What has been the church’s role in the reproductive health movement? I realize that while my church is socially progressive on issues of racism, that there is still much to be done within the realm of women’s everyday issues, and especially as they relate to issues of sexuality, sexual violence, reproductive justice, and women’s sexual and overall health.
In 1989, the historic bifurcation between abortion providers and political activists had finally begun to dissolve, and a powerful new alliance was beginning to form. Providers were now at the forefront of the abortion rights struggle, and patients themselves, in the midst of the most personal and intimate of decisions and life events, were thrust into a vortex of politics and passion. This is one story from that time.
I spent my formative years believing my body, my life and my choices were not my own, but a kind of joint property between myself, God, my parents and my church friends and family. As such, my body and my behavior was up for discussion and judgment. Is it any wonder then, that I’m afraid, as a single woman, to be pregnant?
Church was the place I first heard the word feminism, and where I first practiced putting a condom on a banana. So what’s happened to liberal religion?
Coverage of the most recent in a series of church child-abuse scandals may indicate the gradual beginning of a shift, a willingness for media interrogation not just of religious figures, but of outdated religious ideas.
Democratic leaders will be doing both the right thing, as well as the politically strategic one, if they keep religion out of public policy.
Legalized abortion in Catholic Spain? Maybe the times really are changing.
