Following the announcement of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade, which is anticipated to steer to abortion bans or restrictions in about half of U.S. states, many Catholic leaders welcomed the news as a culmination of many years of pro-life activism while also calling for the creation of a stronger social safety net to help women facing crisis pregnancies.
“For nearly fifty years, America has enforced an unjust law that has permitted some to choose whether others can live or die,” said Archbishop José Gómez, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Archbishop William Lori, the pinnacle of the bishops’ pro-life committee, in a joint statement. “We thank God today that the Court has now overturned this decision. We pray that our elected officials will now enact laws and policies that promote and protect essentially the most vulnerable amongst us.”
Catholic leaders welcomed the news as a culmination of many years of pro-life activism while also calling for the creation of a stronger social safety net.
The archbishops praised “the prayers, sacrifices, and advocacy of countless abnormal Americans from every walk of life” who’ve protested against abortion rights and said “the pro-life movement deserves to be numbered amongst the nice movements for social change and civil rights in our nation’s history.”
With many states expected to enact strict prohibitions against abortion within the wake of the court’s ruling, Archbishop Gómez and Archbishop Lori said, “Now’s the time to start the work of constructing a post-Roe America.”
They called for “civil dialogue” and “for coming together to construct a society and economy that supports marriages and families, and where every woman has the support and resources she must bring her child into this world in love.”
A statement from the Society of Jesus in the US called abortion “a large injustice in our society” and praised the choice as “a critical step toward the legal protection of all unborn children.”
The U.S. Jesuits also called for constructing a “stronger social safety net than our country has today.”
A statement from the Society of Jesus in the US called abortion “a large injustice in our society” and praised the choice as “a critical step.”
“To be truly pro-life, we must support all women, expectant parents and their children by advocating for policies like universal health care, paid parental leave and a more equitable distribution of our country’s abundant resources,” the statement said.
A gaggle of Catholic scholars were less smitten by the ruling, warning that it could put the health and safety of ladies in danger.
“A majority of Catholics recognize that criminalizing abortion doesn’t help the poor and vulnerable in our society,” Natalia Imperatori-Lee, a professor of non secular studies at Manhattan College, said in a press release circulated by the progressive activist organization Faith in Public Life. “This ruling will endanger lives, especially those of poor women of color. We will trust women to make moral decisions about their lives.”
M. Therese Lysaught, a professor on the Neiswanger Institute for Bioethics and Health Care Leadership at Loyola University Chicago and a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life, said in the identical release that the pro-life movement’s give attention to Roe got here on the expense of addressing the underlying reasons that compel people to show to abortion.
“It has never truly been about life: it has simply sought to overturn Roe with little try to practically address the basis causes of abortion,” Dr. Lysaught said. “It has never been about making a context where children are cared for and nurtured as a part of the common good.”
She called the Dobbs decision a “tactic in a broader strategy of hijacking established constitutional, judicial processes which might be vital for sustaining a sturdy, democratic polity and the common good.”
A gaggle of Catholic scholars were less smitten by the ruling, warning that it could put the health and safety of ladies in danger.
Gloria Purvis, the host of The Gloria Purvis Podcast at America Media, offered a special view:
When have Black women ever not struggled with pregnancy and parenting within the history of this country? Never! And yet we still gave birth and reared children in essentially the most dire circumstances.
Possibly now with #Roe gone we will actually give attention to supporting Black women. 1/
— Gloria Purvis (@gloria_purvis) June 24, 2022
Many Catholic leaders expressed support for the court’s decision but said society must do a greater job in providing support to women in need.
Cardinal Joseph Tobin, the archbishop of Newark, said in an announcement: “Abortion represents a failure to acknowledge the sanctity of human life and promotes a culture through which human life in its most vulnerable moment is perceived as disposable.” While welcoming the court’s decision, he said society “must make sure that life-giving options can be found and our support doesn’t end simply with the birth of a toddler.”
Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, who heads the Pontifical Academy for Life, called the choice “a robust invitation to reflect together on the intense and urgent issue of human generativity and the conditions that make it possible.”
He added, “by selecting life, our responsibility for the long run of humanity is at stake.”
Cardinal Blase Cupich, the archbishop of Chicago, also saw within the court’s decision a possibility for dialogue.
“This moment should function a turning point in our dialogue in regards to the place an unborn child holds in our nation, about our responsibility to take heed to women and support them through pregnancies and after the birth of their children, and in regards to the have to refocus our national priorities to support families, particularly those in need,” he said in an announcement.
Cardinal Blase Cupich, the archbishop of Chicago, saw within the court’s decision a possibility for dialogue.
Serrin Foster of Feminists for Life released an announcement saying: “Right now, we pause to recollect, and gather our strength, rededicated to our mission of resources and support for ladies and their children — born and unborn. We refuse to decide on.”
A press release from the eight bishops of Recent York State expressed gratitude to pro-life activists, “who’ve worked tirelessly toward this consequence for nearly a half-century.
“As Catholics, now we have prayed and fasted, held vigils, offered Masses, and peacefully witnessed in these last five many years,” the bishops said. “Today, our voice has been heard”
Abortion is anticipated to be banned or to face tight restrictions in about half of all U.S. states in the approaching weeks. The Catholic lobbying organization Network released an announcement asking if religious leaders and lawmakers are willing to assist provide safety net resources in light of anticipated changes.
“Will state and federal legislatures now introduce and pass a groundswell of policies to supply a sturdy social safety net of resources for all women and families that allow everyone to thrive?” asked Joan F. Neal, the deputy executive director and chief equity officer, Mary J. Novak, executive director, and Erin Zubal, OSU, chief of staff of the organization. “Are religious leaders prepared to allocate resources through the largesse of their institutions and donors to make sure that any gaps within the social safety net are filled?”
The pinnacle of the abortion rights group Catholics for Selection, Jamie Manson, called the court’s decision “unconscionable” and said that it strips away “a girl’s most fundamental freedoms, namely her ability to manage her own fertility and determine her own destiny.”
The bishops in Texas said in an announcement they looked forward to the implementation of a so-called trigger law, designed to go immediately into effect upon today’s Supreme Court decision, that can ban most abortions.
“This decision begins a latest chapter of sunshine in American history with the top of legal elective abortion in Texas,” they said. “It requires that we change into intentionally more aware of the needs of pregnant moms and dads of the unborn in our own parishes and communities by listening to them, looking for understanding, and helping them obtain the necessities of life for themselves and their children.”
An editorial published in America said that thorny questions on the legal and moral dimensions of abortion need to be debated in political spaces aside from the courts.
“As we long have, the editors of America proceed to argue that as a constitutional matter, the regulation of abortion is primarily a matter for state legislatures; as an ethical matter, unborn human life has sacred dignity and is deserving of legal protection; and eventually, as a political matter, that the complicated and divisive questions surrounding abortion can’t be effectively addressed when the one real political venue for the problem is within the Supreme Court,” the editorial reads.
This story will likely be updated.