Can Catholics Vote For Pro-Choice Politicians?

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In this debate, you will often hear about the importance of forming one’s conscience when preparing to vote. Catholics believe that they should look to the guidance of their bishops when they go to form their conscience. Even individuals who believe one can vote for a pro-abortion politician, defend that claim by quoting Church documents (erroneously, I believe, in the vast majority of cases).

Therefore, Catholics should also look at what American Bishops have been saying recently about voting for a notable pro-abortion politician, Barack Obama.

On October 17 th , Archbishop Charles Chaput had this to say about voting for this pro-abortion politician:

“To suggest -- as some Catholics do -- that Senator Obama is this year’s “real” pro-life candidate requires a peculiar kind of self-hypnosis, or moral confusion, or worse. To portray the 2008 Democratic Party presidential ticket as the preferred “pro-life” option is to subvert what the word “pro-life” means.”

Bishop Robert Hermann, obviously referring to the same candidate, said on October 10th:

“More than anything else, this election is about saving our children or killing our children. This life issue is the overriding issue facing each of us in this coming election. All other issues, including the economy, have to take second place to the issue of life

…How can a so-called good Catholic vote for a candidate that supports laws that take the life of innocent children, when there is an alternative? If there were two candidates who supported abortion, but not equally, we would have the obligation to mitigate the evil by voting for the less-permissive candidate.”

Bishop Finn said on October 14 th , again clearly referring to Obama:

“a candidate who pledges that he or she will seek to immediately ratify the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA), signals to voters that the reduction of abortions is not a goal. [That politician asks] voters to suspend the effort to constitutionally protect human life, and – at the same time - to discard all the good progress we have made to actually reduce the number of abortions in the last thirty-five years. Such a candidate is asking Catholics to “give up” on abortion. They want us to deny our conscience and ignore their callous disregard for the most vulnerable human life.”

Many more bishops have made similar statements. I have not, however, seen a bishop in recent months defend the proposition that Catholics ought to vote for a pro-choice politician. In fact, all of them who have spoken about the question publicly, have vocally pointed out that Catholics may not vote for a pro-choice politician.