Well, this topic seemed in sore need of a Catholic to explain some things.
There are 5 questions that seem to be at the heart of the current question regarding the Church's policy regarding abortion politics and Holy Communion.
1) Does active support for legalized abortion make a politician unworthy for the reception of the Blessed Sacrament?
2) Should the Church deny Holy Communion to such a politician because of his public stance against her teachings?
3) Who should make the decision to deny Holy Communion to such a person if they are not publicly excommunicated?
4) Is it a Mortal Sin for the individual voter to cast their ballot for a pro-abortion politician?
5) Should those who vote for pro-abortion politicians because of their stance on abortion be denied Holy Communion?
I will try to address each of these questions in turn from a Catholic perspective. (Though not in the same post)
*NOTE: This is part of an article that I had written in a student publication, on a Catholic campus, so its original intended audience was Catholic.*
1) Does active support for legalized abortion make a politician unworthy for the reception of the Blessed Sacrament? St. Paul establishes in his First Epistle to the Corinthians that there is such a thing as unworthiness when approaching the Blessed Sacrament and that those who are unworthy should not receive.
1 Corinthians 11:
26 For as often as you shall eat this bread and drink the chalice, you shall shew the death of the Lord, until he come.
27 Therefore, whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and of the blood of the Lord.
28 But let a man prove himself: and so let him eat of that bread and drink of the chalice.
29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning the body of the Lord.
The
Catechism of the Catholic Church informs us that it is grave sin that makes us unworthy to receive the Blessed Sacrament.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1385:
Anyone conscious of a grave sin must receive the sacrament of Reconciliation before coming to communion.
The gravity of the sin of abortion and its support by legitimate authority are expressed by Pope John Paul II using very firm language in his encyclical letter,
Evangelium Vitae.
Pope John Paul II,
Evangelium Vitae, 57:
Therefore, by the authority which Christ conferred upon Peter and his Successors, and in communion with the Bishops of the Catholic Church, I confirm that the direct and voluntary killing of an innocent human being is always gravely immoral. This doctrine, based upon that unwritten law which man, in the light of reason, finds in his own heart (cf. Rom 2:14-15), is reaffirmed by Sacred Scripture, transmitted by the Tradition of the Church and taught by the ordinary and universal Magisterium. 51
The deliberate decision to deprive an innocent human being of his life is always morally evil and can never be licit either as an end in itself or as a means to a good end. It is in fact a grave act of disobedience to the moral law, and indeed to God himself, the author and guarantor of that law; it contradicts the fundamental virtues of justice and charity. "Nothing and no one can in any way permit the killing of an innocent human being, whether a fetus or an embryo, an infant or an adult, an old person, or one suffering from an incurable disease, or a person who is dying. Furthermore, no one is permitted to ask for this act of killing, either for himself or herself or for another person entrusted to his or her care, nor can he or she consent to it, either explicitly or implicitly. Nor can any authority legitimately recommend or permit such an action".52
Does active support for legalized abortion make a politician unworthy for the reception of the Blessed Sacrament? Yes it does, and considering that Holy Communion is Christs actual Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, it is fitting that this be reserved for those that participate in His Divine Life through Sanctifying Grace. Furthermore, considering that abortion is the killing of innocent human life, and therefore murder, it is not hard to see how the promotion of it would constitute a mortal sin that deprives a person of Sanctifying Grace. It must also be noted that when a politician promotes abortion, they are publicly opposing the Churchs moral teaching.