Joe Biden Claims “I’m a Practicing Catholic,” But He Supports Abortions Up to Birth

National   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Nov 1, 2019   |   1:15AM   |   Washington, DC

Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden insisted that he is a “practicing Catholic” Tuesday despite his long record of supporting abortion on demand.

Biden reportedly was denied communion Sunday at a Catholic church in South Carolina because of his pro-abortion stance. However, the Democrat presidential candidate would not confirm the reports this week, according to Fox News.

“I’m a practicing Catholic,” Biden told MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell. “I practice my faith, but I’ve never let my religious beliefs, which I accept based on Church doctrine … impose … on other people.”

When asked about being denied communion, Biden answered, “I’m not going to discuss that.”

On Sunday, the Rev. Robert E. Morey of St. Anthony Catholic Church in Florence, South Carolina, said Biden attended Mass at his church, the Washington Examiner reports. Morey told the Florence Morning News that he refused to give Biden communion because he does not follow church teachings on abortion.

“Sadly, this past Sunday, I had to refuse Holy Communion to former Vice President Joe Biden,” the priest said. “Holy Communion signifies we are one with God, each other and the Church. Our actions should reflect that. Any public figure who advocates for abortion places himself or herself outside of Church teaching.”

Morey also said he is praying for Biden.

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A campaign spokesperson for Biden also would not confirm the event.

Biden has embraced his party’s extreme platform on abortion, which calls for abortion without restriction and taxpayer-funded elective abortions. In June, Biden announced that he no longer supports the Hyde amendment, which restricts taxpayer-funded abortions.

Biden’s presidential health care plan would expand abortions. His plan would codify Roe v. Wade into federal law, prohibiting states from passing even moderate restrictions that protect unborn babies from late-term abortions. It also would force insurance companies to cover abortions as “essential” health care under Obamacare.

In direct opposition to Catholic teachings about the sanctity of human life, Biden said he also would force American taxpayers to fund Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers by restoring the cuts President Donald Trump made to their funding.

Biden has a strong pro-abortion voting record that goes back for many years. He supported President Barack Obama’s leadership as the most pro-abortion president in U.S. history. What’s more, pro-abortion movement leaders say they “trust” Biden to protect abortion on demand. As the vice president, he supported the administration’s pro-abortion policies, including Obamacare, which forced religious employers to pay for drugs that may cause abortions.

In September, Father Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, wrote an open letter to Biden urging him to live by his faith and protect every human life.

“Nobody can or should force you to be a Catholic, and nobody can or should force you to be a defender of legal abortion. But you cannot be both at the same time,” Pavone wrote. “To claim to do so is an insult to all of us who proclaim and strive to live the Catholic Faith. And it invites the criticism that your public identification as a Catholic, while carrying water for the abortion industry, is simply the crass politics of seeking the money and votes of both constituencies.”

He asked Biden to either “conform your conduct to the Church to which you claim to belong, or acknowledge that you no longer belong to it.”

Though Democratic leaders are embracing an increasingly extreme position on abortion, most Americans are not. A new Gallup poll found that 60 percent of Americans want abortion legal “only in a few circumstances” (39 percent) or “illegal in all circumstances” (21 percent).