The history of Catholic teaching on abortion isn’t as clear cut as you think

The history of Catholic teaching on abortion isn’t as clear cut as you think
Its position has hardly been “unchangeable” throughout the past two millennia.

Molly Monk
Jan—16—2020

Even though 56 percent of U.S. Catholics believe that abortion should be legal in most or all cases, it’s a commonly held belief that being “pro-choice” is incompatible with being Catholic. That’s not surprising, given the Catholic Church’s stance on abortion seems pretty clear cut: abortion is a murder. The Catechism of the Catholic Church even says, “Since the first century, the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable.”

That’s not exactly true, though.

Continued: https://theoutline.com/post/8536/catholic-history-abortion-brigid?zd=1&zi=e7p376ws

USA – Hospitals Kill and Injure Women in the Name of ‘Pro-Life’ Ethics

Hospitals Kill and Injure Women in the Name of 'Pro-Life' Ethics

ZawnVillines
Thursday November 21, 2019

The woman arrived at a Texas hospital so ill she couldn’t walk. Her last pregnancy caused heart failure, and the new pregnancy put her at immediate risk of cardiac arrest, according to a Rewire interview with Dr. Ghazaleh Moayedi, the physician who cared for the woman. But hospital administrators refused to give the woman an abortion. She wouldn’t die right then, they reasoned, so she wasn’t really “dead enough” to justify life-saving care. The woman had no insurance and no other realistic options for life-saving care. She left the hospital and Dr. Moayedi never learned what happened to her.

Her story is not an outlier. Women across the nation who need life-saving abortion care or miscarriage treatment may not receive it. And thanks to “conscience laws,” they might not even know they need the care.

Continued: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/11/21/1900989/-Hospitals-Kill-and-Injure-Women-in-the-Name-of-Pro-Life-Ethics

Podcast: Abortion Wars (Europe)

Abortion Wars

Why are more women from Poland and Croatia seeking pregnancy terminations abroad? (Photo: EU Scream)

By EU Scream
BRUSSELS, July 21, 2019

33-minute podcast on the topic of abortion under attack: "Why are more women from Poland and Croatia seeking pregnancy terminations abroad?" Discusses refusal to treat under “conscientious objection”, the anti-choice movement, how the LGBT community faces the same enemy as the pro-choice movement, also Romania.

Continued: https://euobserver.com/eu-scream/145486

Ireland – GPs sign petition calling for meeting over abortion legislation

GPs sign petition calling for meeting over abortion legislation
Some GPs are critical of the Government for not considering 'genuine concerns' over freedom of conscience

Wednesday, 31 Oct 2018
By Ailbhe Conneely, RTÉ News Political reporter

Hundreds of GPs have signed a petition calling on the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP) to convene an Extraordinary General Meeting to ensure that all views are reflected in discussions around abortion legislation.

Committee stage of the Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy Bill will begin in the Oireachtas next week, when amendments will be discussed.

Continued: https://www.rte.ie/news/health/2018/1031/1007823-abortion/

UK – Bill to give medical staff right to refuse role in abortions condemned

Bill to give medical staff right to refuse role in abortions condemned
Bill would expand rights of conscientious objection for healthcare professionals

Tim Wyatt
Wed 21 Mar 2018

Pro-choice groups have condemned an attempt to create new laws that would allow doctors and nurses to refuse to take part in abortions on moral grounds.

A private bill going through the House of Lords that would expand rights of conscientious objection for healthcare professionals has been dismissed as unnecessary by abortion providers and campaigners.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/21/bill-to-give-medical-staff-right-to-refuse-role-in-abortions-condemned

UK: Home abortions ‘could see more objections from GPs and pharmacists’

Home abortions 'could see more objections from GPs and pharmacists'

Feb 8, 2018

A midwife who campaigned for staff to opt out of abortion work fears plans for "at home" abortions could see a rise in objections from health staff.

Mary Doogan lost her fight to not be responsible for other colleagues involved in terminations. She thinks the plans to allow women to take the second abortion pill at home will implicate GPs and pharmacists.

Continued: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-42989711

USA: Health Workers Who Oppose Abortion Get New Protections

Health Workers Who Oppose Abortion Get New Protections
By ROBERT PEAR
JAN. 18, 2018

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration announced on Thursday that it was taking new steps to protect doctors, nurses and other health workers who have religious or moral objections to performing abortions or sex-change operations, or providing other medical services.

The move, one day before the annual March for Life in Washington, was a priority for anti-abortion groups.

Administration officials urged people to report discrimination to a new unit of the federal government: the conscience and religious freedom division of the office for civil rights at the Department of Health and Human Services.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/18/us/health-care-office-abortion-contraception.html

Ireland: Catholics have evolved in their thinking about abortion

Catholics have evolved in their thinking about abortion
Irish Catholics stand by women, and trust them to be moral agents of their own lives

Jan 15, 2018
Jon O'Brien

Ireland is undertaking a historic debate on abortion and the Eighth Amendment. A prominent voice in this debate will be the Catholic hierarchy. Just last week the Catholic Primate Archbishop Eamon Martin argued that even in instances of rape the Catholic position would be to deny a woman her right to end the pregnancy. He also called for the voices of Catholics to be heard.

On that I agree with him – Catholics must be respected, and their views on the Eighth Amendment should be heard. Where we disagree is on what Catholics might have to say.

Continued: https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/catholics-have-evolved-in-their-thinking-about-abortion-1.3356297