Manipulated

Catholics Manipulated

In the late 60s, Dr. Bernard Nathanson and Lawrence Lader, cofounders of NARAL, devised the “Catholic Strategy” to manipulate Catholic voters to support pro-abortion candidates even if the voter was personally not in favor of abortion.

In essence, NARAL divorced many Catholic voters’ religious convictions from their legislative judgment by telling them that they could remain personally abhorrent toward abortion, but still vote for a pro-abortion candidate because every woman deserves “the right to choose.” This was the famous "Catholic Straddle" giving Catholics a way to "straddle" holding onto their beliefs but encouraging them to keep them private and not impose them on other American women.

The 4 tactics of the Catholic Strategy included:

BLAMING the Catholic leadership any time a woman died of an illegal abortion.
EMPHASIZING Catholic candidates who softened their position on abortion.
SUPPORTING pro-abortion Catholic candidates during elections.
“STRADDLING” – NARAL intentionally provided Catholics with the “straddle” that Catholics could remain personally against abortion but support the idea that every woman deserves the “right to choose.”

Dr. Nathanson called the Straddle “the most brilliant political strategy of all time." Sadly it is still in effect today, not only among Catholics, but also among other well-meaning Americans who are uncomfortable with legalized abortion but don't wish to be "intolerant" of other Americans "rights."

Dr. Nathanson admitted that NARAL deliberately “used” Catholics to advance abortion onto America. "Anti-Catholic warp was a central strategy, a keystone of the abortion movement. It was, in a sense, the self-fulfilling prophecy: knowing that the Catholic Church would vigorously oppose abortion, we laced the campaign with generous dollops of anti-Catholicism, and once the monster was lured out of the cave in response to the abortion challenge and the nakedly biased line we could make the Catholic Church the point man of the opposition. The more vigorously the Catholic Church opposed, the stronger the appeal of the anti-Catholic line became to the liberal media, the northeastern political establishment, to the leftists elements of the Protestant Church, and to Catholic intellectuals themselves...In providing a palpable, visible opposition it allowed those of us setting policy and devising strategy to occupy ourselves with an enemy." The Abortion Papers, p.196

In 1970, NARAL helped pass a very liberal pro-abortion law in New York State which overturned a 140-year-old law protecting babies in the womb from abortion. Catholic legislators helped deliver that pro-abortion victory.

What If We’ve Been Wrong?
Chapter 14 "The Few Perfidious Priests and the Catholic Strategy"