Potential Kennedy Senate Appointment 'Discouraging' For 'Faithful' Catholic Voters, WSJ Opinion Piece Says

Main Category: Abortion
Article Date: 06 Jan 2009 - 5:00 PST

email to a friend   printer friendly   view / write opinions   rate article

Although the "thought of yet another pro-choice Kennedy positioned to campaign for the unlimited right to abortion is discouraging" for "faithful" Roman Catholics, abortion-rights advocates "will have just such a champion" if Caroline Kennedy is appointed to fill the Senate seat that will be vacated by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), Anne Hendershott -- professor of urban studies at The King's College in New York and author of "The Politics of Abortion" -- writes in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece. According to Hendershott, Kennedy -- the daughter of former President Kennedy, who was Catholic -- "knows that any Kennedy desiring higher office in the Democratic Party must now carry the torch of abortion rights throughout any race." Hendershott adds Kennedy has "promised to work for several causes," including abortion rights.

Hendershott writes that in response to a series of 15 questions regarding abortion rights posed by the New York Times on Dec. 21, Kennedy said that she would oppose legislation requiring minors to notify their parents before obtaining abortion services and that she supports Roe v. Wade.

Although abortion-rights issues were "not a national concern" in the early 1960s when Kennedy's father was president, that "all changed in the early 70s, when Democratic politicians first figured out that the powerful abortion lobby could fill their campaign coffers (and attract new liberal voters)," Hendershott writes. She adds that those politicians "began to realize" that the Catholic Church's bishops and priests "had ended their public role of responding negatively to those who promoted a pro-choice agenda." However, there are "signs today that some of the bishops are beginning to confront the Catholic politicians who consistently vote in favor of legislation to support abortion," Hendershott writes. She concludes that "[u]ntil the clerics begin to counter the pro-choice claims made by high-profile Catholics" -- such as Vice President-elect Joe Biden, Kennedy and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) -- "faithful Catholics will continue to be bewildered by their pastoral silence" (Hendershott, Wall Street Journal, 1/2).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You can view the entire Daily Women's Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women's Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

© 2008 The Advisory Board Company. All rights reserved.