Pro-Abortion Religious Leader Bemoans Lack of Clergy Backing Roe v. Wade

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Jan 16, 2008   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Pro-Abortion Religious Leader Bemoans Lack of Clergy Backing Roe v. Wade Email this article
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
January 16,
2008

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — With the thirty-fifth anniversary of the infamous Roe v. Wade Supreme Court case coming next week, the head of a pro-abortion group for religious groups and leaders is bemoaning the fact that not enough clergy are promoting abortion.

However, the organization will be hard-pressed to find converts from among the Catholic and Protestant denominations that strongly oppose abortion.

Reverend Carlton Veazey, the head of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, says he’s worried that, on this anniversary of Roe, "our country is on the brink of abandoning its commitment that abortion will be" available.

Veazey, a pastor of a Baptist church in Washington, D.C., is worried that the Supreme Court’s upholding the national ban on partial-birth abortions and state personhood initiatives and abortion bans are "sounding the death knell for the landmark constitutional decision."

"At this point of crisis, compassionate clergy leadership is needed to awaken the silent majority of Americans who are pro-choice," he says in a statement LifeNews.com obtained.

"They know there is no one right or wrong decision about abortion," Veazey adds, saying "They deserve to know that the majority of their religious communities support abortion being legal and available to all women."

However, polls of religious Americans paint a very different picture.

However, an April 2005 Gallup survey found a strong majority of Catholics believe the Catholic Church should retain its view against abortion.

Approximately 59 percent of those polled favor the church’s pro-life stance while just 37 percent of respondents opposed it. Catholics who attend church on a weekly basis were more likely to back the church’s pro-life position, by a 69 to 29 percent margin.

An August 2007 Pew Research poll also found 64 percent of Americans want abortions banned or restricted.

Just 31 percent of the public agrees with Veazey that abortion should be generally available and not have more restrictions placed on it.

Evangelicals, black evangelicals and Catholics were more likely to be pro-life than members of mainline Protestant churches and non-Christians, the survey found.

Finally, an October 2007 CBS News survey found 79 percent take one of the three pro-life stances with 35 percent taking the life of the mother position and the same percentage taking the rape, incest and life of the mother position. Nine percent opposed all abortions.

Among self-described evangelical voters, just 17 percent supported abortion.

Despite the polling data, Veazey promised that "hundreds of clergy and religious leaders in the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice" will continue "speaking out to protect" the so-called right to abortion.