‘Catholics for Harris-Walz’ online meeting downplays abortion concerns among faithful

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 19, 2024 / 15:45 pm

Catholic supporters of Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 presidential candidacy hosted a national organizing call with the campaign on Wednesday night in which speakers downplayed some of the faithful’s concerns about her support for abortion.

The “Catholics for Harris-Walz National Organizing Call,” held on Sept. 18 at 8 p.m., was designed to rally Catholic support behind Harris’ campaign. It was organized by a coalition of nonprofits, including Catholics Vote Common Good, which is part of the broader Vote Common Good organization that encourages faith groups to support progressive candidates.

Speakers on the call included Sister Simone Campbell, the former director of NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice; Joe Donnelly, former United States ambassador to the Holy See under President Joe Biden; Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Connecticut; and Anthea Butler, chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.

Campbell, who is a member of the religious community the Sisters of Social Service, contended that polls show most Catholics supporting legal abortion. 

“Our faith does not require the outlawing of abortion,” Campbell asserted in an apparent contradiction of what the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches.

“Protecting life is what we’re about, and we also trust each individual to have a well-formed conscience for making decisions — in this case, for her well-being, and [we trust] that a couple working together can make a good decision when this complicated, stressful horror of a difficult pregnancy is dealt with,” Campbell said.

Butler discouraged Catholics from being single-issue voters on abortion, saying that “we have to respect human dignity of all forms … [from] conception until the end of life,” adding: “You don’t get to pick which part of life is more important to you.” She argued that poverty, the preferential option for the poor, and education should be important issues for Catholics.

Additionally, Butler criticized former president Donald Trump for his assertion during the presidential debate that Haitian migrants are “eating the dogs” and “eating the cats” in Springfield, Ohio. She said that type of rhetoric is not “a way to respect human beings” and is “against a Catholic community,” noting that “many Haitians are Catholics.”

According to the catechism, “the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion” since the first century. It adds that abortion “is gravely contrary to the moral law” and that “life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception.” It calls both abortion and infanticide “abominable crimes.”

“The inalienable right to life of every innocent human individual is a constitutive element of a civil society and its legislation,” the catechism further teaches.

In November 2023, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops approved a voter guide that calls “the threat of abortion” their “preeminent priority because it directly attacks our most vulnerable and voiceless brothers and sisters and destroys more than a million lives per year in our country alone.”

The U.S. bishops first issued “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship” in 2007 and have updated the voting guide every four years — in 2011, 2015, and 2019 — ahead of the next presidential election. At last year’s fall assembly, however, the bishops voted to postpone a full revision until after the 2024 election.

Campbell quoted Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation Gaudete et Exsultate, which says the human dignity of “those already born” is “equally sacred” to the lives of “the innocent unborn” and references poverty, euthanasia, and human trafficking as issues damaging to human dignity. 

In the same paragraph, the pontiff also says: “Our defense of the innocent unborn … needs to be clear, firm, and passionate, for at stake is the dignity of a human life, which is always sacred and demands love for each person, regardless of his or her stage of development.”

Francis said in 2022 that Biden supporting legal abortion as a Catholic is an “incoherence.” Biden’s bishop in Washington, D.C., Cardinal Wilton Gregory, said “the president is not demonstrating Catholic teaching” with his support for legal abortion.

Harris supports codifying the abortion standards set by Roe v. Wade, which would prevent states from passing laws that protect unborn life prior to fetal viability. In the Sept. 12 debate with Trump, Harris refused to say whether she supports late-term abortion in the seventh, eighth, and ninth months of pregnancy.

More than 9,000 late-term abortions are performed in the United States annually after the 21st week of pregnancy.

Other topics discussed on the call

Campbell also spoke positively of an interaction she had with Harris when receiving a presidential medal of freedom from Biden for her work on “economic justice, immigration reform, and health care policy.”

“We had a lovely conversation about what mattered,” Campbell said, noting that they discussed affordable health care and other issues.

Donnelly discussed working closely with Biden and Pope Francis while serving as ambassador to the Holy See. He said Harris “acts in the same exact way as President Biden has” by having a desire to “focus on those who are struggling” and “stand up for the least among us.” He asserted that “her work is driven by the Bible and God.”

Additionally, Donnelly criticized Trump’s debate comments about Haitian migrants, calling the president’s remarks “cruel, as un-Christian [and] as un-Catholic as I can think of.”

DeLauro said on the call that “this election is vital for the future” and that it is “essential that Catholic voices be present [and] truly represented in our public discourse.” She discussed issues such as expanding the child tax credit, expanding health care access, and providing paid leave. She also emphasized “welcoming the stranger.” 

“[This is the] Christian principle of caring for our neighbors,” DeLauro said. 

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DeLauro alleged the Republican Party is “beholden to giant corporations” and that its policies would “exacerbate the inequality that already exists in this country.”

As a member of Congress, DeLauro has consistently voted in favor of abortion. She has an “F” rating from Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.

Trump also launched a “Catholics for Trump” coalition earlier this month. The coalition lists its priorities as the defense of religious liberty, traditional values, and the sanctity of human life.