This Pro-Abortion “Catholic” Prayed the Supreme Court Would Uphold Abortion

National   |   Emily Derois   |   Jun 27, 2016   |   12:21PM   |   Washington, DC

The Supreme Court issued its major abortion decision today striking down part of a Texas pro-life law protecting women’s health and saving babies from abortion.

TIME Magazine posted an article on June 21st by a pro-abortion Catholic stating that, against Catholic teachings, she and her fellow Catholics want abortion to be protected by law.

Prompted by the then-approaching decision by the U.S. Supreme Court concerning Whole Women’s Health v. Hellerstedt, a case challenging Texas abortion laws, Sara Hutchinson Ratcliffe writes that as a Catholic she is praying that bishops will support pro-abortion laws. Ratcliffe is a program director for the pro-abortion group Catholics for Choice.

Ratcliffe gives several reasons for her disapproval of pro-life laws, beginning with bills that “require waiting periods, mandatory ultrasounds and targeted regulations of abortion providers.” These bills were enacted to educate and protect women in abortion clinics from lies and manipulation; however she claims they only succeed in making abortion less accessible.

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Ratcliffe also insists that pro-life laws make it especially difficult for “poor women, women of color and residents of rural areas” to have abortions, completely ignoring the evidence that abortion facilities, such as Planned Parenthood, target minority women for abortions rather than provide them and their babies with the support that they need.

Ratcliffe writes: “As a Catholic, I have been taught that social justice and caring for the poor are central to my faith. It’s appalling that so many women face obstacles to an essential and legal health-care procedure, especially when I consider the role that a minority faction of my church has played in passing laws to make it difficult or impossible to access abortion and contraception.”

Although Ratcliffe states that Catholic bishops are “betraying their own flock” by supporting life-affirming laws, her opinions are in direct conflict with the Church’s teaching. The Catechism of the Catholic Church clearly writes in defense of the sanctity of unborn life, “Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception.”

Catholic bishops are already fighting to protect women and their families. They are striving to end misinformation and malpractice in abortion facilities; and Catholic agencies are providing life-affirming resources to help women choose life for their babies and raise them. Ratcliffe fails to see how the pro-life laws that she is attacking are necessary to protect patients and ensure their physical and mental wellbeing.

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