<table> </table> The attempt by Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann to control Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius&#8217; political decisions on abortion should jolt the public back to this debate&#8217;s central issue.</p><p>Since this is not an isolated incident, Kansans and others might want to turn a more studied eye on the religious/political scene.</p><p>Abortion opponents have succeeded politically in emotionalizing the abortion debate around babies. As important as they are, and as important as is their welfare, babies are not the central issue in the abortion debate and never have been.</p><p>President Abraham Lincoln&#8217;s thinking can get us back to the central issue of this debate. Lincoln knew that ending slavery, as important as that might be, was not the core issue of that war.</p><p>The central issue was the preservation of the union conceived in, and dedicated to, freedom and democracy.</p><p>These two things &#8212; freedom and democracy &#8212; also are at the core of the abortion debate. Look behind the efforts to control abortion decisions. Look behind the efforts to control the decisions of all Americans on all other social issues.</p><p>For example, look behind the effort to defeat the Missouri Stem Cell Initiative, and you will find the archbishop&#8217;s church.</p><p>Freedom and democracy mean that who makes the decision is central in this debate. To be more accurate, the core issue is whose moral standards will determine such decisions.</p><p>Freedom and democracy&#8217;s answer is that the moral standards of individuals and families have that place, and that all the people establish those norms for our culture.</p><p>The archbishop and his church, on the other hand, want their moral standards to be the only basis on which laws are passed, thus allowing church moral standards to control all abortions.</p><p>These advocates are not satisfied that they and all Americans are free to choose not to have an abortion.</p><p>They are determined to make their choice &#8212; the choice not to have an abortion &#8212; the only legal choice for all Americans.</p><p>The abortion fight is not about abortion. It is about whether the nation will keep steadfastly with its founding principles of individual and religious liberty, an uncontrolled democracy, and the separation of church and state.