In 2020, a group of 25 Black pastors from Georgia sent an open letter to Warnock asking him to renounce his abortion stance.
“As a Christian pastor and as a Black leader, you have a duty to denounce the evil of abortion, which kills a disproportionate number of Black children. Your open advocacy of abortion is a scandal to the faith and to the Black community,” the letter read. “We believe these statements represent grave errors of judgment and a lapse in pastoral responsibility, and we entreat you to reconsider them.”
John Ensor, a Georgian native and president of PassionLife — a pro-life ministry that trains Christian leaders in biblical bioethics — explained why Catholics in Georgia support Walker despite the allegations.
“Leaders within the Catholic Church, and by extension, the broader pro-life movement, have worked for 50 years to teach biblical moral reasoning regarding the value of life,” Ensor said.
“The end of Roe means that people now realize that their vote, or lack of it, makes a difference. [The Supreme Court] handed the matter back to the people. Woe to us if we do not then work to persuade our neighbors and vote our values.”
Ensor wrote an opinion piece last week encouraging fellow Georgians to vote for Walker.
“Whatever is in Walker’s past, if his present life is committed to peacefully, winsomely, persuasively, and courageously speaking up for the unborn child until their full humanity is acknowledged and respected, he gets my vote,” Ensor wrote in the piece.
Scott Klusendorf, president of the Life Training Institute — which equips pro-lifers to make the argument against abortion — told CNA that he is “hopeful” Walker will win even if he contributed to a past abortion.
“At best, it proves that Walker is inconsistent, not that abortion is okay,” Klusendorf said.
“The pro-life movement is full of women and men with past histories in abortion,” Klusenorf continued. “But suppose that even if they change their views, they remain hypocrites. How does that refute the pro-life argument that it is wrong to intentionally kill innocent human beings?”
“At best, the attack on Walker is a smokescreen,” he added. “How does Walker’s alleged willingness to participate in an abortion demonstrate that the unborn are not human or that killing them is okay?”
(Story continues below)
Subscribe to our daily newsletter
At Catholic News Agency, our team is committed to reporting the truth with courage, integrity, and fidelity to our faith. We provide news about the Church and the world, as seen through the teachings of the Catholic Church. When you subscribe to the CNA UPDATE, we'll send you a daily email with links to the news you need and, occasionally, breaking news.
As part of this free service you may receive occasional offers from us at EWTN News and EWTN. We won't rent or sell your information, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
Abortion not the most important topic to Catholic voters
On the question of abortion, a plurality of Catholics surveyed in EWTN’s poll — 37.5% — said they believed the procedure should be illegal except in the cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother.
As many as 16.0% said that abortion should be legal in all cases.
However, abortion ranks much lower on a list of the most important topics for voters, according to the poll. Only 6.4% of the state’s likely Catholic voters consider abortion to be the most important topic in this election. The majority — 67.1% — identify the most important problem facing the nation as “economy, jobs, inflation, rising interest rates.”
Conducted by the Trafalgar Group Oct. 14–18 — just weeks ahead of the midterm election on Nov. 8 — the poll received 576 responses with a 4.1% margin of error and a 95% confidence level. EWTN’s poll surveyed voters in key battleground states as the midterm elections approach.
FiveThirtyEight reported in mid-October that Walker’s abortion allegations may have slightly impacted voters — but these shifts were narrow enough to be within the polls’ margins of error.