Obama's Plan To Sign Freedom Choice Of Act Will 'Trigger Harsh Response' From Catholics, Opinion Piece Says

Main Category: Abortion
Article Date: 02 Dec 2008 - 5:00 PST

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President-elect Barack Obama's pledge to sign the Freedom of Choice Act, which "seeks to codify Roe v. Wade into federal law," is "setting up a showdown with the Vatican" and will "trigger a harsh response" from Pope Benedict XVI and "political revolt among practicing American Catholics," columnist Jeffery Kuhner writes in a Washington Times opinion piece.

According to Kuhner, the act would "remove all restrictions on abortion in state statutes," including parental notification laws, and would "entrench taxpayer funding of abortion." In addition, the act would require Roman Catholic health care facilities to provide abortion services, "constitut[ing] a fundamental assault on basic Catholic doctrine," Kuhner writes.

Although many of Obama's Catholic supporters have said it is "time to put the polarizing debate over [Roe] in the past, accept legalized abortion as a reality and work toward compromise solutions, such as promoting adoption," Kuhner writes that their argument is "morally repugnant and politically naive." According to Kuhner, it is "time for [Pope Benedict XVI] to personally speak out against FOCA and warn pro-choice Catholics in the Obama administration they will not only be refused communion at Mass but face excommunation" if they support FOCA. Kuhner concludes that "[n]o self-respecting, principled Catholic can or should support" abortion, "regardless of who occupies the White House" (Kuhner, Washington Times, 11/30).

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