Canonist asks: How will bishops react to VP candidate Vance’s stance in favor of chemical abortions?
July 18, 2024
» Continue to this story on Pillar
CWN Editor's Note: In two recent pieces (1, 2), the editor-in-chief of The Pillar has raised the question of how the US bishops will react to Republican vice-presidential candidate J.D. Vance’s recently announced support for the legality of chemical abortions, which account for over 60% of abortions in the United States.
“On the question of the abortion pill, what so many of us have said is that, look, we certainly don’t—the Supreme Court made a decision saying that the American people should have access to that medication,” Vance said in a July 7 interview. “Donald Trump has supported that opinion. I support that opinion.”
Asked the follow-up question, “But just to be clear, you support mifepristone being accessible,” Vance replied, “Yes, Kristen, I do.”
“In the past, a cadre of US bishops have said that politicians who are ‘personally opposed’ to abortion, but supportive of its legal protection, ought eventually be denied Holy Communion, especially if they advocate for funding or legislative protection of that abortion,” wrote J.D. Flynn, Pillar editor and canon lawyer.
Flynn added, “Bishops who have been outspoken on pro-choice Catholic politicians like President Joe Biden and Rep. Nancy Pelosi will have to decide whether to make the same interventions for a candidate who is associated with the traditionally anti-abortion political party, after years of emphasizing the importance of ‘Eucharistic coherence’ and insisting that the issue was not a matter of partisan affiliation.”
Vance entered the Church in 2019 and discussed his conversion in an essay the following year. The Archdiocese of Cincinnati, in which Vance resides, declined to comment on the matter.
The above note supplements, highlights, or corrects details in the original source (link above). About CWN news coverage.
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Posted by: grateful1 -
Jul. 21, 2024 2:19 PM ET USA
Like his Pillar co-founder, Ed Condon, Flynn makes no bones about how much he detests Trump. The bottom line for me is which administration, Trump's or Biden's, would do more to promote a culture of life by encouraging/helping women & girls to keep their babies in the face of personal, financial, & cultural pressures to abort them. Any bishop--indeed, any faithful Catholic--who is unwilling to confront that issue head on owes it to those mothers & pre-born children to explain why.
