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Periscope by Niall O'Dowd

Catholic vote is key to 2012 presidential election -- Barack Obama controversy on contraception a huge issue

Posted on Wednesday, February 15, 2012 at 07:45 AM

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President Barack Obama shakes hands with Pope Benedict XVI

In nine of the past ten US presidential elections the majority of the Catholic vote has gone to the person who won the election.

Little wonder then that the furor over the Bishop’s attacks on President Obama’s contraception plan created such waves.

In five of those elections, the Catholic vote was within a point of the overall margin of victory, a clear indicator of how vital the vote is.

There is a massive push on for the Catholic vote in both political parties this election season.

As the critical swing vote in key states, they will sway the election.
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The Reagan Democrats, the Irish, Italian, Polish, Catholic blue collar vote, so prominent in Ohio, Pennsylvania and key Midwest states, has chosen the winner a stunning 90 per cent of the time.

Little wonder that in 2008, Barack Obama trumpeted the support of now US Ambassador to Ireland Dan Rooney, Chairman of the Pittsburgh Steelers and as Irish Catholic as you can get.

Rooney campaigned widely for the president and was seen as a vital factor in Obama’s victory in Pennsylvania.

Obama won the Catholic vote by 54 per cent to 46 per cent nationally against John McCain though it must be noted that number includes Hispanic Catholics.

Catholic voter make up a quarter of the electorate and as Gerald Seib wrote in The Wall Street Journal this week “They rank right up there with Ohio as a bellwether of presidential-election outcomes.”

It is not surprising then that the furor over the Obama contraception debate has become so heated. There is a huge amount on the line.

The Catholic Bishops have vehemently opposed his plan but the key question is whether their flock is behind them?

Opinion polls of Catholics indicate they are not.

Several polls show Catholics, by a wide margin, feel that contraceptive care should be covered in any health care plan regardless of where that plan is for.

That would hardly be surprising Bishops oppose contraception but 98 per cent of Catholics use them, likewise the bishop’s stances on gays and abortion are supported far less by the ordinary rank and file Catholics.

That fundamental disconnect has only grown larger since the church sex scandals has removed much of the authority of the bishops.

Parishioners now feel less inclined than ever to take their cue from Rome, especially when it involves matters of sexuality.

At the same time there is hardly overwhelming support for the Obama position either, and it begs the question of who will eventually end up winning out on this debate?

Will the contraceptive issue hurt Obama in November or will the Church leaders once again prove they are out of touch with many ordinary Catholics and how they live their lives?

It may not matter much if the latest opinion poll from The New York Times showing Rick Santorum ahead of Mitt Romney in a national poll of Republican voters is to be believed.

Santorum, a deeply conservative Catholic, is simply too extreme and would prove a disaster for the Republican Party.

Ironically, with a Catholic candidate running, it may be the one time their vote is not critical.

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eiriamach | Feb 20, 2012, 03:02 PM EST

JFK asked people to vote *for* his politics, not *against* his religion. But his politics differed hugely from this sexual politicking of the bishops. Generally, Catholics who remember the 1960s agree that their Church was wrong on race relations when it resisted desegregation of schools, churches, and convents. Can they see that it's wrong to continue religion-based control of women and gays? In opposing Obama's HHS rule, the bishops reveal their fear that if they stop sexual politicking, their authority will fail and the Church will collapse in on itself in a pile of rotting bricks, shards of stained glass and plaster. The pope has told them to renew a “Christian vision of *man* and society” in the USA (even his language reeks of sexism). So they focus on four 'S's': Sexual Sin and Shame and the demonizing label 'Secularism.' Why secularism? Because 'secular' social justice, as JFK knew, is powerful competition for religion. Their doctrines of sexual sin will not prevail against America's "civil religion." Secular justice, which draws its strength from natural law, values our dignity and equality as citizens and does not tolerate treating female or gay sexuality as "disordered" and suppressing it by law. The majority will not allow churchmen to wield such power any more than we will return to racial segregation. "Do we, then, nullify the law by faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law" (Romans 3:31).

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seamus60 | Feb 19, 2012, 07:34 PM EST

Nial it would be very hard to imagine many Catholics regardless of their location outside of third world countries, allowing anything the Church says to reflect on their moral compass. The moral of Practice what you preach is killing their hold on self thinking people by the day. Can`t see Obama shaking in his boots over the issue.

