A recent poll conducted by EWTN News/RealClear Opinion Research indicated that only 9% of U.S. Catholics believe the Church’s teaching that abortion is a grave evil and never acceptable at any stage.
Nearly 1 in 5 Catholics said, according to the poll conducted in June, that a woman should be able to have an abortion any time during her pregnancy up until birth.
Think about that for a moment. That means 18% of Catholic respondents said it’s OK to abort a child in the final days of pregnancy at a time when the baby is fully developed.
Is it any wonder that there’s ambivalence toward abortion and human life in this country and in the Catholic Church?
Before we go further, let’s state upfront that this issue goes way beyond politics. We’re talking about the fundamental principle of right to life for all humans, born and unborn. At the same time, there’s legitimate concern about the souls of the adults who make decisions that do not protect this basic right.
That said, we can’t ignore the fact that prominent individuals who profess to be Catholic in the public square have carried their extremist abortion support to a level that the Church should no longer tolerate.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) issued two strongly worded statements this month. The first came in response to an executive order signed by President Joe Biden on abortion. The second followed the Women’s Health Protection Act, a bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives that would allow abortion on demand throughout pregnancy in all states and wipe out pro-life laws at all levels of government.
Baltimore Archbishop William Lori, the president of the USCCB’s Committee on Pro-Life Activities, said the following after the executive order was signed:
“In response to the Dobbs decision, I called for the healing of wounds and repairing of social divisions, for reasoned reflection and civil dialogue, and for coming together to build a society and economy that supports marriages and families, and where every woman has the support and resources she needs to bring her child into this world in love.
“And as religious leaders, we pledged ourselves to continue our service to God’s great plan of love for the human person, and to work with our fellow citizens to fulfill America’s promise to guarantee the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all people.
“It is deeply disturbing and tragic that President Biden is choosing instead to use his power as President of the United States to promote and facilitate abortion in our country, seeking every possible avenue to deny unborn children their most basic human and civil right, the right to life. Rather than using the power of the executive branch to increase support and care to mothers and babies, the president’s executive order seeks only to facilitate the destruction of defenseless, voiceless human beings.
“I implore the president to abandon this path that leads to death and destruction and to choose life. As always, the Catholic Church stands ready to work with this Administration and all elected officials to protect the right to life of every human being and to ensure that pregnant and parenting mothers are fully supported in the care of their children before and after birth.”
Then, after the House passed the Women’s Health Protection Act on July 8 that would make abortion legal throughout the country to counteract the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade in June, Archbishop Lori and Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee for Religious Liberty, said in a statement:
“The majority in the House of Representatives voted last Friday to pass the most unjust and extreme abortion on demand bill our nation has ever seen. Answering the needs of women by promoting taxpayer-funded elective abortion, as this bill would do, is a grave evil and a failure to love and serve women. Offering free or low-cost abortions, instead of increasing the resources women need to care for themselves and their children, is not ‘choice’ but coercion and callous abandonment. Simply repeating the mantra that abortion is healthcare doesn’t make it so. Deliberately ending the lives of defenseless and voiceless human beings is the antithesis of healthcare.
“We implore those who see abortion as a legitimate ‘solution’ to the needs of women to abandon this path of death and despair. Instead, we invite all to join us in pursuing a vision we presented in Standing with Moms in Need, a vision that upholds the truth that every human life is sacred and inviolable – a society in which the legal protection of human life is accompanied by profound care for mothers and their children. We exhort our nation to prioritize the well-being of women, children, and families with both material resources and personal accompaniment so that no woman ever feels forced to choose between her future and the life of her child.”
Those words were appropriately strong and timely, but in the final analysis, they’re just words.
It’s time for the Church to act in a more substantive manner with the full support of the Holy See.
Politicians and celebrities are not only creating a public scandal with support for abortion but also endangering their souls and profaning the sacredness of receiving Holy Communion. They should strongly consider their reception of the sacraments.
The same should be true for any person who willfully rejects the Church’s teaching on the right to life, which the bishops call the preeminent issue in this country.
Isn’t that drastic and judgmental, you might ask? When it comes to the political realm, the issue becomes the ability to set policies on human life that affect billions of people.
Why abortion and not gun control or immigration or a host of other issues? Abortion directly violates the right to life for unborn children who have no voice or no means to “choose” their fate.
Locally, protecting the unborn doesn’t seem to concern a Columbus City Council women’s caucus, which proposed on Friday, July 22 at a news conference more than $1 million to investigate wonderful pregnancy resource centers that help women and their children every day and to support abortion-facilitating organizations such as Planned Parenthood, the OhioWomen’s Alliance and the Abortion Fund of Ohio.
Sadly, that’s not all. The group proposed that the city essentially ignore any complaints related to violations of the state’s abortion restrictions or to enforce the law.
The mayor, city council president and abortion advocates attended the news conference outside City Hall apparently to show their support.
The Columbus Dispatch did not include any reaction from pro-life groups or individuals on the proposal as the newspaper continued its unbalanced reporting on the issue.
It’s perfectly within your rights as a Catholic or an American to disagree. That’s what makes this country great. But, it must be said, a so-called “right” to abortion is simply an injustice when an unborn baby has no rights.
As has been stated repeatedly in this space, if Catholics in public positions are allowed to act in ways that directly contradict Church teaching in important issues, what kind of message does that send to the world about Catholicism?
That we’re tolerant people? Or that we really stand for nothing?
It’s sending a message that Catholics don’t practice what they preach. And that has nothing to do with whether you’re Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative, traditional or progressive, young or old.
There’s so much talk about Church membership declining and Mass attendance plummeting. Some observers think that’s because the Catholic Church needs to relax its teaching on issues such as abortion and artificial contraception and adapt to the evolving modern culture.
Maybe, though, a return to an era when Catholics boldly proclaim what they believe and refuse to sway every time the societal winds change might have a positive impact. After all, up until the latter part of the last century, significantly more Catholics went to Mass, were open to having children and supported the Church’s moral and spiritual direction.
Let’s continue to thank God for the gift of life and the victories we’ve seen this summer, and pray for kindness, authentic evangelization, compassion for mothers in crisis pregnancies, the conversion of unbelievers and for pregnancy resource centers that need our support more than ever.
