Newsweek Opinion Piece Examines Emergence Of Catholic Abortion-Rights Opponents Who Support Obama

Main Category: Abortion
Article Date: 17 Oct 2008 - 6:00 PDT

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An opinion piece by Newsweek contributor George Weigel, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, examines the emergence of Catholic abortion-rights opponents who are backing Sen. Barack Obama (Ill) in the presidential race despite his support for abortion rights. According to Weigel, whatever effect this demographic has on the election, "this unexpected development may also portend a new hardening of the battle lines within the Catholic Church, no matter who is inaugurated as president in January."

The most visible support comes from Douglas Kmiec -- a former dean of the Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law and current Pepperdine University law professor who served in the Justice departments of Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush, as well as serving as the co-chair of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's (R) presidential campaign. Kmiec is the author of a new book, titled "Can a Catholic Support Him? Asking the Big Questions about Barack Obama," which was written after he concluded that "Obama was sounding more Catholic than most Catholics" on issues like wages, health care and the war in Iraq.

Another Obama supporter is Nicholas Cafardi, a Duquesne University law professor who was one of the original members of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' National Review Board, who has written that the most significant reason Catholics should support Obama is that Catholics have, as a matter of law, "lost the abortion battle, ... and I believe that we have lost it permanently." In addition, Cafardi has stated that abortion is not the only "intrinsic evil" of the day, citing "intrinsically evil" acts of the Bush administration, including its policies on the interrogation and detention of terrorist suspects, as well as its actions after Hurricane Katrina. Furthermore, Cafardi says that Obama "supports government action that would reduce the number of abortions," including an "adequate social safety net for poor women who might otherwise have abortions." Weigel also writes that although some Catholics argue that they essentially have lost the fight against abortion, there remain other "intrinsic evils" that they are morally opposed to and that Republicans tend to ignore. According to Weigel, although Obama addresses issues other than abortion that concern Catholics, the reasoning behind their support for him is "counterintuitive, running up against the fact that, by most measures and despite his rhetoric about reducing the incidence of abortion," Barack Obama has a solid record of support for abortion rights. Moreover, he seems to understand Roe v. Wade and subsequent Supreme Court decisions as having defined abortion as a fundamental liberty right essential for women's equality, meaning that government must guarantee access to abortion in law and by financial assistance -- a moral judgment and a policy prescription the pro-life Catholic Obama boosters say they reject." Furthermore, while the "'social safety net' component of the pro-life, pro-Obama argument may seem, at first blush, to make sense ... it, too, runs up against stubborn facts," Weigel writes.

Weigel concludes that if Obama is elected president, U.S. bishops' "exasperation" over Catholic politicians -- including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Joseph Biden (Del.) -- "who present themselves as ardent Catholics and yet consistently oppose the church on what the bishops consider their premier civil-rights issue of the day," means that bishops are unlikely to "back off in an Obama administration ... bent on reversing what its pro-choice allies regard as eight years of defeat" (Weigel, Newsweek, 10/14).

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