Obama Chooses Sen. Biden As Running Mate, Prompts Criticism From Catholic Leaders

Main Category: Abortion
Article Date: 26 Aug 2008 - 4:00 PDT

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Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) on Saturday announced that he has chosen Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.) to be his running mate in the presidential election, the New York Times reports. The announcement was made ahead of the Democratic National Convention, which starts on Monday in Denver (Nagourney/Zeleny, New York Times, 8/24).

Obama's selection of Biden, who is Roman Catholic and a supporter of abortion rights, drew criticism from several Catholic leaders, the AP/Google.com reports. Biden supports Roe v. Wade but has voted in favor of legislation to ban so-called "partial-birth" abortion, according to the AP/Google.com.

Denver Catholic Archbishop Charles Chaput said that Biden "has admirable qualities to his public service" but that his "record of support for so-called abortion 'rights' ... is seriously wrong." Chaput added that Biden's "integrity" should "lead him to refrain from presenting himself for Communion, if he supports a false 'right' to abortion."

George Weigel, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and a biographer of Pope John Paul II, said, "I don't think it's a happy day for Catholics when a man who is literally dead wrong on what the Catholic leadership of the United States has said for over three decades is the most important issue of social justice in our country is named to a national ticket and attempts to present himself as an intellectually serious and coherent Catholic." The Catholic advocacy group Fidelis added that the selection of Biden is a "slap in the face" to Catholic voters.

Douglas Kmiec, a former official in the Reagan administration and a law professor at Pepperdine University who has been criticized for his support of Obama, said that the Obama campaign is "ultimately premised upon Catholic social teaching" and that Obama and Biden are a "winning combination." Kmiec added that Democratic efforts to reduce the number of abortions by addressing social and economic factors that cause women to seek the procedure hold more promise than Republican efforts to ban it.

Biden has said that although he is "prepared to accept" Catholic teachings on abortion, he believes that Roe v. Wade "is as close [as] we're going to be able to get as a society" to respecting different religious views on the issue. Biden in 2007 said his views on abortion are "totally consistent with Catholic social doctrine," adding, "There are elements within the church who say that if you are at odds with any of the teachings of the church, you are at odds with the church. I think the church is bigger than that" (Gorski, AP/Google.com, 8/24).

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