By Agostino Bono
Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) – U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the Republicans' presumptive presidential nominee, has been praised and criticized for his pro-life record.

Praised by the National Right to Life Committee and opposed by Planned Parenthood, McCain has been accused of being too soft on abortion and cool to pro-life issues in general.

Critics point out that a major chink in McCain's pro-life armor is his support for embryonic stem-cell research in which human embryos are destroyed to extract the cells, and they add that he is not aggressively anti-abortion.

His defenders note McCain's consistent anti-abortion voting record and say his language is changing on stem-cell issues, especially as research using adult stem cells and some treatments using them have moved forward.

McCain's campaign Web site states that he favors the reversal of the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in the United States, opposes the creation of human embryos for research purposes, would outlaw the use of cells or fetal tissue from embryos created for research purposes, and opposes human cloning.

A strong McCain critic is Rick Santorum, a Republican and former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, who made anti-abortion support a key plank in his election campaigns. In a series of radio talk-show interviews Santorum placed his pro-life criticism of McCain within the broader context of what he called McCain's lack of commitment to a wide range of conservative Republican issues.

At private meetings where Republican senators discussed which legislation to bring to a floor debate, McCain fought against "social conservative issues, whether it's marriage or abortion," said Santorum, a Catholic.

"He always fought against us to even bring them up, because he was uncomfortable voting for them," said Santorum.

"I don't know what Rick is talking about," said Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan. "John (McCain) voted with us" on anti-abortion issues, he said.

Any behind-the-scenes actions by McCain would have been more a question of which issues have priority for floor debate, Brownback added.

Brownback, who is also a Catholic and has a 100 percent pro-life rating by the National Right to Life Committee for the current congressional session, endorsed McCain for the Republican nomination after dropping out of the primaries. McCain has a 66 percent rating but did not vote on three of the six votes monitored by the National Right to Life Committee.

At this stage, the degree of McCain's pro-life commitment is an "abstract discussion," Brownback said.

The issue now for pro-life voters is that McCain is the likely Republican nominee and will face off against either Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York or Democratic Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, both supporters of legalized abortion, said Brownback.

Regarding human embryonic stem-cell research, Brownback said that McCain's "language has gotten better" and that the Arizona senator has expressed hope that scientific advances with adult stem cells would make the question moot.

Another reason why McCain is a good pro-life candidate is that "we are one vote away from overturning Roe," Brownback said, and McCain as president would likely be able to appoint Supreme Court judges.

McCain critic Mark Stricherz, however, said that McCain "flip-flops" on pro-life issues making it uncertain what he would do as president to stop federal funding of human embryonic stem-cell research or in appointing judges willing to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision.

In 1999 published remarks, McCain opposed overturning the Roe decision and "he has never sponsored pro-life legislation," Stricherz said in an article in the Feb. 3-9 National Catholic Register weekly newspaper.

Stricherz, an author and journalist specializing in political and religious issues, told CNS that McCain may change on embryonic stem-cell research "but he has to flip-flop. Does he want to look like a flip-flopper?"

Stricherz had no comment when asked if he would vote for McCain against either Clinton or Obama.

Austin Ruse, president of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, supports McCain because he is "pro-life and electable."

McCain had "two bad votes," funding human embryonic stem-cell research and allowing use of fetal tissue, Ruse told CNS. "Every other vote is true blue as a pro-lifer," he said.