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How should those opposed to abortion vote?

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Voting by Roman Catholics

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Summary:

As noted in this section's menu:

There is widespread concern about the high numbers of abortions in the U.S., both among pro-life and pro-choice supporters. The U.S. abortion rates are much greater than those in other western countries.
The position of the Republican Party closely parallels that of the pro-life movement. The Democratic Party's election platform closely parallels that of the pro-choice movement. Both are trying to reduce the number of abortions in the country. However, they are promoting entirely different methods to achieve this goal. The Republican Party wants to further restrict access to abortion. The Democratic party wants to make abortion freely available, and at the same time introduce a wide variety of programs that they feel would encourage pregnant women to chose to give birth.

There is a further complication involved for Roman Catholics in their voting decisions. With the exception of its policy on abortion access, the Democratic Party platform's programs of education, pre and post natal health care, and support are far closer to Catholic social teaching than is the Republican platform. However, neither party comes evenly remotely close to matching all of the social teachings of the Church.

In the view of the Church, abortion always murders a human person. Thus, the prime consideration of Catholic voters should be the candidate's and the party's policies on abortion. This one topic is generally acknowledged to outweigh all others in importance.

Unfortunately, there exists a wide diversity of opinions within the Church about how to select one candidate to vote for from among a group of candidates or parties with different views on abortion. This section will attempt to describe the range of Catholic teachings on this topic.

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Topics discussed in this section:

bulletTeachings of the Roman Catholic Church about mortal sin and abortion

bulletTeachings of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (2004) Now Pope Benedict XVI

bulletTeaching by a Vatican official (2008)

bulletTeachings by 50 American Catholic bishops

bulletWhat do individual Catholics really believe? A book review

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Site navigation:

Home > Abortion > Reducing the rate > Voting > here

Home >"Hot" religious topics and conflicts >Abortion >Reducing >Voting > here

Home >  Religious information > Basic info > 2008 elections > Voting > here

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Copyright © 2008 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Originally written: 2008-OCT-26
Author: B.A. Robinson

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