Roman Catholics in the United States, many of them Filipino-Americans, will be doing a lot of soul searching with the election just around the corner. As in the Philippines, one of the reproductive health issues has become a major political issue, with some US Catholic bishops, priests and lay leaders actively campaigning against Democratic Party candidates Barack Obama and Joseph Biden.

I have been closely following the developments through various American newspapers? Internet sites and thought it would be useful to share some of the information, since some of the issues are also being hotly debated in the Philippines.

Pro-life, pro-Obama

Obama and Biden have been attacked because they have declared that they would not support attempts to overturn a Supreme Court decision made in 1973, better known as Roe vs Wade, which legalized abortion. Republican candidate John McCain, on the other hand, has said he agrees that Roe vs Wade should be overturned.

Calling themselves ?pro-life,? the anti-abortionists have assailed Obama and Biden as ?pro-death.? The responses to these attacks have taken an interesting twist, with other anti-abortion Catholics coming out not just to defend the Democratic candidates but to endorse them.

Statements from two of these Catholics have been widely publicized because they are respected lawyers. Douglas Kmiec, an expert on constitutional law who was an official under Reagan and worked to overturn Roe vs Wade, issued a statement where he notes that besides the legal battles, Catholics still need to be open ?to different or alternative ways to discourage abortion.? Kmiec has also written a book, ?Can a Catholic Support Him? Asking the Big Question About Barack Obama,? where he questions the proposition that a politician who refuses to ban abortion is ?complicit with evil? and therefore cannot be voted for by a Catholic. Kmiec says Catholic voters can still choose candidates who ?establish justice policies that advance the culture of life,? Obama being such a candidate.

The other lawyer, Nicholas Cafardi, also issued a statement. In it, he notes: ?Despite what some Republicans would like Catholics to believe, the list of what the Church calls ?intrinsically evil acts? does not begin and end with abortion.? Obama and Biden?s ?pro-choice? position, Cafardi says, might be interpreted by some as ?intrinsically evil,? but there are other ?intrinsically evil acts? where candidates need to speak out. Here, the Democratic candidates are clear: Obama opposes the war in Iraq, does not support the use of torture and has a proposed program heavy on reducing poverty.

Fr. Thomas Reese, who edits the Catholic weekly magazine America, shares a startling piece of information in a Washington Post/Newsweek blog: Abortions increased under ?pro-life? Presidents Ronald Reagan, George Bush Sr. and George Bush Jr. ?In contrast,? Reese notes, ?during the Clinton administration the number of abortions fell.? He cites several studies to support the view that economic and social support systems, such as those put up during the Clinton administration, bring down abortion rates.

I see in these responses a shift away from an abortion-centered dichotomy of ?pro-life? (anti-abortion) and ?pro-choice? (pro-abortion), with both pro-life and pro-choice advocates looking at a wider social context for abortion, including tackling poverty as one of the major causes. A group called Democrats for Life of America, which includes both ?pro-life? and ?pro-choice? advocates, has already drafted a ?Pregnant Women Support Act? which they hope the next administration will consider. Aiming to reduce the abortion rate by 95 percent during the next 10 years, the bill has such provisions as free home visits by registered nurses for new mothers, expanded health coverage for pregnant women and increased funding for domestic violence programs.

One-issue politics

Two Catholics, Chris Korzen and Alexia Kelley, have written a book, titled ?A Nation for All: How the Catholic Vision of the Common Good can Save America from the Politics of Division.? The book brings up the hot election issues in the context of Catholic social teachings, including the concept of common good, i.e., one must work for the welfare of all of society and this includes addressing issues of human dignity among the poor.

The clearest explanations of these issues have come from the Notre Dame theologian Fr. Richard McBrien. In a talk given early in October, he said that a ?consistent ethic of life ... neither treats all issues as morally equivalent nor reduces Catholic teaching to one or two issues....?

In a recent column appearing in the National Catholic Reporter, Father McBrien reminds readers that as early as 1984, the American bishops urged Catholics to ?examine the positions of the candidates on the full range of issues as well as their integrity, philosophy and performance.?

The term ?one-issue politics? has come up repeatedly to characterize the campaign against the Democrats. The strident tone of these one-issue attacks seems to have led to a backlash. When the head of the Catholic lay group Knights of Columbus attacked Biden, a Catholic, other Knights set up a website, knightsforobama.com. Two new organizations, Catholics United and Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, have come out urging Catholic voters to consider issues of common good.

The debates resonate for Filipinos. In the Philippines, the opposition to the reproductive health bill has taken a one-issue approach, equating reproductive health with abortion and labeling legislators supporting the reproductive health bill as ?pro-death? and threatening to deny them Communion. The strident, and sometimes vicious, tone of the attacks has dismayed even the most devout and traditional of Filipino Catholics. I also know Catholics, usually apathetic about their religion, who are suddenly taking an interest now in the Bible and moral theology, to be able to understand the debates around family planning and reproductive health.

Even the response of Ateneo de Manila University president Fr. Bienvenido Nebres to the ?Galileo 14? (faculty members who have openly declared support for the reproductive health bill) has assured space for continuing ?critical? discussions even as he reaffirmed Ateneo?s adherence to the Catholic Church?s stand on family planning. Before Father Nebres? memo, Filipino Catholics were already taking up the challenge to try to understand the issues around reproductive health. While agreeing that family planning is needed, they do have varying opinions on which methods are acceptable. What?s important is that there has been a willingness to listen to each other and to work around issues of the common good, for example, recognizing that the state must provide reproductive health services to those who cannot afford such services.

Whether the reproductive health bill passes or not, it has at least forced many Catholics to examine their consciences, and their faith, in a positive and revitalizing way.

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Email: mtan@inquirer.com.ph