Feminism, Catholicism and Abortion

This post is a response to the interview with Caroline Farrow, a ‘pro-life feminist’ on the Faith in Feminism blog.

We are always interested to hear from people of faith on the ways in which their religion or spirituality plays into their thoughts on abortion and reproductive rights in general. In the pro-choice movement, people are often too quick to assume that all Christians, or all Muslims would automatically be against abortion. In fact, religious teachings vary, with many allowing for abortion in certain circumstances (and nearly always with regards to protecting the pregnant person’s health).

The Catholic Church however does prohibit abortion in all circumstances. Abortion, along with contraception and masturbation is forbidden by the church. However, this doesn't mean that Catholics do not masturbate, access abortion or use contraception to control their reproduction.

A 2011 report by Catholics For Choice showed that 98% of Catholic women in the U.S have used a form of contraception banned by the Vatican. Catholic women have abortions at the same rate as non-Catholics, and 86% of those surveyed disagreed with the church’s teaching on abortion.

These figures show us that individuals use their own personal conscience to make decisions which affect their lives, and their families. Farrow makes a convincing case for ‘Natural Family Planning’ (NFP) (which is indeed extremely effective if practised properly) and this may well be a favourable option for those who wish to avoid pregnancy without using condoms or hormonal methods of birth control. However, clearly, for many Catholic women other forms of contraception have proven to be a better fit for their lifestyles.  A pro-choice point of view would acknowledge the importance of allowing these women to make the choice which is right for them. If they wish to follow the church’s teachings and practice NFP, great, let’s make sure they have the support and information they need to do so. If they want to try other methods, or use condoms to help protect against STIs, then this should also be accessible for them.

Unfortunately a pro-life perspective tends to mean that this choice (which many make already, regardless of what their religion teaches) is disregarded and taken away. A ‘pro-life’ point of view holds that doctors were right to deny Savita an abortion because “it is not ethical to induce delivery of an unborn child if there is no prospect of the child surviving outside the womb”. An individual might decide that they would never have an abortion in any circumstance, but as soon as this decision is projected and extended to others it limits human rights. It limits women’s rights.

Farrow herself is extremely supportive of the 40 Days for Life ‘vigils’, which aim to shut down abortion clinics and therefore restrict women's access to abortion. Standing outside abortion clinics praying for women who have made a decision, which may or may not have been difficult for them, smacks of a desire to project one’s own position onto others, believing them unfit to decide for themselves. 

40 Days for Lies? Audio files

Our latest blog exposed the crisis pregnancy centre (aka Central London Women's Centre/Albany Women's Centre/Good Counsel Network) that the 40 Days for Life protesters have been giving out literature for. Here are a few sound clips of a counselling session which took place at that centre.
Central London Women's Centre Audio

1. ...if you make this decision, this baby will have no life. And also it dies in terrible pain
2. ...the risk of getting cancer after abortion is 100%
3. ...many women have many miscarriages from abortion
4. ...we will harm the baby.  We will kill the baby.  We, we will do something horrible to the baby
5. ...abortion is something that comes from the powers of darkness because it’s about destroying

40 Days for Lies?

40 Days for Life UK claims to be ‘a peaceful, prayerful and legal vigil’ where volunteers sign a ‘"Statement of Peace" with a pledge that they will conduct themselves in a Christ-like manner’. Twitter has been awash with claims that volunteers associated with the group have been filming women entering a BPAS clinic in London, a claim which is being denied by 40 Days for Life.

Something we do know for sure is that 40 Days for Life volunteers are handing out literature which gives grossly inaccurate information about abortion and which signposts to a crisis pregnancy centre doing just the same. Of the mystery shopping EFC has carried out, this centre really is the lowest of the low in terms of bias and inaccuracy, so bad in fact, that it was featured in this Channel 5 news report a few years ago. As a result of EFC’s complaint the ASA issued a ruling against the centre’s misleading advertising but it simply changed its name and continues to offer services and provide misinformation to vulnerable women (offering special services for Irish and young women).

This centre appears to be run by anti-abortion organisation The Good Counsel Network. The phone number is displayed on the leaflets handed out by 40 Days volunteers and is linked to from the website under the heading ‘considering an abortion?’

The quotes below are from a mystery shopping visit EFC carried out at ‘Albany Women’s Centre’. They are just an example of the misinformation and bias given in a two hour session in which the ‘counsellor’ spoke incessantly about the purported mental, physical  and spiritual risks of abortion:

“So the post-abortion cancer, breast cancer, cervical cancer, ovarian cancer, is very, very common now.  And they say from the statistics that a hundred, the risk of getting cancer after abortion is one hundred percent...The problem with the post-abortive cancer is that it’s quite aggressive.  It’s very difficult to treat, and most women die.  From my friends who had abortion and who developed the cancer, none of them lived longer than a few years.”

