“They don’t vote as a block anymore.” These words were recently spoken by Monsignor Joseph Rebman about Catholic voters. Once a powerful demographic, Catholics today are bitterly divided over whether it is acceptable to vote for pro-choice politicians. Many Catholics are proudly progressive, but others insist that abortion is non-negotiable. What are the spiritual implications of a Catholic vote?
Three points are worth considering. Abortion rates in the U.S. continued to climb dramatically for another 15 years after enactment of the Hyde Amendment in 1975. Secondly, 19 of the largest states in the U.S. substituted state funding for federal funding after passage of the Hyde Amendment, so taxpayers are already paying for a significant number of abortions for the poorest women. Third, many of the women who seek abortions are otherwise young healthy people without health insurance, so Medicaid funding would have no impact on their decision to pay out-of-pocket for an abortion. For all these reasons, it is not clear that it would make a significant difference in the total number of abortions in the unlikely event that new legislation ever were to pass Congress reversing the Hyde Amendment.
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