When Brian Buescher, whom then-President Donald Trump had nominated to the U.S. District Court for the District of Nebraska, appeared at his confirmation hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Nov. 28, 2018, then-Sen. Kamala Harris did not ask him any questions.
A week later, however, she did submit written questions she wanted him to answer.
Several of them focused directly on Buescher’s religious faith — which is Roman Catholic.
“Since 1993, you have been a member of the Knights of Columbus, an all-male society comprised primarily of Catholic men,” Harris said in these written questions. “In 2016, Carl Anderson, leader of the Knights of Columbus, described abortion as ‘a legal regime that has resulted in more than 40 million deaths.’ Mr. Anderson went on to say that ‘abortion is the killing of the innocent on a massive scale.’
“Were you aware,” Harris asked, “that the Knights of Columbus opposed a woman’s right to choose when you joined the organization?”
“Do you agree with Mr. Anderson that abortion is ‘the killing of the innocent on a massive scale’?” she asked.
“Do you agree with Mr. Anderson that legal abortion in the United States has ‘resulted in more than 40 million deaths’?” she asked.
The Knights of Columbus, of course, is not the only Catholic organization that opposes the deliberate killing of innocent unborn babies. All Catholic institutions do.
“Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception,” says the Catholic Catechism. “From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person — among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life.”
“Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion,” says the Catechism. “This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable.”
“Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense,” says the Catechism. “The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life.”
In 1995, Pope John Paul II published an encyclical letter about this unchangeable principle.
“The moral gravity of procured abortion is apparent in all its truth if we recognize that we are dealing with murder and, in particular, when we consider the specific elements involved,” wrote John Paul. “The one eliminated is a human being at the very beginning of life. No one more absolutely innocent could be imagined. In no way could this human being ever be considered an aggressor, much less an unjust aggressor!”
But Harris did not vote to confirm as a federal judge an individual who belonged to a Catholic organization that adhered to Catholic teaching on the sanctity of human life.
When Buescher’s nomination came up on the Senate floor on July 24, 2019, he was confirmed with the backing of 51 Republicans. Forty Democrats voted against him. Harris was one of nine senators who cast no vote at all.
She also has received significant — and deserved — criticism for attacking this judge for belonging to a Catholic organization.
The Washington Times published a story on Dec. 30, 2018, that cited a tweet that Sen. Lindsey Graham had sent out about Harris’ remarks. “Hopefully, in the eyes of Democrats you are not disqualified to be a judge because of your religious affiliations and beliefs,” said Graham. “The Knights of Columbus are a Catholic charitable organization who have genuinely held beliefs about marriage & abortion.”
National Review revisited Harris’ attack on the Knights of Columbus in an article posted on Aug. 11, 2020, after Joe Biden picked Harris to be his vice presidential running mate.
“Someone might want to remind Joe Biden, who’s just picked progressive California senator Kamala Harris as his running mate, that his vice-president-to-be believes Catholics are unfit to serve in our nation’s courts,” Alexandra Desanctis wrote for that publication.
The American Enterprise Institute has published a report that shows the results of the national exit poll for each of the 13 presidential elections from 1972 through 2020. In 12 of those 13 elections, the candidate who won the Catholic vote also won the election. The one exception was 2000, when Democratic candidate Al Gore got 49% of the Catholic vote and Republican candidate George W. Bush got 47%.
In 2016, Trump won the election while beating former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton 52% to 45% among Catholic voters. In 2020, Biden won the election while beating Trump 52% to 47% among Catholic voters.
Neither of the major party candidates in this year’s election take the correct position on abortion — that every unborn child has a right to life that deserves legal protection from the moment of conception.
How will Catholic voters respond?
Terence P. Jeffrey is the investigative editor of the Daily Caller News Foundation. To find out more about Terence P. Jeffrey and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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