Voting for pro-abortion parties

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Markus2007

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Hello,

today there was an election where I live, and sadly all the parties that are very strongly supporting abortion in their positions were much more successful than the others.

Abortion is already legal up until a certain month, but now most of the parties said they want to change the laws in such a way that the cost for the abortions would be covered by the (public) health care system, meaning that women can have an abortion without even having to pay for it themselves. Essentially everybody, even a pro-life person would be forced to co-finance abortions.

Are there any official Church documents or statements (or good interpretations of such) that specifically mention the sinfulness of voting for pro-abortion parties or candidates that you could direct me to?

I have heard that voting for a pro-abortion party or candidate can excommunicate one from the Church automatically, is this true? Are there some cases where it would not be true, for example if the person did not know about the party’s position on the topic? Also, can you direct me to the official Church document or statement, so I can spread it around?

Thanks in advance for your help!
 
I have just found this articles which says the following:

"The same is true for any Catholic who casts any vote with the intention of legalizing abortion, or of protecting laws allowing abortion, or of widening access to abortion. Such a voter commits a mortal sin and incurs a sentence of automatic excommunication for two reasons. First, they are committing the sin of heresy by believing that abortion should be legal and available. Second, they are committing the grievous sin of providing women with substantial or essential assistance in obtaining abortions, by attempting to legalize or broaden access to abortion. "

Source: catholicplanet.com/articles/article78.htm

What do you think of it?
 
Bishop Gracidia issued a guide for these kinds of situations. One should either vote for the candidate (or party in certain Parliamentary systems) who is the most pro life or for the most pro life candidate with a reasonable chance of winning (these might be the same person or they might not be). However, voting for a pro-abortion candidate does not automatically incur excommunication in itself. As for catholic planet, you probably shouldn’t pay much attention to it, as it is ran by a man named Ron Conte who has some rather, um, strange ideas.
 
Markus2007 said:
I have just found this articles which says the following:

"The same is true for any Catholic who casts any vote with the intention of legalizing abortion, or of protecting laws allowing abortion, or of widening access to abortion. Such a voter commits a mortal sin and incurs a sentence of automatic excommunication for two reasons. First, they are committing the sin of heresy by believing that abortion should be legal and available. Second, they are committing the grievous sin of providing women with substantial or essential assistance in obtaining abortions, by attempting to legalize or broaden access to abortion. "

Source: catholicplanet.com/articles/article78.htm

What do you think of it?
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Note the words “with the intention”. If the reason for casting that ballot is any other serious reason, I suppose it would not be a sin, as one oeg of the mortal sin triad would not be in effect.
 
You need to look at the abortion positions of each candidate and assess which is the lesser of the evils. Is canidate A is in favour of abortion for rape and incest and candidate B supports abortion without restriction then the lesser of 2 evils would be candidate A because if he were elected he could help to prevent some harm and save some lives

A Brief Catechism for Catholic Voters
  1. What if none of the candidates are completely pro-life?
As Pope John Paul II explains in his encyclical, Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life), “…when it is not possible to overturn or completely abrogate a pro-abortion law, an elected official, whose absolute personal opposition to procured abortion was well known, could licitly support proposals aimed at limiting the harm done by such a law and at lessening its negative consequences at the level of general opinion and morality. This does not in fact represent an illicit cooperation with an unjust law, but rather a legitimate and proper attempt to limit its evil aspects.” Logically, it follows from these words of the Pope that a voter may likewise vote for that candidate who will most likely limit the evils of abortion or any other moral evil at issue.
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