompson, and Ben Adler.
It was produced by Ziad Butch, Ben Abrams, and Nina Kravinsky.
We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott, and our technical director is Zach Coleman.
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managing your money in different currencies easy.
With WISE, you can send and spend money internationally at the mid-market exchange rate.
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Christian nationalists want to turn America into a theocracy, a government under biblical
rule.
If they gain more power, it could mean fewer rights for you.
I'm Heath Druzin, and on the new season of Extremely American, I'll take you inside
the movement.
Listen to Extremely American from Boise State Public Radio, part of the NPR network.
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