For Churches, Abortion Politics Is a Double-Edged Sword

Ireland and Poland went in entirely opposite directions on abortion. Why?

By Amanda Taub
Sept. 21, 2022

For the past several years, as I have struggled to put the escalating tumult of global abortion politics into some sort of order inside my own mind, I have returned over and over to two events.

They happened in different countries, in different years. They produced opposite outcomes. And yet I could not shake the feeling that looking at them together might help me understand something important about the way the world works.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/21/world/europe/abortion-ireland-poland.html

Who wins the battle over Lagos abortion policy?

By CHINYERE OKOROAFOR
On Sep 19, 2022

The Lagos State abortion policy seeks to achieve safe termination of pregnancy within the ambits of the law. However, like many new policies, the initiative is mired in controversies, with opposition to it coming from many sides, including the Catholic Church. In this report, CHINYERE OKOROAFOR examines the issues.

On 28 June 2022, the Lagos State Government unveiled a 40-page policy document on safe termination of pregnancy. It was designed to reduce “preventable deaths” usually caused by unsafe abortion procedures. The policy is meant to guide medical practitioners and other stakeholders on when it is lawful or unlawful to terminate a pregnancy.

Continued: https://thenationonlineng.net/who-wins-the-battle-over-lagos-abortion-policy/

USA – The Catholic Church Is Bankrolling a Nationwide Assault on Women’s Rights

A majority of Catholics support a woman's right to choose, but dioceses are funding campaigns for state-level abortion bans across the country

BY TESSA STUART
SEPTEMBER 12, 2022

THERE WAS NO winner in last month’s vote on abortion rights in Kansas. Technically, nothing changed after voters overwhelmingly rejected a ballot measure intended to strip abortion protections out of the state’s constitution. When the race was called on the evening of August 2, every Kansan retained the same set of rights they’d woken up with that morning. But there was a loser: the ballot initiative’s largest financial backer by a long shot, the Catholic Church, whose dioceses squandered millions of dollars on the failed effort.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kansas City contributed $3.18 million, the Catholic Diocese of Wichita, $652,355; $175,000 came from the Diocese of Salina; tens of thousands more from smaller churches scattered around the state. The Kansas Catholic Conference threw in $275,000. Together, the donations amounted to well over half of the Value Them Both Association’s total haul — an “absolutely stunning” amount of money, says Jamie Manson, the president of the advocacy group Catholics for Choice.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/catholic-church-roe-wade-abortion-kansas-michigan-1234589927/

12.09.2022

U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

Ireland’s Struggle for Abortion Rights Should Be an Inspiration for the US

Ireland’s Struggle for Abortion Rights Should Be an Inspiration for the US

BY SINÉAD KENNEDY
Aug 22, 2022

Irish pro-choice activists had to overcome a rigid constitutional ban on abortion that was in place for more than 30 years. They succeeded by putting mass mobilization and a confident assertion of the right to choose at the heart of their campaign.

In May 2018, the Irish electorate voted by a two-to-one majority to remove or “repeal” the prohibition on abortion, known as the Eighth Amendment, from the country’s constitution. While opinion polls had suggested that pro-choice campaigners would win, most predicted a nerve-rackingly close result; certainly no one anticipated the sheer scale of the victory and the support for abortion access found across every section of society, from young to old, urban to rural.

Continued: https://jacobin.com/2022/08/ireland-abortion-rights-repeal-campaign-us-roe

Malta: The only EU country where abortion is illegal leaves women scared

By Jessica Parker and Sira Thierij, BBC News, Malta
Aug 11, 2022

Alone, in her family bathroom, a woman secretly searches for information about abortion on her phone. This was Maria - not her real name - after finding out she was pregnant.

"I was scared," she says. "I didn't know what the police [would] do. I thought maybe they would be searching for people googling the word abortion. And then you obviously get paranoid and your thoughts get carried away."

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62479624

Philippines: Rights groups fear rollback of reproductive care
Many fear that the US move to overturn Roe v. Wade could curb tenuous rights gains in the Philippines. Abortion policies in the country are some of the most restrictive in the world.

Aug 11, 2022
Ana P. Santos

Women's rights advocates in the Philippines fear that the overturning of Roe v. Wade in the United States could also reverse precarious gains in reproductive and sexual health rights in the Southeast Asian country. The US ruling, which was made in 1973 and overturned in June, guaranteed the constitutional right to an abortion.

Many believe that the United States' approach to reproductive health care could set the stage for the Philippines.

Continued: https://www.dw.com/en/philippines-rights-groups-fear-rollback-of-reproductive-care/a-62781467

A Catholic cartoon helps Mexicans reconcile faith with abortion rights

By Annalisa Merelli
Published August 5, 2022

Sister Juana Ilega and Father Beto work together in a parish. Both of them have Catholic faith strong enough to become the center of their existence, yet they don’t always see eye to eye on matters of morality or religion.

Father Beto is in line with mainstream Catholic doctrine. But Sister Juana is a feminist. She thinks the church should create more space for women, and interfere less with issues of sexuality and reproductive rights. To counter his positions, she uses the most powerful tool she has: scripture.

Continued: https://qz.com/a-catholic-cartoon-helps-mexicans-reconcile-faith-with-1849372958

The Irish Lesson

If the purpose of abortion bans is to actually reduce the rate at which women terminate pregnancies, the Irish experience shows how utterly ineffectual they are.

Fintan O’Toole
August 18, 2022 issue, NY Books (posted July 27)

In 1973, soon after the US Supreme Court established a right to abortion in Roe v. Wade, Charles E. Rice concluded that “the essential remedy to the abortion problem is a constitutional amendment.” Rice is an important figure in the intellectual history of the antiabortion movement that is now, with the recent overturning of Roe, enjoying its moment of triumph. He was a cofounder of the Conservative Party of New York State, formed by those who considered the Republican Party too liberal; one of his scholarly tracts is an attack on the Voting Rights Act of 1965. As a professor of constitutional law, he established Notre Dame University in Indiana as a redoubt of the conservative Catholic legal thinking whose influence most fully blossomed when Donald Trump appointed Rice’s colleague and associate Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.

Continued: https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2022/08/18/the-irish-lesson-fintan-otoole/

Abortion’s illegal in the Catholic majority Philippines, so more than a million women a year turn to other options

By Heather Chen, CNN
Mon July 18, 2022

Miriam has seen her share of high-risk operations and procedures in her years as a veteran doctor in the Philippines -- but none quite as "complicated or as dangerous" as abortions, she said.

"We take on huge risks if we agree to perform an abortion," said Miriam, who is using an alias to protect herself from prosecution in the Philippines. She has performed four abortions on women aged 23 to 48 -- all in secret.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/18/asia/philippines-abortion-ban-debate-women-rights-roe-wade-intl-hnk-dst/index.html

The plan to overturn abortion rights in Europe

The activists taking inspiration — and money — from US anti-abortion groups

BY CARLO MARTUSCELLI
June 28, 2022

When news broke that the U.S. Supreme Court had overturned decades of precedent and opened the door to abortion bans across the country, the reaction from opponents of the procedure in Europe was simple: We can do it too.

With support for legal abortion in Europe polling at the highest in the world, its opponents know they are rowing against the tide. But activists on the Continent got a practical demonstration of how a determined minority can make the impossible happen last weekend, when the U.S. Supreme Court confirmed a POLITICO scoop that it was repealing the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling. The decision made, or will soon make, abortion illegal across 16 states.

https://www.politico.eu/article/roe-vs-wade-us-the-european-activists-taking-inspiration-and-money-from-us-anti-abortion-groups/