“And abortion is something that goes very contrary to our maternal instinct, because we know that what we are doing is totally opposite our maternal instinct.  We will harm the baby.  We will kill the baby.  We, we will do something horrible to the baby.  That’s abortion.”

“Abortion is something that comes from the powers of darkness because it’s about destroying.  Anything that’s about destroying, harming, eh, doing evil, comes from the powers of darkness, and there are a lot of people on this planet who are under their influence."

“But there are many, many, many other physical side effects...thirty percent, couldn’t have children.  The first reason was many of them wouldn’t, they didn’t give the percentage, couldn’t get pregnant.  They were sterile, okay?  The other problem is miscarriages.  Miscarriages are very common after abortions.  Many women have many miscarriages from abortion.  From our clients here I can tell you that on average it will be like five, six miscarriages.  Some have more.”

Myth-Busting Monday – 40 Days For Life

You may have seen that U.S anti-abortion campaign group, ’40 Days For Life’ has set up some UK branches in Birmingham and London. They are holding 40 day vigils outside abortion clinics hoping ‘to bring an end to abortion’. EFC has a copy of a leaflet being distributed by the group entitled ‘You can stop injustice’ which is full of misinformation. So much so that had we the time, we probably could have found 40 myths in it to bust. Here’s 5 for now!


1. ‘The Long-Term Effects of Abortion’
‘Women who abort are more likely to experience future ectopic pregnancy, infertility, hysterectomy, stillbirth, miscarriage, and premature birth than women who have not had abortions’
Such physical risks listed in the booklet are either false or misrepresented. Where genuine complications are given it is without any sense of frequency or likelihood. Many of the claimed ‘risks’ such as infertility or breast cancer do not have foundation in medical fact. The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists’ guidelines for health professionals in abortion care state:  ‘there are no proven associations between induced abortion and subsequent ectopic pregnancy, placenta praevia or infertility. Abortion may be associated with a small increase in the risk of subsequent miscarriage or preterm delivery.’


The RCOG advise that “For most women an abortion is safer than carrying a pregnancy and having a baby. All medical and surgical procedures have risks, but the earlier in pregnancy you have an abortion, the safer it is” 


2. ‘Women who abort are not only putting their own lives and health at risk; they also endanger the lives of their current and future children. Women who abort are 144% more likely to physically abuse their children’


This claim is based on a study led by Priscilla Coleman, whose ‘bad science’ has been taken apart in rather more detail than we could manage on this blog by Ministry of Truth and Tessera. 


3. ‘According to scientific research, all hormonal contraceptives have the capacity to cause an abortion (the pill, patch, mini-pill, jab, vaginal ring, emergency contraception, intrauterine devices etc)’.
You heard ‘em right. ALL forms of hormonal contraception can cause an abortion. We’ve busted the myth that emergency contraception is an abortion method before and the same applies for these other methods. 


4. ‘When a couple waits until marriage to have sex, and remains faithful to each other during marriage, oxytocin and vasopressin increase the biological bond between the husband and wife’ 
In ‘The Science of Sex’ section of the booklet much reference is made to oxytocin, the so called ‘love-hormone’. This ‘science’ aside, from being incredibly heteronormative seems to suggest that the very act of marriage (Is it signing the names? Eating a many layered fruit-cake?) causes a hormonal bond between a man and a woman which acts as ‘emotional superglue’. Hmm.


5. ‘Countries with laws restricting abortion have the lowest maternal mortality rates. Ireland has laws restricting abortion and also has a maternal mortality rate of 1 death per 100,000 live births, the lowest in Europe. The UK, with abortion on demand, has 8 deaths per 100,000 live births.’
This statement about the legality of abortion versus maternal mortality rates is deliberately misleading. Only Ireland and UK are used as examples, and whilst it’s true that Ireland has a lower maternal mortality rate than the UK, and indeed that its abortion laws are more restrictive there is no evidence given for any link between these two facts. The fact that women from Ireland routinely access safe abortion in England and other countries is not mentioned. Also, of course, when you look at the list of countries for which we have maternal mortality rate figures it is clear that those with the worst records of maternal mortality (for example, the bottom three in this table, Afghanistan, Central African Republic and Malawi all have very restrictive abortion laws which allow abortion only to save a woman’s life).


We’re concerned that in the interests of pushing an anti-abortion agenda 40 Days For Life are distributing material which is littered with false statistics and myths about abortion.