Respect Women’s Autonomy - Catholics vs. Bishops —Times Union
Catholics can, and do, support reproductive health access, including the right to access an abortion. The majority of New York Catholics — 72 percent according to a new Siena Research Institute poll—disagree with bishops.
The bishops’ lobbying efforts may give them better media reach than the typical Catholic, but the bishops only account for about two dozen votes. In matters of public policy, this distinction is particularly important, as Catholics do not vote as their bishops instruct them to do. For example, New Yorkers of all faiths and no faith recently rejected the hierarchy’s attempts to tell them to oppose gay marriage.
This independence in the voting booth and in the Legislature is in keeping with a national survey about Catholics’ attitudes towards the hierarchy’s political involvement. The poll, sponsored in late 2012 by Catholics for Choice and the American Civil Liberties Union, revealed that four out of five Catholic voters questioned did not feel obligated to vote according to the bishops’ recommendations. Seventy-six percent did not believe Catholic politicians must vote according to the bishops’ demands.