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Psaki rebukes EWTN reporter who asked why Catholic Biden opposes Texas abortion law

September 2, 2021 Catholic News Agency 6
Jen Psaki responds to EWTN News Nightly’s Owen Jensen question regarding Texas’ heartbeat law. / EWTN News Nightly

Washington D.C., Sep 2, 2021 / 15:50 pm (CNA).

President Joe Biden, the second Catholic president in U.S. history, believes that abortion is a “woman’s right,” White House Press Secrentary Jen Psaki said on Thursday. Her comments came in response to a question about Texas’ newly-enacted abortion ban asked by EWTN News Nightly White House Correspondent Owen Jensen.

“I know you’ve never faced those choices, nor have you ever been pregnant,” Psaki told Jensen, “but for women out there who have faced those choices, this is an incredibly difficult thing.”

Beginning Sept. 1, the “Texas Heartbeat Act” bans abortions statewide after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which can happen as early as six weeks into pregnancy. The law also enables citizens to enforce the ban through private lawsuits.

When the Supreme Court rejected an emergency request to block the law in a 5–4 decision, Biden declared a “whole-of-government” response to “ensure” abortion access in the state.

On Sept. 2, Jensen asked Psaki about Biden’s position at a White House press conference.

“Why does the president support abortion when his own Catholic faith teaches abortion is morally wrong?” he wanted to know.

Psaki said that the president believes that abortion is a “woman’s right, it’s a woman’s body, and it’s her choice.”

In a follow-up question, Jensen asked, “Who does he believe, then, should look out for the unborn child?”

According to Psaki, Biden “believes that it’s up to a woman to make those decisions and up to a woman to make those decisions with her doctor.”

She added, “The president believes their right should be respected.”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, which summarizes Church teaching, recognizes the inherent dignity and worth of the unborn human person and considers abortion a “crime against human life.” 

“Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception,” the catechism reads. “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.”


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News Briefs

Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a message of faith, hope and love, niece tells EWTN

January 15, 2021 CNA Daily News 1

Washington D.C., Jan 15, 2021 / 05:23 pm (CNA).- In an interview with EWTN News Nightly (ENN), the niece of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., Alveda King, highlighted that her famous uncle was a man of faith, who always looked for “nonviolent and Bible-based” solutions to the challenges of his time.  

ENN’s host Tracy Sabol opened the interview, on Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, Jan. 15, highlighting that “honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. still give us as a nation an opportunity to pay tribute to his enduring legacy,” before asking King, director of Civil Rights for the Unborn for Priests for Life, about the civil rights icon’s place in history.

“When I remember my uncle during the Martin Luther King holiday week, I think about his messages of faith, hope and love,” she said, adding that in “all of his life, he exemplified solutions that were nonviolent and Bible-based.”

King remembered that her uncle used to say that faith is “like climbing a staircase; you take one step at a time and the faith builds. And so he was very sure that if he continued to trust in the Lord and to have faith and hope and love, then he could carry a message that God had given him to carry.”

“My uncle was a nonviolent man. He believed that we were one human race … God made all people to live together on the face of the earth. And as one human race, we really could learn to live together as brothers and sisters and not perish together as fools. All of his sermons and his messages led us to understand that our answers would come from God and that we must unite and learn to get along,” King also said.

She also recalled that Martin Luther King Jr. “decided to stick with love.” 

“Hate is too difficult a burden to bear. And then we bear each other’s burdens and concerns, seeing each other as human beings, regardless of skin color. We could see skin color, of course, we really are not colorblind. We could see, but we should see ethnicity as something to be celebrated, not to be fought over,” she said.

“Martin Luther King Jr. lived a life of service and love,” said his niece in closing. 

“If he were here today, he would be praying for us and with us and encouraging us to set aside strife and to come together in love. And as we do that, we can surely be blessed, and 2021 will be a very different year than 2020 turned out to be.”

Martin Luther King Jr. Day is observed on the third Monday of January each year. The holiday was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan in 1983 but was officially observed in all 50 states for the first time in 2000.

 


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