Sister Mary Ann Walsh is Director of Media Relations for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Sister Mary Ann Walsh is also a perfect example of everything wrong with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Sister Mary Ann Walsh has written an op-ed for the WaPo’s On Faith blog calling for the criminalization of any instrument that resembles forceps and needles, because they are like the instruments used in abortion. Cause that is the Catholic view.

Oh, I am sorry. I got that wrong. She wants to ban anything that resembles scary weapons cause they are just like forceps and needles, because they are like the instruments used in abortion.

No seriously.

Sister Mary Ann Walsh compares the support of a liberty destroying dubious policy imitative that will not save one life to the horror of abortion which kills millions of unborn children every year.

And…and, if you don’t support this liberty destroying dubious policy imitative you are not really pro-life.

The injustice of taking innocent life lies at the heart of the church’s pro-life position. There is no question about the innocence of pre-born children. And Americans are becoming more and more uneasy as we learn of people on death row eventually found innocent of the crimes for which they were convicted. And surely, after the gunning down of primary grade children in Newtown, Connecticut, it is clear assault weapons stand out dramatically as a threat to innocent life.

The U.S. bishops now call on people to support federal legislation to require background checks for all gun purchases, to limit civilian access to high-capacity weapons and ammunition magazines and to make gun trafficking a federal crime. The bishops also want a ban on assault weapons.

A pro-life stance is a noble one. Sadly it must confront the ignoble reality of abortion, the death penalty, and another threat to peace and human life, the preponderance of assault weapons.

Frankly I am sickened by Sister’s moral equivalence between the wanton destruction of innocent human life in abortion to the need to ban some cosmetic features on otherwise legal and normal firearms.

Whatever your position on gun control, this seamless garment approach minimizes the calamity of abortion and is destructive to the pro–life cause. Abortion is an intrinsic moral evil in all circumstances. Guns, even some scary looking guns, are not.

Are guns sometimes used to commit horrible crimes? Absolutely. Guess what, so are forceps and needles. Those forceps and needles actually kill people on an order of magnitude higher than all gun murders, so is Sister proposing banning them? No. Of course not. Because forceps and needles are just tools, tools that sometimes are used to save life or take life. But they are just tools.

I think the Bishops are wrong for supporting such legislation, but it is there prerogative to foolishly weigh in on such topics, even if out of their competency.

But either way, it is morally repugnant to draw a parallel between a particular policy initiative of dubious value and the intrinsic evil of abortion.

*subhead*Nonsense.*subhead*