It’s October and, for the Catholic Church in the United States, it’s Respect Life Month!
This occasion offers us a hyper-focused opportunity to, as the U.S. Bishops state: “Work to teach respect for all human life from conception to natural death, and organize for its protection.” While the Church has many ways to protect life, through prayer, educating the general public, and offering pastoral care to those in need, public policy is another critical way the Church serves the Gospel of Life.
As we enter “Election Month” and early voting begins already, many of us wonder and wrestle with the idea of how it is we can best “protect life” through our civic participation at the ballot. This question is, thankfully, answered thoroughly by the U.S. Bishops in their document Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship.
In Forming Consciences, the U.S. Bishops remind that “life is especially under direct attack from abortion, which some political actors mischaracterize as ‘women’s health.’”
In Nebraska back in 2024, for example, we saw this in a very clear way. Pro-abortion advocates attempted to trick voters into placing an unrestricted right to abortion through all nine months in our state constitution. This effort was done under the pretext of “women’s health”.
Thankfully, properly formed and informed Nebraska voters were able to recognize the fundamental truth that every person is made in the image and likeness of God, and that “direct attacks on innocent persons are never morally acceptable.” With this basic truth in hand, Nebraska voters overwhelmingly rejected this extreme pro-abortion ballot effort in 2024.
This election cycle, there might not be a pro-abortion ballot initiative or referendum to vote on, but we must still remain vigilant on the life issue and the protection of human dignity.
As our Catholic faith teaches us, “abortion and euthanasia have become preeminent threats to human life and dignity because they directly attack life itself, the most fundamental good and the condition for all others.” As the U.S. Bishops continue: “Laws that legitimize any of these are profoundly unjust and immoral.”
As Catholics we have an obligation to ensure we do what we can to advance the cause of life not just through prayer, education of the general public, and pastoral care, but also through our public policy advocacy efforts.
The other beautiful thing about being Catholic and taking our values seriously in the public policy arena, including voting, is that we can hold multiple things to be true. We can both recognize that protecting innocent human life—such as through the protection of innocent unborn life or the elderly and vulnerable—is a preeminent moral requirement and realize that other issues matter as well.
In our current political culture, it’s easy to reduce people to being single-issue voters. As Catholics, we certainly realize some issues have greater weight than others. But that does not mean that other issues are not important and carry significant weight.
The U.S. Bishops also instruct us that “the right to life implies and is linked to other human rights—to the basic goods that every human person needs to live and thrive.” This means we also must care about other basic issues like “food, shelter, health care, education, and meaningful work.”
While the right to life is the basis for all other rights, as Saint Pope John Paul II exhorted us, other rights also deserve are care and attention.
As Catholics we can avoid a moral equivalency that makes us think all issues and problems are equal. But we can also avoid a mentality that makes us think only certain issues matter to begin with. Being good Catholics in the public policy arena means holding various issues in the balance, and advocating for each issue in justice, giving each issue what is their due.
As we evaluate candidates and ballot issues this election cycle, be sure to remember the fundamental work we need to do to uphold human dignity and protect life while we also protect the other critical interests that help us flourish as human beings and as a human community.
P.S.: If you are wondering how to best evaluate candidate on the ballot, check out my column from last week. God bless your faithfulness!
