Archbishop-elect Carlson has been outspoken in the area of life issues, particularly abortion. In 2003, he had a well-publicized dispute with Sen. Tom Daschle of SD about Daschle's positions on abortion. The archbishop-elect said at a press conference April 22 that the matter was intended to be a private one.

In November 2008, he issued a statement on the election of President Barack Obama, noting that "this moment in American history also comes with many setbacks in the continuing struggle to protect the rights and dignity of all people, especially the unborn."

In that statement, he also spoke out against the passage of Proposal 2, a state constitutional amendment that protects human cloning and ESCR and allows government funding of stem-cell research.

"The culture has chosen to reject the matters that are nearest and dearest to the Catholic heart," he wrote. "Therefore, our witness must grow stronger."