Recently, there has been growing dissatisfaction within the pro-abortion movement with what they characterize as President Joe Biden’s “moderate” approach to the issue following the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health decision. Frankly, it has been decades since Biden could be considered even remotely “moderate” on abortion policy, but his recent abortion extremism has become undeniable. 

Our nation’s second Catholic president has somehow mastered the completely incoherent stance that he can reconcile his Catholic faith, which teaches that abortion is always morally wrong and a mortal sin, with his unabashed advocacy for unrestricted, taxpayer-funded abortion.  

A week into his presidency, the president reversed the Mexico City Policy, which prohibits federal funding to foreign nonprofits and NGOs that perform abortion. The move foreshadowed the administration’s determined effort to promote abortion through any means necessary.

Facing a 6-3 conservative majority at the Supreme Court, Biden and his congressional allies knew that more states would look to pass pro-life legislation and challenge Roe v. Wade. In response, Biden’s allies advocated for both ending the filibuster, which would gut the rights of the minority party, and stacking the Supreme Court, a move that would add seats to the court and tip its balance in favor of progressive judges. Fortunately, both attempts have stalled as Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., along with every Republican in the Senate, opposed them. 

Undeterred, President Biden attacked the Hyde Amendment, which for more than 40 years has enjoyed broad bipartisan support. The amendment prohibits federal funding of abortion except in a few select and very rare circumstances. Biden himself supported it for 39 years until, while running for the Democratic nomination for president, he flip-flopped and announced his opposition to Hyde. He attempted to exclude Hyde in his first proposed budget for Health and Human Services.  

Thankfully, Congress refused to pass the funding bill without its inclusion, and Hyde remains the law of the land. 

In April, President Biden rescinded the Trump-era conscience rule protecting health workers from forced participation in procedures like abortion or transgender surgery that may violate their conscience. The move is an unconscionable attack on religious freedom. 

On May 2, Politico obtained a leaked copy of a draft opinion in Dobbs, revealing the court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. In response to the leaked draft, congressional Democrats proposed a vote on the so-called Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA), a bill that would go far beyond “codifying Roe.” The WHPA would both legally enshrine a right to abortion up until birth and ban state restrictions on abortion. It is the most radical piece of abortion legislation to ever receive a vote in Congress.  

Thankfully, while President Biden publicly supported the WHPA, it failed to overcome a Senate filibuster on May 11. After the filibuster, President Biden announced his administration would “continue to explore the measures and tools at our disposal” to “protect access to women’s reproductive care.” 

In the last several months, meanwhile, violence against churches and pro-life pregnancy centers has escalated. The “Summer of Rage” declared by the pro-abortion Women’s March has resulted in the desecration of places of worship, particularly Catholic churches. Pro-life pregnancy centers that provide much-needed support and care to women in unexpected pregnancies have been vandalized and firebombed as well. Groups like Ruth Sent Us and Jane’s Revenge have taken credit for the attacks and organized protests at the homes of Supreme Court justices. 

Biden administration Attorney General Merrick Garland has shown almost no interest in enforcing the law, which threatens fines or imprisonment for any person who, “with the intent of influencing any judge, juror, witness, or court officer, in the discharge of his duty, pickets or parades in or near a building housing a court of the United States, or in or near a building or residence occupied or used by such judge, juror, witness, or court officer.” The law is crystal clear: Garland is derelict in his duty. 

And where is our Catholic president during this time? On the day Roe was overturned, he said, “I call on everyone, no matter how deeply they care about this decision, to keep all protests peaceful. Peaceful, peaceful, peaceful. No intimidation. Violence is never acceptable.” While the sentiment is right, Biden’s inaction and lack of concern regarding the continued violence and illegal protests is appalling. 

This overwhelming record of extreme pro-abortion advocacy demands a response. Where is our modern-day St. Ambrose? After the Massacre of Thessalonica in the fourth century, Bishop Ambrose of Milan forbid Emperor Theodosius from entering the cathedral and from receiving the Holy Eucharist until he repented. 

In his home state of Delaware, Biden frequently attends Mass, but Bishop William Koenig hasn’t commented specifically on Biden’s continued reception of Communion except to say he would “certainly be open to having a conversation in the future with him.” 

Cardinal Wilton Gregory, the archbishop of Washington, has indicated he “wouldn’t veer” from allowing Biden to receive within the archdiocese, although he has said that “the president is not demonstrating Catholic teaching” after Biden publicly disagreed that life begins at conception. 

Where is the call for repentance from these bishops? The most powerful elected official in the country, a Catholic, is clearly violating Canon 915, which says that those who are “obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to Holy Communion.” Yet many bishops refuse even to gently rebuke President Biden for his unapologetic abortion advocacy. The timidity on display astounds and is, unfortunately, all too common. 

Thankfully, however, such timidity is not universal. After Biden issued an executive order on abortion access, Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore, head of the USCCB’s Committee on Pro-Life Activities, said, “It is deeply disturbing and tragic that President Biden is choosing instead to use his power as president of the United States to promote and facilitate abortion in our country, seeking every possible avenue to deny unborn children their most basic human and civil right, the right to life.” 

“The president’s executive order seeks only to facilitate the destruction of defenseless, voiceless human beings.” Archbishop Lori continued, “I implore the president to abandon this path that leads to death and destruction and to choose life.” 

In an interview a few days later, Pope Francis said, “Let [Biden] talk to his pastor about that incoherence” of being Catholic and promoting abortion. 

Given the Democratic Party’s extremism on abortion, it is highly unlikely that a “pastoral response” that fails to correct Catholic politicians out of line with Church teaching (a path that some prominent U.S. bishops and cardinals have promoted) will have any concrete effect for unborn life.  

In the post-Dobbs era, we need more courageous bishops who speak boldly for the cause of life. We need more bishops who aren’t afraid to confront the wickedness of Catholic politicians at every level of government who cynically cloak their advocacy for abortion as compassion. We need more bishops who care about the salvation of souls above all else, who preach the truth unwaveringly, and who make no apologies for actively opposing the grave evil that is abortion.  

God bless you.