Bishop: No leeway in abortion-rights voting

Colorado Springs Catholic Bishop Michael Sheridan has published a pastoral letter about the election. Some highlights from a Denver Post article since I cannot find the letter online.

Sheridan writes that not even the elimination of poverty justifies "the direct murder of just one human being," and that the narrow criteria for supporting an abortion-rights candidate are basically unattainable.

Sheridan writes that a voter could presumably vote for an abortion-rights candidate if a greater evil was being avoided or if the good accomplished by that candidate would "outweigh the holocaust of abortion." But he argues that is unobtainable for a reasonable person, saying it is "virtually inconceivable" to find a greater evil than abortion and that no good could outweigh abortion.

Sheridan also addressed a frequently asked question about how far a candidate must go on abortion to qualify as deserving Catholic support. The bishop asserts that a Catholic could support a candidate who works to restrict legal abortion through parental-consent laws or late-term abortion bans.