WASHINGTON, D.C., February 6, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – President Barack Obama’s most prominent Catholic supporter is backing away from the radically pro-abortion leader over his administration’s decision to force religious institutions to cover contraception, including abortifacients, and sterilizations.
Doug Kmiec, Obama’s former Ambassador to Malta, revealed this week that he is now “without a candidate” for the 2012 election because of the contraception mandate.
“Until I have an opportunity to speak with the president, I am for now (unhappily) without a candidate,” he wrote in an e-mail to The Hill.
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The news bolsters pundits’ predictions that the contraception mandate could threaten Obama’s fortunes for the 2012 election among the key Catholic swing vote. So far at least 165 U.S. bishops, representing over 90% of American dioceses, have slammed the decision in letters to the faithful, according to CatholicVote.org’s Thomas Peters.
Kmiec, a Republican and former dean at Catholic University of America’s law school, shocked pro-lifers when he endorsed Obama in 2008 and went on tour promoting him as the “pro-life” candidate.
In a Feb. 2nd letter, a copy of which he sent to Catholic Online’s Deacon Keith Fournier, Kmiec told President Obama, “In deciding against a reasonable accommodation of Catholic concerns in the implementation of the health care program, you lost sight of your own beliefs.”
“Why put the cold calculus of politics above faith and freedom?” he wrote. “Please respond, for friendship will not permit me to disregard duty to faith and country. The Barack Obama I knew would never have asked me to make that choice.”
Kmiec said that because of the president’s disregard for freedom of conscience and religion, his words regarding the importance of faith at the National Prayer Breakfast on February 2nd “touched neither soul nor heart in the room.”
“This matter goes to the heart of who we are as a people. The polite, but tepid applause this morning was a sign of concern that you have lost your way on this most essential topic,” he said. “You have already lost the votes of many individuals who stood as people of independent mind against those who sought to defeat your efforts to promote the common good.”
“Where is the common good, Sir, in not making room for the great Catholic traditions of education, health care, and meeting the needs of the least among us?” he added.