When Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama tapped Senator Joseph Biden (D-Delaware) to be his running mate, he was counting on more than Biden’s Washington insider experience to help balance the ticket. The next possible vice president is the son of working-class Irish Catholics, as well as a Catholic prep school graduate who briefly considered the priesthood. Obama’s campaign hopes this strategic No. 2 pick will make inroads into this key constituency.

Catholic voters as a whole are not beholden to any one political party. In fact, although they are traditionally aligned with the Democratic Party, Catholics have demonstrated in recent times the willingness to cross party lines when it comes to promoting important social issues. This year, polls show white Catholics, who account for nearly one in five U.S. voters, evenly divided between Obama and his Republican rival John McCain.

Biden’s selection, meant to tip the scales in favor of Obama, might prove otherwise. Senator Biden, though a self-proclaimed devout Catholic, is a staunch supporter of abortion rights, a position in direct conflict with the fundamental teaching of the Church. Despite this err in judgment, Biden told the Christian Science Monitor in an interview, “My views are totally consistent with Catholic social doctrine.” Unfortunately, his record begs to differ.

When Biden was first elected in 1972, he believed that Roe v. Wade was not correctly decided and that a right of abortion was not secured by the Constitution. Now however, Biden joins the ranks of other Catholic Democrats with national ambitions who abandoned earlier pro-life views: Ted Kennedy, Mario Cuomo, Dick Gephardt, Tom Daschle, Dennis Kucinich, and John Kerry just to name a few.

Throughout his six-term tenure in the U.S. Senate, Biden has evolved from at first claiming to be “personally opposed to abortion,” to declaring Roe v. Wade sacred ground. He has even voted to block the nominations of fellow Catholic Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito and John Roberts based upon their pro-life stances. It appears that despite his early personal reservations about abortion, the veteran senator has earned himself the enthusiastic thumbs up from one of America’s leading pro-abortion advocacy groups, NARAL Pro-Choice America. “Sen. Biden has consistently expressed support for a woman’s right to choose,” the group said in a statement issued following the big announcement.

The Church’s position on the moral responsibility of Catholic politicians is quite clear. In “The Participation of Catholics in Political Life,” The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith affirms this sense of duty with distinct deliberation. “No Catholic can appeal to the principle of pluralism or to the autonomy of lay involvement in political life to support policies affecting the common good which compromise or undermine fundamental ethical requirements.”

For Catholic voters, the decision this year will not be easy to make. Balancing many issues and considerations will take prayer and contemplation. However, when it comes to standing up for the inalienable right-to-life, Catholic involvement in politics cannot compromise on this principle. For any Catholic politician who abdicates this responsibility, the real choice for Catholic voters becomes much clearer.

Eric Ulrich is a Republican District Leader in South Queens and a parishioner of Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Ozone Park.