Most Members Of Obama's Catholic Advisory Council Members Support Abortion Rights, Opinion Piece Says

Main Category: Abortion
Article Date: 25 Jun 2008 - 10:00 PDT

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Wall Street Journal columnist William McGurn writes in an opinion piece that Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) "sent a clear message" to Democrats who "gravitated" toward Republican candidates because of their opposition to abortion rights by appointing Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) as the head of his National Catholic Advisory Council. According to McGurn, although the council's National Leadership Committee does include some Roman Catholic lawmakers whose "pro-life credentials are impeccable," such as Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.), most members of the council have a "seal of approval" from NARAL Pro-Choice America, with 17 of the 21 senators, members of Congress and governors on the committee having a 90% to 100% approval rating from NARAL Pro-Choice America.

To further support his thesis that Obama's Catholic advisory council would be better suited to informing voters about how "extreme" Obama's position on abortion is rather than encouraging Catholic voters to support him, McGurn points out that Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D), one of the committee's co-chairs, recently was asked by her bishop to stop receiving Holy Communion because of her support for abortion rights.

Obama has said that although he supports abortion rights, he acknowledges a "moral dimension" to abortion, and has said that he is willing to listen to abortion-rights opponents and that he wants to work to reduce the number of abortions, according to McGurn. However, Obama's arguments are a "tough sell" to Catholic voters, McGurn writes, adding that Catholic voters who are supporting Obama "have to get around" the Catholic Church's position that abortion is an "intrinsic evil" and is "always and everywhere wrong"(McGurn, Wall Street Journal, 6/24).

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