Pro-choice Catholics protest at Vatican after abortion left off summit agenda

Quilt featuring stories of Catholic women who have had terminations unfurled outside event hosted by the Pope

Angela Giuffrida in Rome
Thu 3 Oct 2024

A vibrantly coloured, 15-metre-long quilt woven with stories of Catholic women who have had abortions has been unrolled outside the Vatican in protest against the topic being left off the agenda of a major summit hosted by Pope Francis.

Thursday’s demonstration by Catholics for Choice, a US-based abortion rights group, comes days after the pontiff emphasised his traditional views of women while reiterating that abortion was “murder” and that doctors who terminate pregnancies were “hitmen”.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/oct/03/pro-choice-catholics-stage-protest-after-abortion-left-off-summit-agenda

Once a liability for Democrats, abortion gets new life with Harris as nominee

'It was a little frustrating that Biden can barely say the word abortion,' activist says

By Nina Heller
September 4, 2024

Reproductive rights groups say they are more confident that Vice President Kamala Harris will be able to appeal to voters, with some citing frustration with President Joe Biden’s abortion messaging.

Abortion access and reproductive rights have been a central theme in Harris’ campaign since she ascended to the top of the Democratic ticket, with reproductive rights groups hopeful that the Harris campaign can use her message on the issue to further fuel voters’ enthusiasm for her.

Continued; https://rollcall.com/2024/09/04/once-a-liability-for-democrats-abortion-gets-new-life-with-harris-as-nominee/

Abortion rights groups don’t want to “restore Roe” — but they won’t fight Biden on it

Many reproductive health organizations want to codify stronger standards. They’re not going to pick that fight this year.

By Rachel M. Cohen
Feb 5, 2024

When Joe Biden and Kamala Harris held their first joint campaign event of 2024 last month in northern Virginia, they left no doubt that codifying abortion rights would be central to the president’s reelection bid. With the rally timed to honor what would have been the 51st anniversary of Roe v. Wade, Biden stood under a large “Restore Roe” sign and beside supporters holding smaller posters to “Defend Choice.”

“We need the protections of Roe v. Wade in every state. And we can do it. You can do it,” Biden stressed at the event. “Give me a Democratic House of Representatives and give me a bigger — a bigger Democratic Senate, and we will pass a new law restoring the protections of Roe v. Wade, and I will sign it immediately.”

Continued: https://www.vox.com/24056692/abortion-roe-dobbs-2024-biden-election-presidential

USA – Dozens of ‘friend of the court’ briefs backing abortion pill access arrive at Supreme Court

BY: JENNIFER SHUTT
FEBRUARY 2, 2024

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court has been inundated with dozens of organizations seeking to weigh in on the future of the abortion pill by filing “friend of the court” briefs.

The groups include governors, attorneys general, state lawmakers and members of Congress as well as medical organizations, civil rights groups and pharmaceutical companies — all of whom argue the justices’ ruling will have significant effects on American society and health care.

“Turning back the clock to reimpose unnecessary restrictions on mifepristone will exacerbate existing inequities in maternal health for women of color, low-income women, and those living in rural areas,” wrote a group of more than 16 medical organizations, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and The American Medical Association.

Continued: https://wisconsinexaminer.com/2024/02/02/dozens-of-friend-of-the-court-briefs-backing-abortion-pill-access-arrive-at-supreme-court/

02.02.2024

News

American College of Gynecologists and Obstetricians

American Medical Association

Catholics for Choice

Food and Drug Administration

mifepristone

NAACP Legal Defense Fund

Reproductive Freedom Alliance

Catholic activists in Mexico help women reconcile their faith with abortion rights

By María Teresa Hernández, The Associated Press
Saturday, December 16, 2023

MEXICO CITY (AP) — In a corner of their Mexico City office, activists from Catholics for the Right to Decide keep an image of the Virgin Mary close to a green scarf that reads: “Mary was consulted to be mother of God.”

For these Catholic women, prayer does not conflict with their fight for abortion access nor does their devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe prevent them from supporting LGBTQ+ rights.

