Lobbying for the Unborn: The American Catholic Church and the Abortion Issue

Following the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade (410 US 113), there are around a million abortions performed each year in the United States. Originally a mere medical procedure which aims at delivering a woman from an unwanted pregnancy, abortion has become one of the most controversial issues of American life today. Actually, two opposing forces are constantly fighting to win legitimacy and impose their own views: on the one hand, the pro-abortion proponents who defend the right of women to control their own bodies and who believe that abortion is a fundamental right which should be protected by the Constitution; on the other, the pro-life advocates who, supported by the American Catholic Church, claim the sacredness of prenatal life from the moment of conception and urge legal and constitutional protection for unborn children. Although it may give way to unresolved questions about the beginning of human life or the status of the fetus in general, the present study is not meant to deal with the religious or theological aspect of abortion. Nor is it intended to fully assess the moral or ideological debate between pro-life and pro-choice advocates. One of its primary concerns, however, is to stress the special status of abortion as social and public policy issue. Interestingly, the American Catholic hierarchy has always been a deciding force in articulating opposition to abortion. It gave the right-to-life movement more than institutional support and legitimacy. It offered people, money, and brought focus and intensity of commitment against abortion. Its reaction to Roe v. Wade was immediate and condemnatory. In the immediate aftermath of the Supreme Court decision, it formed an ad hoc committee on pro-life activities to mount a campaign against legal access to abortion. Then, to press for the passage of Human Life Amendment, but also to protect its tax exempt status (legally preventing religious institutions from engaging in political activity), the Church established a lobby group: The National Committee for a Human Life Amendment. But amending the Constitution for the purpose of preserving prenatal life requires focused and coordinated political action. Besides the crucial necessity for local and grassroots mobilization, the Catholic prelates need first to broaden the base of support for their program and reach out beyond their Church, if they want to deflect charges that abortion is a mere “catholic-issue.” Their full involvement into the recent debate over Obama’s health care reform and the unrelenting pressure they exert on individual Congressmen to make sure that no federal funds could be used to pay for abortion on demand are a case in point