Archbishop William Lori, speaks at a Legatus conference on Feb 8, 2013. / Patrick Novecosky/Legatus

Denver Newsroom, Jul 9, 2022 / 20:15 pm (CNA).

The chair of the U.S. bishops’ pro-life committee on Saturday called President Joe Biden’s executive order aimed at protecting abortion access “deeply disturbing.”

“It is deeply disturbing and tragic that President Biden is choosing instead to use his power as President of the United States to promote and facilitate abortion in our country, seeking every possible avenue to deny unborn children their most basic human and civil right, the right to life,” Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore said July 9.

“Rather than using the power of the executive branch to increase support and care to mothers and babies, the president’s executive order seeks only to facilitate the destruction of defenseless, voiceless human beings,” he lamented.

Biden signed the executive order July 8 in response to the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, which returned the question of abortion regulation to the states.

The president called it “a moment to restore the rights that have been taken away from us, and the moment to protect our nation from an extremist agenda that is antithetical to everything we believe as Americans.”

Archbishop Lori noted, “In response to the Dobbs decision, I called for the healing of wounds and repairing of social divisions, for reasoned reflection and civil dialogue, and for coming together to build a society and economy that supports marriages and families, and where every woman has the support and resources she needs to bring her child into this world in love.”

“And as religious leaders, we pledged ourselves to continue our service to God’s great plan of love for the human person, and to work with our fellow citizens to fulfill America’s promise to guarantee the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all people.”

The archbishop implored Biden “to abandon this path that leads to death and destruction and to choose life. As always, the Catholic Church stands ready to work with this Administration and all elected officials to protect the right to life of every human being and to ensure that pregnant and parenting mothers are fully supported in the care of their children before and after birth.”

Biden, a Catholic, has repeatedly supported abortion rights despite with the Catholic Church’s teaching that human life must be respected and protected from the moment of conception.