On Teresa Collett's Response to Doug Kmiec

Michael posted the response of my friend and colleague, Teresa Collett, to Doug Kmiec's discussion of his endorsement of Senator Obama. Although I do not necessarily share Teresa's views on the extent of power a President can exercise over abortion, I concede that there is a large range of possible views on that issue.  But that is not what I want to focus on. 

What prompts my response is the last several lines of Teresa's post. She quotes the statement of the United States Bishops that a vote by a Catholic for a candidate taking a position in favor of abortion, if the voter's intent is to support that position, would make a Catholic guilty of cooperation in grave evil.  She then concludes, "I fail to see adequate counterveiling moral considerations that would suggest that a vote for Senator Obama is anything other than a vote for continued judicial protection of abortion."

If Teresa is merely conveying her own consideration of the candidates, a consideration that leads her to conclude that she can not find sufficient counterveiling considerations that would allow her to cast a vote for Obama notwithstanding his position on abortion, I have no quarrel with her.  If, however, she intends to express by her comment that anyone voting for Obama must be doing so with the intent of supporting continued judicial protection of abortion, I take great exception to that conclusion. 

The statement of the Bishop's cited by Teresa also makes clear that "a voter should not use a candidate's opposition to an intrinsic evil to justify indifference or inattentiveness to other important moral issues involving human life and dignity."  As various discussion lines on this blog have suggested, there are a number of other issues involving human life and dignity that are important to consider as we reflect who we should elect as President.  I accept that people will come to different conclusions about whether those issues are sufficiently "morally grave" to allow "a Catholic who rejects a candidates's unacceptable position [to] decide to vote for that candidate" (again quoting the Bishop's statement).  I, however, do not accept any suggestion that a good Catholic cannot come to the conclusion that he or she can vote for Obama in good conscience and I do not read the Bishop's statement as conveying that conclusion. Rather, I believe there are sufficient counterveiling considerations tht would allow someone to decide to vote for Obama despite (and without intending to support) Obama's position on abortion.