Did John Kerry Lie About Abortion?

Editor's note. The following is an e-mail sent out February 20 by Deal Hudson, editor of Crisis magazine. It is reprinted with Mr. Hudson's permission. The magazine's web site address is www.crisismagazine.com.

Dear Friend,

While the Democratic primary has gotten more interesting with Senator John Edwards' strong showing Tuesday in Wisconsin, it still looks like Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts will be going head-to-head with President Bush in this fall's election.

This makes things interesting for voting Catholics - - after all, Kerry likes to tout his Catholic faith to prospective voters. Of course, this isn't always an easy thing to do, given the senator's strong support of abortion.

His strategy for getting away with this, though, is the same one used by so many "Catholic" politicians: He claims that while he's personally opposed to abortion, he can't let his religious belief get in the way of his policy-making.

In fact, he told a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that, "What I believe personally as a Catholic as an article of faith is an article of faith. And if it's not shared by a Jew or an Episcopalian or a Muslim or an agnostic or an atheist or someone else, it's not appropriate in the United States for a legislator to legislate your personal religious belief for the rest of the country."

Furthermore, Kerry's deputy communications director, Dag Vega, confirmed with us that the senator is "personally opposed" to abortion while still remaining pro-choice publicly and politically.