Knights of Columbus Ads: Biden You Violate Catholic Teaching on Abortion
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
September 19, 2008
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — The pro-life group Knights of Columbus is running newspaper ads in several leading paper saying Obama running mate Joe Biden is out of step with the Catholic Church on abortion. Biden, who is Catholic, has a long pro-abortion voting record and came under fire for some recent statements.
In a recent interview, Biden said he personally believes that human life begins at conception but wouldn’t make public policy protecting unborn children from abortion based on those views.
Several Catholic bishops corrected Biden saying he misrepresented Church teaching.
The ads will run in such leading newspapers as USA Today, the Washington Times, Philadelphia Inquirer and his hometown Delaware News Journal.
The Knights of Columbus ads feature an open letter that remind Biden that "abortion is a grave sin to be avoided at any time during a pregnancy" and he has a "unique responsibility" to make correct statements about Catholic teaching.
"Sen. Obama stressed your Catholic identity repeatedly when he introduced you as his running mate, and so your statements carry considerable weight, whether they are correct or not. You now have a unique responsibility when you make public statements about Catholic teaching," the letter says.
Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, signed the letter.
"Statements that suggest that our church has anything less than a consistent teaching on abortion are not merely incorrect; they may lead Catholic women facing crisis pregnancies to misunderstand the moral gravity of an abortion decision," the letter warns.
"I recognize that you struggle with your conscience on the issue, and have said that you accept the church’s teaching that life begins at conception – as a matter of faith. But modern medical science leaves no doubt about the fact that each person’s life begins at conception. It is not a matter of personal religious belief, but of science," Anderson writes.
Anderson’s letter also cites Abraham Lincoln’s anti-slavery arguments.
"Lincoln’s reasoning regarding slavery applies with equal force to children who are minutes, hours, days away from birth," the letter concludes. "You have a choice: you can listen to your conscience and work to secure the rights of the unborn to share in the fruits of our hard-won liberty, or you can choose to turn your back on them."
Biden’s own bishop eventually suggested that he skip communion because of his pro-abortion views.
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