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eiriamach | Feb 19, 2012, 03:54 PM EST

Now, can we lay to rest this ridiculous pretense that the Obama policy has anything to do with abortion? Bishop Sean's idea of abortion-producing 'morning after' pills is archaic. Medications used today to delay ovulation do not produce abortions. As I wrote earlier, and it remains true, the Catholic bishops, as well as BishopSean, tell this lie because they know that Americans consider contraception a legitimate public expense. And they think that deceitfully substituting "abortion" for "contraception" will turn our opinion against Obama's Affordable Care plan. Don't be duped by this lie. The health services that the Obama HHS Rule mandates are indeed essential to women's health and becoming unaffordable to thousands more women every day!

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eiriamach | Feb 19, 2012, 03:50 PM EST

(2) PP has approximately three million clients per year; vacuum aspirations constitute only 3% of PP services for a small percentage of these clients. In 2008-09, 35% of PP's 10,943,609 client services were contraceptive services, and PP performed more than 10 times more STD tests and treatments (34%) than abortions, which amounted to only 3% of its services. Preventive reproductive health is PP's mission. In addition to its 2,000 volunteer educators and a Clergy Advisory Board, PP has 4,000,000 advocates, all working to keep its preventive health services available and affordable not only at PP but by lawsuits at hospitals that refuse to provide contraceptives for rape victims or emergency (life-saving) abortions for women.

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eiriamach | Feb 19, 2012, 03:48 PM EST

(1) FALSE, Bishop Sean, false in every detail! You have no idea what the following facts and figures mean, obviously; you'd rather get your deceitful spin from anti-choice websites. Nonetheless, by way of encouraging other IC visitors to verify for themselves, I'll try to correct some of your misinformation. PP's income from health center services amounts to only 37% of its revenues, with private individuals, corporations, and foundations supplying 28% and government subsidizing 33% (2008-09 data). As I explained earlier, Planned Parenthood services are subsized by government funding because PP provides so many services to women with low incomes and to dependent teenagers. These services would be very expensive at gynecologists' offices and unaffordable by many: cervical, uterine, ovarian, and endometrial cancer screening; breast exams and referrals for mammograms; tests and treatments for STDs, yeast and other infections; HIV testing; exams for contraceptives; treatments for fibroid tumors and endometriosis; pregnancy testing, pre-natal and post-natal care; adoption referrals; wellness clinics; training for health professionals, counselors, and teachers; sexuality- and family-planning education for millions of teenagers and adults. These produce little clinic revenue because they are free or low-cost for people receiving the services. So it is utterly mendacious of you to claim that 38.4% of PP revenues come from abortion services!

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BishopSean | Feb 19, 2012, 09:27 AM EST

Hi, again, Eiriamach. PPI resorts to “Newspeak.” All Planned Parenthood clinics sell “emergency” birth control. Many times they take orders for these items online and/or by phone without requiring a physical examination. In 2010 Planned Parenthood sold 1,461,816 “emergency” birth control kits. Birth control pills occasionally cause an abortion but “emergency” birth control pills, usually and intentionally do so. Yet Planned Parenthood claims neither can cause an abortion. In 1984 Planned Parenthood committed almost 5 percent of all abortions in the United States. Today, Planned Parenthood is responsible for nearly 28 percent. I would argue that PPI’s programs create a demand for abortions. They advance what most of us would call “sex information” as opposed to responsible “sex education” to young people and children; they then make contraceptives and abortions available to the young. Should not reasonable and educated parents challenge this?

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BishopSean | Feb 19, 2012, 09:11 AM EST

Hi, Eiriamach. Allow me to respectfully differ from "politically correct" statistics employed by PPI, to take a closer look. Using some other PPI stats, as well as that of their minion, the Guttmacher Institute, one sees that in 2009, PPI performed 332,278 abortions (PPI Fact Sheet); average cost of abortion: US$468.00 (Guttmacher); total income from abortions was US$ 155,506,104. The total health center income was US$ 404,900,000.oo (PPI 2009 Annual Report). Therefore 38.4% of PPI Health Center income comes directly from aborting unborn children. It is not the case that PPI is doing, for example, 3 abortions while distribution 97 condoms, or giving 97 mammograms. PPI also gets monies from private sources, which is fungible. That means that government funding can fill in other institutional building expenditures (which PPI hardly needs) while they continue being the largest abortion provider in the USA. Their other services are just as well or better offered by a number of other health providers. From their inception by Margaret Higgens Sanger, PPI has had an ethic not compatible with basic Christianity.

