Catholics “Swing” on Choice

The New York Times has an article about Catholic “swing” voters making their decisions based on a candidate’s position about abortion. There was a lot of buzz about Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi recently debating choice. Biden and Pelosi, both Catholic, seem to abide by the idea that there needs to be a separation between belief and public policy when it comes to choice, something supported recently by a poll. The Times article says that:

Progressive Catholics complain that by wading into the history of church opposition to abortion — Mr. Biden brought up St. Thomas Aquinas, Ms. Pelosi discussed St. Augustine — Democratic officials are starting a distracting debate with the church hierarchy.

But this is because the church hierarchy is engaging in something it should never do–attempting to make public policy. More than 70 percent of Catholics polled found the bishops’ position on abortion irrelevant to the public policy debate. Basing public policy on one subset of Christianity just seems like a bad idea.

Cross posted on Pushback.