Abortion: The Dilemma of Being a Catholic/ Democrat
According to the Oxford Dictionary, Abortion is: The deliberate termination of a human pregnancy, most often performed during the first 28 weeks of pregnancy. I want to talk a bit about why I think abortion should be a woman’s choice, and how the views of the church, and politics, come into play a lot of the times in people’s decision making regarding this difficult subject matter.
Like many Americans, my father was a registered Republican and a devout Catholic. One day I asked him, why? The only answer my father could give me on why he voted that way is that is how the Catholic church wanted him to vote, because he was told that Republicans are Pro-Life. I was confused, so I dug deeper, and sure enough, I found out why. Unlike the Oxford Dictionary mentioned earlier, the Catholic church has a different definition for the term abortion. According to the Catholic church, abortion is the purposeful murder of an innocent, unborn child (SAUNDERS) .
I wanted to know exactly how the Catholic church felt about abortion committed by one of their parishioners, and it did not take me long to find out more information. The Catholic church follows a set of rules or laws called Canon law, which is the name for the Catholic Church’s’ order and discipline, structures, rules, and procedures (What is Canon Law?). Much like our laws in society, the church expects those of the Catholic faith to follow these set of rules. According to Canon law 1398: “A person who procures a completed abortion incurs a latae sententiae excommunication” (Conte). This basically means that any Catholic who deliberately and knowingly obtains a procured abortion, commits a mortal sin, and is also automatically excommunicated from the Catholic church, under Canon Law 1398. Being a Catholic, and a registered Democrat, I have been torn on this issue. Both parties, those for, and those against, have good arguments to make regarding abortion, and I will discuss some of them in the next paragraph.
According to those who are Pro-Life, “life begins at conception, abortion is akin to murder as it is the act of taking human life. Abortion is in direct defiance of the commonly accepted idea of the sanctity of human life” (Lowen). This belief that life begins at conception, is highly debatable, and that is where the problem lies. If you ask someone when life begins, you will probably get an array of many different opinions. According to those who support Pro-choice, “nearly all abortions take place in the first trimester when a fetus is attached by the placenta and the umbilical cord of the mother. As such, its health is dependent on her health, and cannot be regarded as a separate entity, as it cannot exist outside her womb” (Lowen). Abortion should not be considered murder if the fetus is not self-sustaining and requires the mother’s body and physical resources to survive. The body of priority is therefore the mother’s, and it should be her choice, as to what she endures both mentally and physically (Arguements for and Against Abortion).
Dr. Alfred M. Bongioanni, professor of pediatrics and obstetrics at the University of Pennsylvania, stated: “I have learned from my earliest medical education that human life begins at the time of conception…I submit that human life is present throughout this entire sequence from conception to adulthood and that any interruption at any point throughout this time constitutes a termination of human life” (Alcorn).
We have a matter of what biology tells us of life, and what constitutes a life, and what the church teaches us about sin. It all boils down to what a person is, and what is morally acceptable. If it is illegal to kill a human being outside of the womb, then why is it legal to kill a human inside of the womb? It is a subject that has troubled me since I was a child. If what the catholic church teaches me is true, and I consider myself a catholic, then I should side with Pro-Life. But my political side of being a registered Democrat, tells me that I should vote for those that support Pro-Choice.
On January 22, 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its landmark decision in the case of Roe v. Wade, which recognized that the constitutional right to privacy extends to a woman’s right to make her own personal medical decisions — including the decision to have an abortion without interference from politicians (Roe Vs. Wade). So basically, the law is set in stone that abortion is legal under certain circumstances. Does this make it right? I ask myself that question all the time, and ponder what I would do under the circumstances of an unplanned pregnancy.
