Novi Times

After the passing of celebrated Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the shadow of the presidential election, interested parties on both sides of the aisle are concerned about how a confirmation or delay in appointing Ginsburg’s replacement could sway the court on the issue of abortion.

While Ginsburg had voiced misgivings over the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade prior to her appointment to the court by then President Bill Clinton in 1993, her time on the court saw Ginsburg consistently voting in ways that expanded access to abortions, according to coverage by Catholic News Service. As recently as this June, Ginsburg’s was significant in a 5-4 ruling that favored women having access to abortions.

Trump’s position on abortion was recently reaffirmed when he promised to sign an executive order requiring health care providers to give medical care to all babies born alive, a move that some presume is meant to strengthen his support among Catholics, according to reporting by the Associated Press.

Yet, it has yet to be shown whether the abortion issue will be enough to sway Catholics who do not already support Trump.

Ernie Bock, a father of five from Novi, told the Novi Times that, as a devout Catholic, he could not support Joe Biden specifically because of his stance on abortion.

“I believe in every Church teaching. I believe to be in good standing as a Catholic, you need to believe all that the Church teaches regarding dogma,” Bock told the Novi Times. “And, abortion being an intrinsic evil, I strongly oppose any candidate that is not pro-life, and rather pro-abortion.”

In fact, Bock said he wishes that abortion was more strongly condemned by Catholic clergy in the U.S. than it is.

“We spent a lot of time recently talking about racism – rightly so; it’s a horrible injustice when that happens – and we talk about the poor, we have food pantries and we give to the poor and everything, but it’s remarkable to me how little we talk about abortion,” Bock told the Novi Times.

While Bock said he would have likely called himself pro-life before having his first child 30 years ago, the experience of becoming a father made that conviction more real.

With such a strong view on abortion, Bock said it is the most important issue for him in any election, and would make or break his decision regardless the other stances a candidate takes. In fact, if a candidate is not pro-life, Bock has no interest in what their other stances are.

“It’s my number-one issue that everything else flows from,” he told the Novi Times.