Joe Biden: The Question of When Life Begins is “Above My Pay Grade”

National   |   Sarah Zagorski   |   Sep 22, 2015   |   12:16PM   |   Washington, DC

In an Interview with ‘America’ Magazine, Vice President Joseph Biden told Father Matt Malone that he did not want to get into a theological discussion about abortion but that the question of when life begins is above his pay grade. Ironically, Biden started the interview by saying that Pope Francis is “the embodiment of the Catholic social doctrine that I was raised with, the idea that everyone is entitled to dignity, that the poor should be given special preference, that you have an obligation to reach out and be inclusive.”

Biden also said that he’s looking forward to the pontiff’s address to Congress on Thursday. He said, “As a practicing Catholic, I am really excited.” He agreed with Father Malone that the Catholic faith teaches that abortion is always wrong. Then, when Father Malone asked if it’s hard for him to reconcile the Church’s position on abortion with his own, he said, “It has been, it has been hard in one sense, because I’m prepared to accept de fide doctrine on a whole range of issues as a Catholic.

He added, “I’m prepared to accept as a matter of faith, my wife and I, my family, [the Church’s teaching on] the issue of abortion,” but not prepared to “impose” what he considers “a precise view, that is born out of my faith, on other people.”

However, Biden did say that there is a place for pro-life people in the Democratic Party even though their stance is pro-abortion.

Unfortunately, Democrats work diligently in Congress to defeat all types of pro-life legislation. From bills that ban late-term abortion and require abortion facilities to administer medical care for babies born alive after botched abortions to legislation that would de-fund Planned Parenthood, top Democrats rarely vote pro-life.

As LifeNews previously reported, in 2008, then-Senator Barack Obama told Reverend Rick Warren of Saddleback Church that the question of when life begins was above his pay grade. He said, “Well, I think that whether you’re looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity, you know, is above my pay grade.” Then he said that while he is pro-choice both sides should “find common ground” by seeking to “reduce the number of abortions.”

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Watch Biden’s interview with Father Malone in the video below.

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