Insights & Resources

WE GREET YOU IN THE midst of a global pandemic, an economic catastrophe and a moral emergency. We are women who lead Catholic-rooted organizations and communities. Our hearts are heavy with grief over COVID-19 and its related deaths, with the sting of unemployment and fiscal uncertainty and, especially, with the weight of systemic racism and white supremacy that ensures that people of color suffer these disproportionately.

A recent statement by a Roman Catholic bishop that abortion and Roe v. Wade were the ultimate concern in this year’s presidential elect ion is beyond foolish—it is a fetishizing of the issue to the exclusion of all other moral concerns.

With a Catholic candidate headlining the Democratic ticket, the 2020 presidential election saw Catholic voters divided just almost evenly between President Donald Trump and President-Elect Joe Biden.

JULIANNA S. GONEN, PHD, JD, is the policy director at the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), where she works to advance legislative and regulatory policy at the federal level that ensures the well-being of LGBTQ people.

Margaret Atwood famously refuses to include anything that hasn’t happened in our world in her works of fiction. Her stories challenge the standard labels of “science fiction,” “fantasy” and “dystopian novel.” The Handmaid’s Tale (THT) and The Testaments contain common literary themes—family, hypocrisy and forgiveness—but also leave us with racing hearts and twisted stomachs as we hold a mirror up to our own nation and our own lives.

These days of more time spent at home as a result of the COVID-19 public health crisis and virulent public debates about personal liberties may provide the perfect time and backdrop to watch Hulu’s buzzworthy The Handmaid’s Tale. While season one of Bruce Miller’s reimagining of Margaret Atwood’s eerily prescient 1985 book of the same name follows the novel’s familiar storyline most closely, there are plot changes and twists that make the series compelling for 21st-century viewers.

As a lifelong student of and advocate of sexual and reproductive health, rights and justice, I anticipated AKA Jane Roe (FX-produced movie, premiered May 22 on FX and May 23 on Hulu) would elucidate the complexity that was Norma McCorvey's life and activism. My admiration for McCorvey’s courage in sharing her story and appreciation for the reality of her life brought a hope that filmmaker Nick Sweeney would give an overdue portrayal of this mercurial figure not just as a trophy to be won or as a symbol to be used.

Roe v. Wade is arguably the most well-known US Supreme Court decision in modern America. Ask anyone on an American street if they’ve heard of it, and almost all will say, “Yes.” Only slightly fewer will correctly identify it as having to do with abortion, and fewer still, though still a fairly high number, will say it stands for a woman’s right to choose an abortion. But which is it?

Glenn Northern's probing reflections on “Why Faith Matters” is a great example of a religious perspective so often overlooked. When it comes to the media and public conversation, the bulk of the attention goes to religious groups that not only think they have all the answers, but also want to impose those answers into the private lives of others. It is refreshing and uplifting to turn to Mr. Northern’s writing as an example of what the conscience of a religious individual looks and sounds like, and why it should be respected.

I was moved by the testimonials of the faithful abortion providers. It is obvious that each of these individuals has done much soul searching. Abortion is not an easy decision. Every woman must decide what she is able to do in good conscience. This is indeed one of the most important decisions she will ever make.

James Carroll makes a valid point in championing the imminent collapse of the male supremacist clerical establishment of the Catholic church and its replacement with a more inclusive and democratic model.

If the institutional Catholic church is going to make real strides towards ending cases of clergy sexual abuse and cover-ups in the future, it will be because of advocates like Marie Collins.

I had the pleasure of hearing Marie Collins speak twice on her fall 2019 tour and spent a delightful afternoon with her in Chicago.

I was moved by the testimonials of the faithful abortion providers. It is obvious that each of these individuals has done much soul searching. Abortion is not an easy decision. Every woman must decide what she is able to do in good conscience. This is indeed one of the most important decisions she will ever make.

Senior Catholic leaders in the United States and Canada, as well as anti- abortion groups, are raising ethical objections against promising COVID-19 vaccines manufactured using fetal cells derived from voluntary donations of post-abortion material.

As debates intensify in the public policy arena over the broader issues of religious liberty and reproductivefreedom, nowhere do the issues more personally collide than in Catholic healthcare facilities.

THE US ROMAN CATHOLIC Church used a special and unprecedented exemption from federal rules to amass at least $1.4 billion in taxpayer-backed coronavirus aid through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Millions of dollars went to about 40 dioceses that have paid hundreds of millions in settlements or sought bankruptcy protection because of clergy sexual abuse cover-ups.

Cardinal George Pell, the most senior Roman Catholic cleric to ever face trial over child sexual abuse, walked out of prison a free man after Australia’s highest court reversed his 2018 conviction for molesting two boys decades earlier.

Stephanie Toti is an advocate for sexual and reproductive rights within her own community, in society and the judicial system. She is a member of the board of directors of Whole Woman’s Health Alliance and is senior counsel and project director for the Lawyering Project, an organization she founded in 2017 aimed at improving access to reproductive healthcare in the US through litigation that advances an intersectional framework.