NCR on Biden

The editors of the National Catholic Register lay into Senator Biden:

A great deal has been made of the fact that Biden once voted to ban partial-birth abortion. That’s the abortion procedure in which a full-term child is killed while exiting the birth canal. We’re glad he voted the right way, but forgive us if we don’t applaud.

. . . And don’t let the 2003 rating of NARAL . . . fool you. Yes, the year he voted to ban partial-birth abortion, he pleased NARAL only a third of the time. But here is Biden’s NARAL record for every year since: 2004, 100%; 2005, 100%; 2006, 100%; 2007, 75%. Asked if he believes life starts at conception, Obama refused to answer. But Biden said: “I am prepared to accept my Church’s view. ... I have to accept that on faith.” . . . .

Truth be told, while Biden has said consoling things about abortion, we can only go by what he has done. His votes serve the bottom line of killer industries, not the mothers and their children who pay the ultimate price for those profits . . . .

It would be better for Joe Biden if he weren’t Catholic and didn’t know better. But he is and he does . . . .

A majority of Americans have already turned against the slaughter of abortion. A century from now, the Church’s opponents will be making a new accusation: They will blame the Church for abortion. Unfortunately, they will have a point. They will name the prominent Catholics in our day — especially candidates on the last two presidential tickets — and judge the Church not by Church teaching, but by the actions of Catholics.

We have all seen ultrasound images. We all know women who were under severe pressure to abort children, then in severe pain once they did. Some Catholics have made a deal with the dark side — and have become agents of the destruction and despair that follow in abortion’s wake. But that’s not the story of our Church.

The rest of us need to do all we can to make certain the Church’s real story is told. In letters to their campaigns, in letters to editors, in town hall meetings and above all with our votes, we need to say: Enough is enough. We are a Church of life, not death. That is the legacy we want to leave.