Central Bucks Today

President Donald Trump’s position on abortion was recently reaffirmed with his promise to issue an executive order requiring health care providers to give medical care to all babies born alive.

Trump's promise has some saying he is trying to strengthen his support among Catholics, according to reporting by the Associated Press. 

Adding fuel to the election fire, after the passing of celebrated Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, both sides of the aisle are concerned about how a confirmation or delay in appointing Ginsburg’s replacement could sway the court on abortion.

While Ginsburg had voiced misgivings over the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade prior to her appointment to the court by then-President Bill Clinton in 1993, her time on the court saw Ginsburg consistently voting in ways that expanded access to abortions, according to coverage by Catholic News Service. As recently as this June, Ginsburg’s vote was significant in a 5-4 ruling that favored women having access to abortions.

But are Catholics who wouldn’t otherwise support Trump motivated enough by the issue of abortion to give him their votes?

Michael Phillips, a member of St. Andrew Parish since 2008 and resident of Bucks County, said that he attends Mass weekly, sometimes more often “depending on how much I need Jesus – which I always do, but it’s just, how much do I realize that I need Him?” he told Central Bucks Today.

Phillips said he believes Catholics have a duty to vote.

“And I think our Church is clear on that – I think Jesus was clear on that,” Phillips told Central Bucks Today. “He said, ‘Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s,’ and I think there’s a clear obligation to respect authority and to honor that authority.”

And in voting, Catholics should vote according to their faith, including faith in the sanctity of all human life, from conception to death, Phillips said.

“We all have inherent dignity, and we all came from that same process,” Phillips told Central Bucks Today. 

The only difference between a grown adult and a zygote with the genetic code to build that adult is time, he said. As a result, abortion, euthanasia and the basic sanctity of life are the most important issues in deciding how he will vote. 

And Phillips said there is something hypocritical to those who would criticize him for rejecting or supporting potential leaders based on that single issue.

“I think Christianity in general has been given a bit of a bad rap on faith entering the political realm, as if our faith – our faith in Jesus Christ – should not enter the political realm,” Phillips told Central Bucks Today.

Yet, as someone who transitioned through a period as an atheist during college, Phillips said that even atheists have a culture and faith they follow in things such as politics.

“I went to a very technical school. Our faith was in science, in what we can observe, in what we can experiment and analyze the date,” Phillips told Central Bucks Today. “So there’s faith right there, and that faith can educate someone’s decisions, someone’s votes, someone’s judgements, so why can’t my faith in Jesus educate the same decisions?”