Anti-Abortion Plea by Catholic Bishops

The nation’s Catholic bishops approved a statement urging voters to choose anti-abortion candidates and Catholic officials to take action against abortion. It is not sufficient to oppose abortion personally without taking steps to stop it, according to the statement, adopted on a 217-30 vote by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops in the nation’s capital. Catholic officials should focus on such social issues as poverty, housing and health care, they said. But being “right” on those issues “can never excuse a wrong choice regarding direct attacks on innocent human life.” The statement, developed by seven of the eight U.S. cardinals, also says that officials who “ignore church teaching on the inviolability of the human person indirectly collude in the taking of an innocent life.”