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Pro-life Catholics are concerned about unintended consequences from the US Supreme Court’s Dobbs v Jackson decision that overturned the 49-year old Roe v Wade ruling.
Panel members who spoke at a July 14 Georgetown University forum are among them.
“The Dobbs decision did not feel like any kind of victory, because I find myself concerned about its direct consequences in putting up barriers for reproductive health care for women, especially in Republican-controlled states and across the country,” said one.
“I find myself discouraged looking back at the road we took to get to this point, at all of the choices that the Catholic movement has made along the way as ending abortion as a priority for political engagement.
“We were happy to see the overturning of Roe v Wade, but Dobbs made it worse,” said another.
“The response has just been extreme, with people trying to almost double down on our promotion of abortion in California.”
Twenty pieces of legislation were introduced in the past month, she says. “So, we definitely have some mixed emotions.”
“I really thought that Roe was bad from a legal point of view and a moral point of view,” said a third panel member. But some of the triumphalism “coming from the right” over it being struck down “was reprehensible”.
Panel member Bishop Daniel Flores said “the Roe v Wade controversy has eclipsed and drowned out other voices and issues that the church is concerned about”.
These include “mothers who are expecting children, (the) mother who has children”.
If it’s a consistent ethic of life that is needed, “there are all sorts of policies we need to be pushing for,” a fifth panelist said.
“There is a lot of movement and there are a lot of people who need convincing, but there is a narrative that the right will never do this. (But) the right, just like a pro-life movement, is a very diverse group of people who have different kinds of views.
“There is a lot of realignment happening among conservatives that I hope also happens on the left.”
Two panel members said they’d had a dilation and curettage (D&C) procedure during a pregnancy.
Acknowledging a D&C isn’t abortion, the woman said it made her realise “putting restrictions on when and whether that kind of health care is available to women,” could create barriers for a woman “whose life is in danger”.
Another noted laws banning abortion make exceptions to save the mother’s life.
“The rub is when you allow a doctor’s or a hospital’s judgment to be second-guessed. By definition you do if you say ‘only in the case of an emergency,’” she says.
“What do you have to prove to show this is a legitimate emergency? Who has to be consulted and how much time do you have to get that done?”
She says another of the unintended consequences is unsafe misinformation allowing people to believe there aren’t exceptions for miscarriage and ectopic pregnancy. These might be more harmful than the law.
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