Joe Biden is only the second Catholic president of the United States. He’s also a supporter of abortion rights — a position at odds with official teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.
For some Catholic activists, like Marjorie Dannenfelser, Biden’s high-profile example of a Catholic who supports abortion rights is troubling.
“It’s a negative example of a deep and important moral issue that is being debated in this country,” she said.
For some, a challenge; for others, an opportunity
Dannenfelser is president of the Susan B. Anthony List, a group that works to elect national politicians who are opposed to abortion rights and to advocate for laws limiting abortion.
She’s particularly concerned about Biden’s embrace of a broader push among Democrats to repeal the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal funding for most abortions. He took that position in 2019, while running for the Democratic presidential nomination, after decades of supporting the amendment.
“The church itself has not changed in its view, ever, on the dignity of human life and the need for its protection,” Dannenfelser said. “[Biden] can’t bring the Catholic Church along with him because of his political needs.”
Jamie Manson, president of Catholics for Choice, said she hopes for what she describes as a “better dialogue” between church leaders and some rank-and-file Catholics who disagree with aspects of the church’s teachings.
“There are many issues in which Catholics are dissenting from the bishops and seeing that these are complex moral issues, whether it’s same-sex marriage, whether it’s contraception, or whether it’s abortion,” she said.
On abortion, a divide between clergy and laity
Poolin suggests a majority of American Catholics support abortion rights in most or all cases and oppose overturning Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide. According to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights, most Catholic women say they’ve used contraception at some point, which the church also opposes.
“But I will say, it is really problematic when you have a Catholic — the most prominent Catholic in the country, which is what President Biden is — taking this stand that he is in favor of abortion — which the church says is a grave moral evil; it’s the killing of defenseless, unborn, vulnerable human life — and then presenting himself for Communion,” Hasson said.
However divided the rank and file, the church’s position remains the same. In a statement released on Inauguration Day, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops praised Biden’s “piety” but expressed “deep concern” about several of his positions that the bishops say “would advance moral evils” — including his support for abortion rights.
