There's mixed coherence in the Catholic Church. Priests were cheerleading the war in Iraq from the pulpit as recently as 2005. My dad voted for Bush even though he's ridiculously pro-death penalty, and against the same kinds of common-sense support for children and pregnant women discussed in this ad.

My mom is much more coherent and won't vote for anybody unless there's a 3rd party person running on the Right to Life party who holds a more coherent Catholic worldview. This ad will be effective for the 30% or so of Catholics who aren't rabidly anti-abortion, but they're all probably voting for Obama already. There's probably about 10% of Catholics in play, just like in the country as a whole. And this ad might be helpful in moving them.

This ad will be effective for the 30% or so of Catholics who aren't rabidly anti-abortion, but they're all probably voting for Obama already.

Polls show that Catholics are no more anti-abortion than the population at large.

Furthermore, Democrats have, in the past, usually won the Catholic vote (although Kerry narrowly lost it in 2004).

Many Catholic voters, as well as the bishops, do take this ideological coherence, but in the past Democrats and independent groups have avoided messaging on it because they assumed abortion was the trump. Good that this assumption is being shaken up.

"This ad assumes there is ideological coherence for many anti-abortion voters, in that they also consciously support social welfare policies and oppose unnecessary wars. Not sure how true that is . . ."

You really have to get to know some pro-life people personally, instead of reading and hearing about the shouters.

Sorry, that last comment was by me.

Also: this is a badly-needed and "affecting" ad, as Dana said.