In Dubuque, presidential hopeful O'Malley defends pro-choice stance.
During visit to Loras, the former Maryland governor is asked about his support for Planned Parenthood despite being raised as a Catholic.
'Democratic presidential candidate Martin O'Malley was peppered with questions about his Catholic background during a stop Tuesday at Loras College. The former Maryland governor and Baltimore mayor offered the 40 attendees his thoughts about how his religion interacts with his policymaking decisions.
"I'm mindful that I'm at a Catholic institution," said O'Malley, a graduate of Catholic University of America. "If there is a thread that runs through my public service, it is a thread that's very firmly grounded in Catholic social teaching."
He said those values are shared among the "beautiful pluralism" of America. But during the question-and-answer session, O'Malley quickly was asked about his support for policies that attendees viewed as contradictory to Catholic teaching.
"You said that you grew up learning Catholic social teaching and support the dignity of every human person," said Zach Schroeder. "How can you support Planned Parenthood when they're the biggest abortion provider and murderers of numerous human children?"
O'Malley said there are "very few public issues that I've wrestled with as much as this one given my beliefs and given my faith." He defended Planned Parenthood as a provider of preventative health but said abortion is a choice that must be left to the "individual conscience."
O'Malley is not the first candidate to make reference to Catholicism. Earlier this year at Loras, Republican Jeb Bush offered a glimpse into his decision to convert to Catholicism years earlier.
O'Malley's answers regarding his faith resonated with at least one member of the religious clergy present.
"I think he's thought through these questions very carefully," said Sister Dorothy Schwendinger. "His major answer to that question is Catholics can believe and act out of their faith, but we cannot impose our faith on other people."
O'Malley was edgier than in previous Dubuque stops in drawing distinction between himself and the two leading Democratic presidential hopefuls.
On immigration, he called out Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and former New York U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton, saying she was "true to form" for casting a vote to end a 2007 immigration reform bill.
O'Malley did not mention that then-Sen. Barack Obama also cast a decisive key vote to pass the amendment that torpedoed the bill.
But elsewhere O'Malley lavished praise on the president, saying he was "rarely more proud of" Obama than on Monday during his defense of Syrian refugees coming to the United States.
O'Malley additionally addressed his hometown Baltimore's 300th homicide this year. He said that as governor and mayor, he made the city safer, but he also said he is not immune from "setbacks."'
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