The head of the Knights of Columbus boldly proclaimed on Tuesday that Catholics cannot vote for a presidential candidate who supports abortion.
Carl A. Anderson, chief executive officer and chairman of the Catholic fraternal order, spoke during its international convention on Tuesday in Toronto, Canada, according to the Religion News Service.
Anderson urged members and Catholic bishops in attendance to think about candidates’ positions on abortion before voting. He said abortion, which has claimed more than 56 million unborn babies’ lives in America, should outweigh all other issues for Catholic voters.
“What political issue could possibly outweigh this human devastation? Abortion is different. Abortion is the killing of the innocent on a massive scale,” Anderson said. “We need to end the political manipulation of Catholic voters by abortion advocates. It is time to end the entanglement of Catholic people with abortion killing. It is time to stop creating excuses for voting for pro-abortion politicians.”
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“We will never succeed in building a culture of life if we continue to vote for politicians who support a culture of death,” he continued.
The Republican and Democratic presidential candidates present a stark contrast on abortion.
Hillary Clinton and her running mate Tim Kaine, a Catholic, both are pro-abortion. The abortion business Planned Parenthood recently called Clinton its “champion” and implied that she could replace President Barack Obama as the most pro-abortion president in U.S. history.
Clinton promised Planned Parenthood that she would try to repeal the Hyde Amendment and force taxpayers to fund abortions. She also promised that she would nominate U.S. Supreme Court justices who will ensure that Roe v. Wade and abortion on demand up until birth remain the law of the land for years to come.
Kaine is a self-professed Catholic who says he is “personally pro-life,” but his political record is pro-abortion. As LifeNews previously reported, Kaine said he is a “strong supporter of Roe v. Wade.”
As a U.S. Senator, Kaine voted to allow government funding of abortion providers, and he voted against legislation to require an abortionist to notify at least one parent before performing an abortion on a minor girl from another state.
Kaine took his most extreme pro-abortion action yet with his recent co-sponsorship of the so-called “Women’s Health Protection Act” (S.217), known to pro-lifers as the “Abortion Without Limits Until Birth Act.” This bill would nullify nearly all existing state and federal limitations on regulation of abortion, and prohibit states from enacting meaningful pro-life laws in the future. This revamped version of the long-stalled “Freedom of Choice Act” is a priority of the pro-abortion forces in Washington, D.C.
In contrast, Donald Trump’s running mate, Mike Pence, assured voters that Trump will nominate judges to the Supreme Court who will overturn Roe v. Wade.
“If we appoint strict constructionists to the Supreme Court as Donald Trump intends to do, I believe we will see Roe v. Wade consigned to the ash heap of history where it belongs,” Pence said during a recent campaign stop in Michigan. Pence has a strong pro-life voting record as governor of Indiana and a former U.S. Congressman.
Recently, Trump announced a list of 11 potential Supreme Court nominees — a list pro-life and conservative groups praised for having potential judges who would be Constitutionalist.
Trump also said he thinks the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court case that ushered in an era of 56 million abortions was “wrongly decided.” Trump said he would appoint “very good judges” who would ultimately “change it” but he also said he opposed Roe, without specifically saying it should be overturned.
As far as Trump’s comments on Planned Parenthood funding are concerned, Trump has fairly consistently said he opposes taxpayer funding but he’s also made some remarks about the “good things” Planned Parenthood does that have alarmed pro-life voters — as if any “good thing” could make up for the fact that Planned Parenthood kills 320,000 unborn babies a year in abortions and then sells their body parts.
Trump also specifically promised he would sign a bill to de-fund Planned Parenthood in an interview with David Brody of CBN.
