Abortion Rights Too Large An Issue To 'Abandon Casually' In Presidential Election

Main Category: Abortion
Article Date: 29 Aug 2008 - 5:00 PDT

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"Every four years, an astonishing array of conservative commentators and Republican campaign strategists suddenly discover an intimate concern for Catholic consciences and an overriding preoccupation with the Roman church's sacramental and liturgical norms," Los Angeles Times columnist Tim Rutten writes in an opinion piece. Although it seemed for a time that "war and recession would push 'values issues' back into perspective in this election cycle ... abortion is too large a wedge issue to abandon casually," according to Rutten.

Rutten writes that in the past few weeks, commentators have discussed the abortion-rights positions of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) and vice presidential candidate Sen. Joseph Biden (Del.), who is a Roman Catholic but supports abortion rights, as well as the Democratic Party's decision not to invite Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput to its national convention this week. However, all of this "paled in the firestorm" over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) answer to the question of when life begins on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday, Rutten writes, adding that Pelosi, "who described herself as an 'ardent practicing Catholic,' gave a response that was not only incoherent but managed to get wrong virtually every fact that might have buttressed her pro-choice position -- which, by the way, is shared by more than half of all U.S. Catholics."

According to Rutten, "All this conservative crosier waving is about a simple set of numbers." Catholics constitute 25% of the electorate, and no presidential candidate in decades has won the popular vote without carrying Catholics. Obama and Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) are in a "statistical dead heat for the Catholic vote," Rutten writes, citing that Obama is leading 42% to 40% with 17% undecided. "The Republicans think their margin of victory might be found in that 17%, many of them white, ethnic, swing-state voters presumed to be socially conservative," Rutten writes, adding that some "bishops are desperate to demonstrate that their flock isn't ignoring them on abortion the way it has on contraception for half a century" (Rutten, Los Angeles Times, 8/27).

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