Democratic + Catholic + Senate = pro-abortion (OneNewsNow.com)

Democratic + Catholic + Senate = pro-abortion

Jim Brown - OneNewsNow - 8/27/2008 6:00:00 AM

The head of the Catholic League says although there are more "wild-eyed" supporters of abortion in the Democratic Party than Delaware Senator Joe Biden, Barack Obama's vice-presidential running mate is a strong ally of the abortion lobby. He also has a suggestion for Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, a professed Catholic: review the basics of Catholicism.

Bill Donohue of the Catholic League laments that of the 16 Democratic senators who are Catholic, all are pro-abortion. Senator Joe Biden's approval rating from the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) ranges from 75-to-100 percent.

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Although in the past Biden has declared opposition to partial-birth abortion, Donohue notes that when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a federal ban on the procedure, Biden criticized the decision.

"So put this together," he suggests. "You have a man running for president on the Democratic ticket who believes in selective infanticide, joined by a pro-abortion Catholic, with delegates at the convention which are wildly out of step with what Americans feel about this serious subject, and you have the Speaker of the House who doesn't even know what her religion teaches about the subject," Donohue contends.

Nancy Pelosi He is referencing NBC's broadcast of Meet the Press on Sunday, when Speaker Pelosi (D-California) denied that the Catholic Church opposes abortion. NBC's Tom Brokaw asked Pelosi the same question that Barack Obama said was "above his pay grade." (hear audio report)

"If he [Obama] were to come to you and say, 'Help me out here, Madame Speaker. When does life begin?' -- what would you tell him?" Brokaw inquired.

"I would say, as an ardent practicing Catholic, uh this is an issue that I have studied for a long time, and what I know is over the centuries, the doctors of the church have not been able to make that definition," Pelosi answered. "And...Saint Augustine said at three months. We don't know. The point is that it shouldn't have an impact on a woman's right to choose."

Donohue notes the Catechism of the Catholic Church points out that "human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception."

"To misrepresent what the Catholic Church teaches on the subject, and which the Catechism has said that from the first century -- the Catholic Church has been opposed to abortion, that it's never changed its teaching on the subject -- and when she said 'I've been studying this for a long time,' one has to wonder about her cognitive abilities," the Catholic League spokesman contends.

According to Donohue, pro-abortion Catholics like Nancy Pelosi have, for years, been "living in a state of denial." He also says he is offering Pelosi a free copy of the book Catholicism for Dummies.

Update: The Associated Press is reporting today that Speaker Pelosi is not backing off the contentious comments she made about abortion during Sunday's Meet the Press on NBC. Her remark that "doctors of the church" have not been able to define when life begins prompted swift rebukes from Washington Archbishop Donald Wuerl and Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput, who said Catholic teaching has consistently condemned abortion.

Brendan Daly, a spokesman for Pelosi, says she based her statement on St. Augustine's view that "there cannot yet be said to be a live soul in a body that lacks sensation."

But Cardinal Justin Rigali and Bishop William Lori responded that "the church's moral teaching never justified or permitted abortion at any stage of development." And Chaput says abortion "is always gravely evil -- and so are the evasions employed to justify it."