Can Catholics Vote For Pro-Choice Politicians?

Recommend (10) Comments (0)

As for Catholic voters, they will surely be tempted to weigh voting for the “pro-choice” Democrats versus the “pro-life” Republicans for a number of reasons other than the abortion question, and they may certainly be forgiven for feeling at least a little confused. After all, there are an abundance of politicians who call themselves Catholic and who politically support abortion rights while claiming to personally oppose abortion. We’ve seen that these office holders are often re-elected and that the Church hasn’t condemned them. Joe Biden (“I strongly support Roe v. Wade,” reelected 5 times) and Nancy Pelosi (“I don't think anybody can tell you when life begins,” reelected 8 times) are just two successful politicians who have defied the Church and thrived. Still, Catholic voters may wish to consider the words of Newark’s Archbishop John J. Myers:

What evil could be so grave and widespread as to constitute a “proportionate reason” to support candidates who would preserve and protect the abortion license and even extend it to publicly funded embryo-killing in our nation’s labs?

Certainly policies on welfare, national security, the war in Iraq, Social Security or taxes, taken singly or in any combination, do not provide [emphasis added] a proportionate reason to vote for a pro-abortion candidate.

Brad Miner, a former literary editor of National Review, is the author of five books, including The Compleat Gentleman: The Modern Man’s Guide to Chivalry. He is also a regular contributor to The Catholic Thing (http://www.thecatholicthing.org).