Continued: https://www.thestar.com/news/world/catholic-activists-in-mexico-help-women-reconcile-their-faith-with-abortion-rights/article_412ee0ae-cd6b-5406-8579-1e40297674d1.html

Pro-choice Catholics fight to seize the narrative from the religious right

Maya Yang
Mon 3 Jul 2023

Since the supreme court overturned Roe v Wade a year ago, reproductive rights have become an even more contentious issue in an already polarized landscape. With more than 1,500 politicians – mostly men – helping ban abortions since Roe fell, Catholic and pro-choice organizations are increasingly trying to carve out space for themselves in the nationwide dialogue to center their own messaging: that being Catholic and pro-choice are not mutually exclusive.

One organization trying to dismantle religious stigma surrounding abortions is Catholics For Choice, a Washington-DC based Catholic abortion rights advocacy group. For CFC, the belief in individual reproductive rights comes as a result of the Catholic faith, not in spite of.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/03/pro-choice-catholics-us

03.07.2023

Biden has reminded us yet again that he’s a weak and lukewarm ally of abortion rights

At a recent fundraiser he said he’s ‘not big on’ abortion. It’s not pro-choice activists who are out of step with the mainstream; it’s Joe Biden

Moira Donegan
Thu 29 Jun 2023

A closed-door fundraiser for the very wealthy is a place where a lot of politicians really shine. Among their fellow elites, surrounded by people like them who like them – and are giving them money – Democrats and Republicans alike often become their truest selves. They drop the flesh-pressing affectations, the focused-group soundbites, the stiff smiles. They become something they’re usually not: honest.

Honest is what Biden was at a similar fundraiser in tony Chevy Chase, Maryland, this past Tuesday, when he told a crowd of his wealthy supporters that he was personally ambivalent about abortion rights. “I’m a practicing Catholic. I’m not big on abortion,” the president said. Nevertheless, he claimed that the compromise Roe v Wade decision on abortion “got it right”.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jun/29/biden-abortion-rights-dobbs-roe-v-wade

29.06.2023

Before Roe, a Baptist Preacher Performed Abortions in Secret. Now He’s Helping Texans.

Dr. Curtis Boyd’s career encapsulates our long-fought abortion wars.

CECILIA NOWELL
Dec 14, 2022

The first thing Dr. Curtis Boyd did when he arrived at work one cloudy Monday morning in January was turn on his radio. It was 1973, and Boyd, an ordained Baptist minister, had been providing underground abortions for five years, most recently out of a mountaintop house in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The only people who knew the location of his clinic were members of the Clergy Consultation Service, a national network of faith leaders that discretely connected patients to reliable, and safe, doctors. As far as Boyd knew, he was the network’s only provider in the Southwest.

A group of Texas women had flown in that morning for appointments, but Boyd was distracted. A Supreme Court decision on Roe v. Wade was expected any day now. He kept one ear tuned to the news as he readied himself for the day. When the story broke that the Supreme Court had recognized the right to an abortion, Boyd and his nurse “looked at each other somewhat in shock” and then embraced. “It’s over, it’s over, thank God at last it’s over,” he says. He no longer had to live in fear that he—or worse, one of his patients—might end up in jail.

Continued: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/12/curtis-boyd-abortion-clergy-consultation-service-preacher-texas-new-mexico-roe/

Abortion access and funding have always been a struggle in U.S. territories

Access to abortion in U.S. territories post-Dobbs is just as difficult as before, and those concerns aren’t even a discussion within the mainstream reproductive rights movement

by Cecille Joan Avila
November 7th, 2022

In June, the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision overturned Roe v. Wade, effectively eliminating the federal right to abortion, but in Guam, it’s been four years since the last surgical abortion provider retired, leaving the small island territory without anyone who can perform the procedure. Pregnant people seeking an abortion can either receive abortifacients by mail, or, if they are beyond the timeframe where it’s possible to have a medication abortion, they have to travel to Hawai‘i. That is only feasible if they have the means to—and many do not.

For many in U.S. territories, getting an abortion hasn’t just depended on the procedure being legal. People have had to rely on community networks and whatever resources were available to get or pay for an abortion. The common factor is that in U.S. territories, they need to know the right people to ask for assistance, information, and resources, which is ultimately an unsustainable way to access a key component of reproductive health.

Continued: https://prismreports.org/2022/11/07/abortion-access-us-territories-struggle/

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