What’s the big question that’s raised about Catholic voters and abortion? That’s easy. It’s whether it’s permissible to vote for a candidate who is pro-choice. Some bishops all but say no. The position of the U.S. bishops conference is more nuanced. When a prominent conservative like Douglas Kmiec argues that a vote for Barack Obama is warranted despite his pro-choice views, he is greeted with a storm of protest. So under the circumstances, you’d think that the Knights of Columbus, in their massive new survey of Catholic opinion, would pop a question like this: “Would you definitely vote for, vote for but with reservations, or would you definitely not vote for a candidate who supports a woman’s right to have an abortion?”
And actually, I believe that Marist, which conducted the poll, did ask such a question. But in the detailed report of the survey results here’s what we’re told the question was: “Would you definitely vote for, vote for but with reservations, or would you definitely not vote for a candidate who would do each of the following: a candidate who would maintain that life begins at conception?” That’s it. We learn, not very surprisingly, that 14 percent of practicing Catholics and 29 percent of non-practicing (attend church less than once a month) Catholics would not vote for a life-begins-at-conception candidate. But what about the other items promised by the phrase “each of the following”? I’ll bet this week’s salary that the results were such as the Knights didn’t want to report–like, that a very large proportion of even practicing Catholics are prepared, despite reservations, to vote for pro-choice candidates. That, of course, would have been the headline of every story about the survey, which is otherwise not very interesting.
I could be wrong, of course. Hey Marist, what’s the deal?