Pseudo-Catholic group says right to abortion ‘essential’ for women

Mexico City, Mexico, Mar 26, 2006 / 22:00 pm

The Mexican branch of the pro-abortion group “Catholics for a Free Choice” (CFFC) presented the Spanish version of the book, “Our Right to Choose: Toward a New Ethic of Abortion,” in Mexico City last week, in a ceremony attended by various leaders of the movement to legalize abortion in Latin America.

The author, Beverly Wildung Harrison, who wrote the book in English in 1983, attended the event, along with Frances Kissling, the founder of “Catholics for a Free Choice.” Chery White, professor at the Methodist seminary of Mexico, Maria Van Doren, a missionary nun of the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and Maria Consuelo Mejia, director of CFFC in Mexico, were likewise all in attendance.

During the event, Mejia said the book was a fundamental component of the feminist strategy to legalize abortion, which she called “a social good.”  “Power today is in the hands of women, and therefore the outlook for Latin America is hopeful” for the legalization of abortion, she said.

Mejia also called Christian tradition "insufficient, because throughout the centuries it has denied women the right to choose regarding procreation.”

“The right to choose regarding procreation is indispensable for there to be a truly moral society.  This right of women to choose, including access to abortion, is an indispensable good for the building of a more equitable, free and just society, to be able to exercise reproductive power as a social good utilized in their benefit and not as a biological accident,” Mejia added.

 “No society can be considered moral if it does not foster and spread the right to decide about reproduction,” she said.

During her remarks, Frances Kissling said it was essential “to speak of a Christian ethic of abortion, it’s time for women to write the four gospels; because Christian conservative tradition is become stronger and is silencing the debate.”

Maria Van Doren, who is a Sister of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, called herself a collaborator to CFFC.  “It’s possible to give another theological explication to these issues in order to remove the sense of guilt from abortion, because it is not murder and it is not true that women who accept it have no conscience,” she said.  

“The book,” she continued, “emphasizes that sexuality should not necessarily lead to procreation, and that having a family is not a divine mandate.  The Bible with all its myths cannot give a theological argument.”  “Women should have the right to decide about the fetus, without any absolute parameters,” Van Doren said.