On Ash Wednesday, President Joe Biden — a supposedly devout Catholic — defended his support for abortion despite Roman Catholic Church teaching prohibiting the faithful from supporting the murder of the unborn after a reporter asked him to explain his stance on the matter.
An unnamed reporter asked the president in front of the White House why he supports abortion and Roe v. Wade as a Catholic.
“Well I tell you what,” Biden said with a pause, “I don’t want to get in a debate with you on theology, but you know …”
Biden, clearly annoyed by the question, was stopped short from going into what appeared to be a longer answer after the first lady Jill Biden pulled him away from the press.
“I’m not going to make a judgement for other people,” Biden concluded after a tug on his arm from his wife.
The interaction can be seen here:
REPORTER: "As a Catholic, why do you support abortion?"
BIDEN: "I don't want to get in a debate with you on theology, but you know…I'm not going to make a judgement for other people."
REPORTER: "But you're Catholic!" pic.twitter.com/KR7njW1cW9
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) March 2, 2022
Biden’s comments came on Ash Wednesday, the first day of the solemn season of Lent in the Roman Catholic Church. As the video shows, the president could be seen with ashes on his forehead as Catholics traditionally attend an Ash Wednesday mass or a distribution of ashes with the marking reminding Catholics of their death and their need for repentance.
During Lent, Catholics are supposed to sacrifice something or take on additional spiritual or charitable practices to prepare them for the celebration Easter and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, according to Catholic Church teaching.
Despite Biden’s claim that he did not want to get into a “theological debate,” there is not much of debate to be had as to whether abortion is sinful or not. Catholics believe each human being from the moment of conception until natural death has inherent dignity and is the made in the image of God, and therefore has the right to life.
Obtaining, providing, or supporting an abortion — thereby ending an innocent life —has always been a mortal sin. As a public figure openly supporting abortion, Biden is not just putting his own soul at risk, but is also committing a sin of scandal by leading other Catholics astray on this topic.
Since the first century, the Church has affirmed abortion is a “moral evil,” as noted by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops:
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: “Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law” (No. 2271).
Biden is not alone in his contradictory stance and confusion of Church teaching.
In September of 2021, Catholic Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone explained why politicians supporting abortion are participating in evil. Cordileone serves the Diocese of San Francisco where Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is registered as a Catholic. Pelosi also supports “the right to choose.”
The archbishop was explicitly clear that “everyone who advocates for abortion, in public or private life, who funds it or who presents it as a legitimate choice, participates in a great moral evil.”
“Since the Roe decision, more than 60 million lives have been lost to abortion. Many millions more have been scarred by this experience, wounded victims whom society ignores,” he argued. “Abortion is therefore the most pressing human rights challenge of our time. Can we pastors speak softly when the blood of 60 million innocent American children cries out for justice? When their mothers are condemned to silence, secretly suffering the injuries of the culture of ‘choice’?”
Cordileone concluded that, “You cannot be a good Catholic and support expanding a government-approved right to kill innocent human beings. The answer to crisis pregnancies is not violence but love, for both mother and child.”
As president, Biden has taken steps to increase the number of abortions in the world such as rescinding the Mexico City Policy which banned the use of U.S. taxpayer dollars from funding abortions overseas.