Obama Catholics to appear at March for Life

Washington D.C., Jan 22, 2009 / 11:57 am

Pro-Obama Catholic organizations who have been promoting the idea the fight against Roe v. Wade should be abandoned by pro-lifers and replaced by a social agenda allegedly aimed at reducing abortions, have announced their presence at today's March for Life in Washington D.C.

 

A coalition calling itself RealAbortionSolutions.org, organized by the politically progressive group Faith in Public Life, has bought ads in today’s Washington Examiner and Washington Post Express and on capital-area Christian radio to promote an approach to the pro-life cause that sounds more Democratic friendly and that assumes that the 30 plus years of pro-life activism since Roe v. Wade has been just "rhetoric."

 

The ads promote what they call "solutions based on results, not rhetoric," by expanding adoption, supporting pregnant women and new mothers, preventing unintended pregnancies, and other steps that avoid changing the laws that make abortion legal in the country.

 

Simultaneously, another group Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, held a legislative briefing for an audience on Capitol Hill to propose the same recommendations for reducing the abortion rate. According to Jennifer Goff, Director of Communications for Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good,  CACG is a "nonpartisan lay organization that seeks to promote the social justice teachings of our faith—including an end to abortion, which is a profound moral failure in our country," and strongly rejected the characterization of the group as "Obama Catholics."

 

In an email to CNA, Goff said that "the audience for our briefing consisted entirely of pro-life marchers who are eager—as we are—to put an end to the tragedy of abortion in America. We did not query each attendee and, therefore, cannot speculate as to their political affiliation."

 

According to Duquesne University Law School former dean Nicholas Cafardi, and a prominent Catholic backer of the Obama campaign, who participated in the legislative briefing urging support for a Pregnant Women's Act, the event was attended by about 120 marchers and legislative staffers, including the chief of staff for Pennsylvania's Sen. Bob Casey, a Democrat.

 

Goff described CACG's position saying that “we believe we need a comprehensive approach to ending abortion, which includes both protective laws and supportive laws, and are, therefore, calling for bipartisan support for the Pregnant Women Support Act."

 

Nevertheless, during the election cycle, both CACG and Catholics United were harshly criticized by the U.S. bishops. Among them was Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver, who described the groups as "friendly to the Democrat Party” and as having “done a disservice to the Church.” These groups, Chaput said, have “confused the natural priorities of Catholic social teaching, undermined the progress prolifers have made, and provided an excuse for some Catholics to abandon the abortion issue instead of fighting within their parties and at the ballot box to protect the unborn.”