Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A staffer for pro-abortion Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards has resigned after coming under heavy criticism for posts on her personal blog criticizing the Catholic Church over abortion and other issues. Amanda Marcotte wrote yesterday on her blog that the campaign accepted her resignation.

However, Marcotte didn't leave the Edwards campaign quietly and she blasted pro-life advocates as "right wing shills" and blamed them for driving her out of the campaign.

On her blog, Marcotte publicly blamed her most vocal critic, Bill Donohoe, president of the Catholic League, and said he "and his calvacade of right wing shills don't respect that a mere woman like me could be hired for my skills."

She blamed Donohoe for trying to hold Edwards accountable for her "personal, non-mainstream views on religious influence on politics."

"Bill Donohue doesn't speak for Catholics, he speaks for the right wing noise machine," she groused.

Last week, saying they wrote personal comments on their own web sites that don't reflect his views, Edwards released a statement saying he would not fire Marcotte or Melissa McEwen, who had also posted offensive comments.

McEwan, who referred on her blog to President Bush's pro-life supporters as his "wingnut Christofascist base" did not resign and is still employed by the Edwards campaign, according to the Washington Post.

The former North Carolina senator said he was offended by the content of the posts -- which included inflammatory and profane attacks on the church -- but said he wouldn't fire them.

"I've talked to Amanda and Melissa; they have both assured me that it was never their intention to malign anyone's faith, and I take them at their word," Edwards said

In addition to criticizing the church on abortion, the posts derisively referred to Pope Benedict XVI as a “dictator" and Marcotte wrote that the Catholic Church’s teaching against the use of contraception forced women to “bear more tithing Catholics.”

"The Catholic church is not about to let something like compassion for girls get in the way of using the state as an instrument to force women to bear more tithing Catholics," she wrote.

Marcotte also used explicit language to discuss what would have happened has the Virgin Mary used the Plan B morning after pill instead of giving birth to Jesus Christ.

She also posted a letter from the pro-abortion Catholics for Free Choice blasting pro-life advocates and Catholics who oppose abortion.

The national Catholic based advocacy group Fidelis also called on Edwards to fire the staff members.

Joseph Cella, the head of the group, said the decision not to fire the staff members would likely hurt Edwards' ability to draw Catholic support.

“Keeping such an anti-Catholic staffer on his payroll will do significant damage to John Edwards as he seeks to court voters in the heavily Catholic states like Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and Michigan,” Cella said.