A Difficult Voting Choice

The election is less than one month away and I think that many, myself included, are finding it to be a difficult choice. I am a pro-life Democrat. If only Obama would change his position on abortion, life would be so much easier. In fact, both my husband and I signed a petition yesterday sponsored by the National Right to Life Organization asking Obama to rethink his position. I have been supporting McCain throughout this election season, but have done so with a heavy heart. I take voting seriously, and I know that so much is at stake for our country. It is indeed a very difficult decision. At this point, I will probably vote for McCain, but I will continue to pray that the right man will win because I truly do not know who that is.

Here are two takes on the issue:

As an institution, the Roman Catholic Church does not tell believers for whom or against whom they must vote, despite what some politicians, pundits, and pastors suggest. Rather, as the U.S. bishops write in Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship (2007), “the responsibility to make choices in political life rests with each individual in light of a properly formed conscience.” Certainly Catholics must seriously consider any candidate’s stance on “intrinsic evils” such as abortion, racism, and torture. Catholics may not vote for a candidate who supports an intrinsic evil “if the voter’s intent is to support that position.” Yet Catholics may choose a candidate who does not unequivocally condemn an intrinsic evil for other “truly grave moral reasons.” Catholics ought to choose the candidate who is least likely to promote intrinsic evils and the most likely to promote “other authentic human goods.” So the question becomes: Are there “grave moral reasons” that permit Catholics to vote for Obama, or any other candidate, despite his or her prochoice stance, or would such a vote be “intellectually careless or downright disingenuous,” as Carlin asserts?


In the U.S. political context, where no candidate perfectly mirrors Catholic teaching on issues such as abortion, war, stem-cell research, poverty, discrimination, gay marriage, and immigration, voting should be a difficult matter of conscience for Catholics. Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship argues that these issues “are not optional concerns which can be dismissed.” While John McCain’s voting record on antiabortion legislation may be more consistent than Obama’s with Catholic teaching, he supports federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research—an intrinsic evil that Catholic teaching unambiguously condemns. He supported and promises to continue a war that the members of the Roman curia and the U.S. bishops deemed unjust. Read more at http://www.commonwealmagazine.org/article.php?id_article=2266

Once again the bishops of the United States have provided important guidance through their statement on "Faithful Citizenship." This is especially important since Catholics often confront a dilemma in deciding how to vote: Can we support a candidate who may be attractive for many reasons but who supports abortion? Some partisan advocates have sought to excuse support for pro-abortion candidates through a complex balancing act. They claim that other issues are important enough to offset a candidate's support for abortion.

But the right to abortion mandated in the United States by the Supreme Court's "Roe v. Wade" decision is not just another political issue; it is in reality a legal regime that has resulted in more than 40 million deaths. Imagine for a moment the largest 25 cities in the United States and Canada suddenly empty of people. This is what the loss of 40 million human beings would look like. In fact, 40 million is greater than the entire population of Canada.

What political issue could possibly outweigh this human devastation? the answer, of course, is that there is none. Abortion is different. Abortion is the killing of the innocent on a massive scale. From "Columbia" magazine October 2008 - a publication of the Knights of Columbus.