The Pro- Choice community will tell you that abortion is safe for the mother, but is it really safe? The mention of psychological issues, and long-term depression has rarely been mentioned in articles pertaining to Pro-Choice. In a British study of 164,000 women who had an abortion, the study shows that “women who have an abortion face an increased risk for mental health problems including substance abuse, anxiety, and depression” (Jaslow),
Some might argue, that in the case of rape it is morally acceptable to have an abortion, but not according to one mother of three children. The woman claims, “I was raped a month before I turned 18. And because of that rape I was so fearful and so shameful that I chose abortion, out of fear. My rape was nothing compared to what I did to my child. What my rapist did to me does not compare to what I chose to do to my baby. My rapist didn’t kill me (Sarah).
Pro-Choice and Democrats have used the rape card to fight for the issue of abortion and why it is a woman’s choice. Lesley McAskie, of Great Britain understands these questions all too well — as she was raped when she was a 13-year-old and had an abortion.
“My abortion affected my life for 37 years,” she says. “I got over the rape, but I never got over my abortion experience.” “I was given no counselling beforehand. I was given no counselling after it”. As a consequence, the abortion experience still casts a long shadow over her life (Ertelt).
This is where is gets tricky for me. I believe in abortion under certain circumstances, and after reading the articles about the rape victims, and the statistics regarding mental health issues after abortion, I feel more counseling needs to be done. In my opinion, counseling should be mandatory for anyone considering abortion. Being a Catholic, I cannot say it is morally ethical to abort a fetus. I agree that it is a woman’s choice, but I cannot agree that anyone has the right to end a human life, besides God. I am not a woman, and I cannot know the difficult decisions that follow an unwanted pregnancy, but I will follow what the government says about law, over the Catholic teachings that I grew up with. It is hard to support something that you know is morally wrong, because I believe in a Higher Power, but I can also understand the woman who feel that they are trapped with an unwanted pregnancy.
The argument for most women who choose to abort is: why don’t you just give it up for adoption? I thought about this, too. “In the USA, there are approximately two million infertile couples waiting to adopt, many times regardless of the child’s medical problems” (Brown). The problem with adoption is, many women don’t want to carry the child nine months. Some of the women are young and are hiding the pregnancy from parents out of fear, and some just don’t want to have that emotional attachment to a child, only to give it away after pregnancy. There are good arguments on both sides of the abortion issue, but as I stated before, I may not morally accept abortion, but I still agree that it should be left up to the woman. A woman’s body is a woman’s choice, despite what I believe. After all, I’m only a man.
Works Cited
Alcorn, Randy. “Scientists Attest To Life Beginning At Conception.” 2010. NAAPC.ORG. 20 NOV. 2017.
“Arguements for and Against Abortion.” 2014. Sex Info Online. Web. 21 November 2017. <http://www.soc.ucsb.edu/sexinfo/article/arguments-and-against-abortion>.
Brown, Kristi. “Why do more people choose abortion over adoption.” May 2012. LifeNews.com. 20 Nov 2017.
Conte, Ronald. “Abortion and Excommunication.” 20 May 2004. www.catechism.cc. 20 November 2017. <http://www.catechism.cc/articles/abortion-excommunication.htm>.
Ertelt, Steven. “Woman Who Had Abortion at 13 After Rape: “I Got Over the Rape, I’ll Never Get Over the Abortion”.” 14 Nov 2014. LifeNews.com. 20 Nov. 2017.
Jaslow, Ryan. “Abortion tied to sharp decline in women’s mental health.” 2011. CBS NEWS. 20 NOV 2017.
Lowen, Linda. “20 key arguemnts from both sides of the abortion debate.” 11 Oct. 2017. ThoutCO. 20 Nov. 2017.
“Roe Vs. Wade.” 2017. Planned Parenthood. 20 Nov 2017.
Sarah. “Woman Who Was Raped and Had an Abortion Speaks Out.” 11 JAN. 2013. clinicquotes.com. 20 NOV 2017.
SAUNDERS, FR. WILLIAM. “Automatic Excommunication for Those Who Procure Abortion.” 2003. www.catholiceducation.org. WEB. 20 Nov 2017.
“What is Canon Law?” 2009. www.diocese-tribunal.org. 20 Nov 2017.