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eiriamach | Feb 18, 2012, 01:35 PM EST

BishopSean tries to connect Obama's health insurance mandate with abortion. It's an outright lie, easily shown to be a lie, that Planned Parenthood takes federal money for abortions. The Hyde Amendment prohibits federal funding of abortions, even for poor women. Abortion services constitute about 3% of PP services while 97% are screenings for five types of cancers, prenatal care, and gynecological diagnoses and treatments. Federal money subsidizes THESE services for poor women, but pays for NO PP abortions. Some states are ending their subsidies to PP because shutting down abortion providers is the GOP's way of fighting abortion. They are thereby depriving poor women of cancer testing, prenatal care, birth control, etc. No, this issue is not "about making abortions more respectable and available"; it's about making them less necessary, less frequent; it's about making contraception available by health insurance. It's appalling to see this bald-faced lie about abortion at taxpayer expense appear time after time in comments about women's health care. But the Catholic bishops, as well as BishopSean, tell this lie because they know that Americans consider contraception a legitimate public expense. And they think that deceitfully substituting "abortion" for "contraception" will turn our opinion against Obama's Affordable Care plan. Don't be duped by this lie.

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eiriamach | Feb 18, 2012, 12:49 PM EST

Catholics in the US are having their thinking neurons shut down. What a strange portrait of Catholic voters O'Dowd gives. Counting on the bishops to get him a "Catholic vote" is Santorum's last resort. Imagine it: demagogues in satin mitres working the masses for a demagogue in a sweater vest. It shakes me to realize that some voters could go to the polls thinking that their bishops' religious teachings are more important than my freedom of conscience. As Gore Vidal might have said, "Half of the American people have never read a newspaper [they watch FOX News instead!]. Half never vote for President. One hopes it is the same half."

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Nicoletta | Feb 18, 2012, 11:29 AM EST

Catholics in the US are having their consciences stirred. For the first time in decades priests will be forced to defend the Church's stance on 'openness to life.' Some good Catholics will realize that they should not contracept and will amend their lives, thanks be to God. Good for the bishops.

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NYCsheridan | Feb 18, 2012, 09:43 AM EST

NIall, you've truly gone off the wall. 98% of Catholic women have used contraceptives. This column, as your previous, is a JOKE.

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IrelandNorth | Feb 17, 2012, 08:39 AM EST

Abortion is only legal in Ireland if the life of the mother is threatened. I do have to admit, though, that there is a fundamental contradiction in a celibate clerical hierarchy dic[k]tating female/feminine sexual morality. Time for less dick- and more -ta[s]te.

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Ed.Shevlin | Feb 15, 2012, 10:35 PM EST

What muddled thinking . . . starting with Niall O'Dowd as usual! The issues are clouded with left wing rhetoric and people are reacting on emotion rather than logic. If American Catholics opt to use birth control that is a matter of conscience and circumstance between us and our Church, but it is not the right of the government to force our church to alter it's theological concepts to suit the convenience and moral irrelevance of conventional thinking. The so-called Obama compromise to make insurance companies pay for the disputed services is not an equitable or just solution. Why should we have to pay increased premiums for health insurance to provide free coverage for the disputed services which are already readily available to women at little or no cost through other services. I have to pay hefty costs for diabetic supplies and medication just to maintain my health whereas birth control such as morning-after pills would be free under the Obama "compromise". Maybe the plan will also cover a hangover cure for other late night indiscretions as well!

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macalister | Feb 15, 2012, 10:05 PM EST

Isn't it time for the Catholic Church to join the 21st century ?Irish Catholics are no longer poor,starving,illiterate beings,bowing to every command and order of fat,rich,well protected men,who certainly didn't heed the orders put on their flock.

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CelticQueenUSA | Feb 15, 2012, 08:59 PM EST

I read somewhere that 85% of Catholics believe in birth control even though they are warned not to.

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