Kengor_Catholic_Obamacare Supreme Court_062912 (1)
Within an hour of the Supreme Court’s decision on Obama-care, I got an email from LifeNews.com. “The Supreme Court has … [upheld] the Obamacare law that pro-life groups regard as the biggest expansion of abortion and abortion funding since Roe v. Wade,” noted LifeNews. “The law … drew strong opposition from the pro-life community not only over abortion but because the legislation also promotes rationing of medical care that could lead to involuntarily denying lifesaving treatment.”
Indeed. And how did this happen? The answer, sadly, is professing Roman Catholics.
On November 4, 2008, it was Catholics who made the difference in voting Barack Obama president. Not only did their votes put Obama in the Oval Office, and allow him to champion Obama-care, but their votes also allowed Obama to appoint two Supreme Court justices, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, slam-dunk votes to uphold Obama-care.
As for me, I’m not angry at President Obama for this. He believes what he believes, and has always been clear about what he believes. Prior to the 2008 election, he had been a co-sponsor of the Freedom of Choice Act, the most radical abortion legislation ever introduced in Congress. He supported taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood and embryonic research. He hailed Planned Parenthood for its “safety net” of abortion services. He publicly lamented the prospect of his daughters getting pregnant out-of-wedlock and being “punished with a baby.” As a state senator, he blocked legislation providing mandatory healthcare to babies that survived abortion procedures. That’s a short list.
A man with those views should never have been elected president of the United States to begin with, especially by professing Catholics.
Yeah, yeah. Some will argue that many of the self-professing Catholics who elected Obama are not serious Catholics, and attend Mass infrequently or rarely. Yes, but many are serious Catholics. And many will be voting to reelect Obama in November 2012. As they do, they also cast a continued vote not only for Obama-care, but the HHS mandate.
Hey, decade upon decade of bad catechesis, and this is what you get.
For Catholic Exchange dot com and Ave Maria Radio, I’m Paul Kengor.
Dr. Paul Kengor is professor of political science at Grove City College and executive director of The Center for Vision & Values. His books include “The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism” and “Dupes: How America’s Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives for a Century.”
Cover image credit: peggynoonan.com
