Manhattan Declaration Misses the Point, Per Dr. Charles Rice

Dr. Charles Rice, a professor emeritus of Notre Dame Law School and a renowned pro-life author has penned an article that eloquently states my objections to the Manhattan Declaration.  I urge one and all to read it. 

To recap my own objections (which can be reviewed by typing "Manhattan Declaration" into the search box), this so-called manifesto mentions most of the moral ills of our contemporary culture - except contraception!  This omission is so glaring and obvious that I cannot help but believe that it is deliberate.  The very acquiesence in this matter is nothing other than homage to the culture of death.  I will quote here from Dr. Rice's article: "The failure of MD, in its catalogue of legalized promotions of the “culture of death,” even to mention the entry by government into the business of subsidizing by contraception the rejection of new life, is inexcusable. Once that role of government was conceded, the other evils denounced by MD were predictable. Perhaps the purpose of MD was to put together a coalition of signers that would include proponents of public funding of contraception. If so, MD politicized and trivialized itself."

Some criticisms of my opinions have been:
1) "We've got to start somewhere!"  True, but we should still take care that the "somewhere" is truly a worthy starting point.  Take the analogy of weeding a garden.  What good does it do to simply rip off the stem and flower, but still leave the root?  If the root is left, you know very well that the weeds will be back very quickly.
2) "You're trash-talking a positive step."  All that demonstrates is that we've partaken of the "positive versus negative" kool-aid.  Instead of focusing on "postivie versus negative", we should be concerned with "truth versus falsehood", "accuracy versus inaccuracy".  The "positive versus negative" paradigm has more to do with people's subjective reactions to a given subject matter, rather than with the objective merits of the subject matter at hand.
3) "Look at all the Catholic/Christian/prolife famous people who've glommed onto the MD.  Can they all be wrong?  What famous person backs up your negative (that word again!) position?  Get with the program!"  With Dr. Rice's now-published opinion, I can now say "Voila!"  But - should that really matter?  Ladies and gentlemen, we will all answer to God individually for our actions.  We will not be able to tell Him, "But Mr. Prolife Bigshot said this was the silver bullet!"  We have to stand for ourselves - even if we stand alone.

By the way - aside from hearing of all the folks who've signed the MD (my name being absent!), I haven't heard of much real, tangible fruit from this thing.  Frankly, I don't think we'll hear much of it ever, but I'm open to being proven wrong.