COLUMBUS, Ohio — Mary Wright has been a devout Catholic and a Democrat her whole life, both erecting Obama signs in her yard and giving out communion in her parish. It never felt like a conflict to her, until this
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Mary Wright has been a devout Catholic and a Democrat her whole life, both erecting Obama signs in her yard and giving out communion in her parish. It never felt like a conflict to her, until this year.
That’s because she recently received a letter from a fellow parishioner targeting her for her support of President Barack Obama.
“I don’t really know you,” it said, “but I wonder how you can support a president who has attacked our church, and supports abortion on demand for all nine months of pregnancy.”
As Wright has discovered, it’s nearly impossible to spend time in Ohio this election year without noticing a surge of activity from Mitt Romney supporters and canvassers who say that values and abortion issues are paramount. Signs near highways encourage voters to stand up for religious freedom, newspaper ads slam Obama on abortion, and cars parked in the vicinity of Republican rallies are plastered with anti-abortion literature.
Voters seem especially enraged about Obama’s past positions on abortion and about a part of the Obama health-care law that required Catholic-affiliated employers to pay for contraception coverage. Anti-abortion groups say they’re as active as they’ve been in recent memory.
“In 2008, there was a little bit of fatigue — coming off a pro-life president, people didn’t realize what could happen if you didn’t have someone who believes what we believe in from a life perspective,” said Mike Gonidakis, president of Ohio Right to Life. “But after four years of new Obamacare and (Department of Health and Human Services contraception) mandates, it’s just galvanized people of all different faiths. Its truly is the greatest grass-roots movement we’ve ever seen.”
Such excitement could energize voters in this crucial swing state, which is 21 percent Catholic and 24 percent evangelical Protestant, according to the Pew Forum. In 2008, Catholic voters preferred Obama to Republican Sen. John McCain by nine points nationwide, but in 2004, they favored Republican President George W. Bush over Sen. John F. Kerry.
Deal Hudson, president of the Pennsylvania Catholic Network, said he thought religious advocacy could help tip the election.
“If Romney/Ryan wins, it will be the difference. It will be the deciding factor,” he said.
This renewed activity over social issues points to the trouble Obama faces with white, working-class voters who may have been encouraged by their unions to support him in the past. Now, buoyed by anti-abortion advocates, some say they’re voting on values alone.
They include Cory Rosenlieb, a retired welder and union member from Sardis, Ohio, who recently changed his registration from Democrat to Republican.
“I’m concerned about the country as a whole, where we’re going on the social path, ” said Rosenlieb, who was wearing an “I vote values” sticker at a recent rally with Republican vice presidential candidate Paul D. Ryan.
He’s put up yard signs this year, and even encouraged a friend who had never voted before to support Romney and Ryan, partly because of their positions on abortion and same-sex marriage, he said.
Catholics have more guidance about how to vote than they have in the past, Hudson said, because the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has come out against both same-sex marriage and the contraception coverage requirement. They’ve been especially active in this election, and in recent weeks various bishops have sent letters encouraging their parishioners to vote, while strongly reminding them about the church’s position on abortion and contraception.
“Catholics at least can look at a group of bishops that are unified on an issue that they haven’t been for a very long time,” Hudson said.
There is no shortage of advocacy groups rallying around this issue. The Rev. Billy Graham placed a newspaper ad in swing states urging voters to support candidates who “protect the sanctity of life.”
An online ad sponsored by the group Let Freedom Ring in Ohio and Pennsylvania, among other states, features a Catholic veteran of Iraq who objects to the contraception coverage requirement. “This HHS mandate is against God’s laws,” he says. “Once you get rid of religion, what do you have left?”
Sarah Cleveland, 31, of Columbus stood in the cold outside early-voting stations with graphic pictures of aborted fetuses because she is so opposed to Obama and Democrats’ positions on abortion.
“I would say I’m more jazzed up this year than any other election year,” she said, citing her opposition to Obama’s support for Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice America. “A lot is at stake.”
And then there are individuals, such as the woman who mailed the letter to Mary Wright, acting on their own to advocate against abortion. In seven paragraphs, the letter repeatedly chastised Wright and laid out the church’s teaching on the issue.
Wright, who said she opposes abortion but doesn’t think it is her place to make such personal decisions for other people, said she’s quitting her parish and finding one more accepting.
“All they talk about is abortion,” she said about her church. “I feel like as a Catholic for Obama, I have been totally discriminated against.”
Staff writer Mitchell Landsberg contributed to this report.
