Why is Tom Brokaw picking on Catholics? There’s not a person on the planet who doesn’t know that Catholicism condemns abortion. Yet twice on “Meet the Press,” Brokaw has sucker-punched House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and vice presidential nominee Sen. Joe Biden by asking them to pinpoint the beginning of human life. Pelosi and Biden took the bait and rendered moral judgments in response. But “when does human life begin?” is answered in biology, not theology. The more important question-the one Brokaw did not ask-is the one everyone is debating: When does human life gain respect and rights?

(Phyllis Zagano is senior research associate-in-residence at Hofstra University and author of several books in Catholic Studies.)