Catholic News Agency (CNA) has reported on President Joe Biden’s promise to codify abortion rights if Democrats keep control in Congress, with CNA hinting that Biden’s stance could be off-putting for Catholic voters.

“The final say about your right to choose rests with you,” Biden tweeted Wednesday. “If you do your part and vote, Democratic leaders in Congress will do their part. I’ll do my part. With your support, I will sign a law codifying Roe in January.” 

Biden later expanded upon the tweet during a Democratic National Committee speech at the Howard Theatre. CNA described his speech as all about abortion, reasoning that he did that because Democratic candidates are facing “uphill battles” in the polls. 

Democrats currently hold the House and the Senate by very slim margins. Biden wants his party to keep control and he called the 2022 midterms “the most consequential election in history” in relation to Roe, CNA continued.

All 435 House seats are up for election this November, as are 35 seats in the Senate. CNA added that 36 governorships are also in the hands of voters. 

Biden has spoken about the threat of a national abortion ban if Republicans, whom he has described as “extremists,” take Congress. With Biden’s approval rating and popularity at an all-time low, CNA suggests Biden is trying to turn the election into a one-issue race. 

He has claimed that the anti-abortion sentiment affects women in multiple ways. “Today in America, there are women who have been turned away from emergency rooms while having miscarriages, losing wanted pregnancies, and told they need to wait until they are sicker before they get the care they need. Doctors and nurses fear they can face criminal charges,” Biden said, CNA reported. 

Live-Action, a pro-life advocacy group, has refuted that statement. It says the state abortion laws, specifically since Roe was overturned, have all explicitly laid out directives that treatment for miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies are still legal. Live-Action claims that pro-choice supporters are merely trying to “scare women” into believing the lie that they will not receive care from a miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy. The group has produced a list of all 50 states’ abortion laws where the exceptions are clearly stated. 

Other Catholic advocates are dismayed that Biden isn’t following Church guidance on the topic.

“Catholics are appalled by the unprecedented abortion extremism pursued by the nation’s second Catholic president,” CatholicVote President Brian Burch said in a statement. “While Americans struggle with record inflation, the president of the United States has nothing to offer but a pledge to expand the right to violently destroy innocent unborn children – up until birth and for any reason.” 

He also put out a call for more action by American bishops.

“We need Church leaders to step up and make clear that no Catholic can support candidates or policies that would make America one of the most extreme abortion nations in the world,” he added. 

The Catechism defines the matter clearly for the Church: “Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed as an ends or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law” (No. 2271). 

Michigan has garnered some outspoken views on the matter recently. Detroit Catholic reported that University of Michigan football coach expressed his pro-life views publicly this summer.

“I believe in having the courage to let the unborn be born,” Harbaugh said. “I love life. I believe in having a loving care and respect for life and death. My faith and my science are what drive these beliefs in me. Quoting from Jeremiah, ‘Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I set you apart. I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.’”

He made those comments during a Plymouth Pro-Life Dinner in July, as Harbaugh spoke about how his Catholic values have remained with him as a coach and how it is important to speak your beliefs.