On February 27, brave and righteous people are going to hold a speak-out and dramatic demonstration at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. The event leads into mass protests on March 8, International Women's Day, with the message We Refuse to Let the Supreme Court Deny Women's Humanity & Decimate Abortion Rights! In New York, the March 8 protest is at 3 pm in Union Square.

Why protest the Catholic Church?

Day in, day out, and twice on Sundays, generations of young girls and women are drilled with the idea that their whole worth and purpose in the world is to be breeders, born to be a “holy vessel.”  That this is punishment for, and the only way to be redeemed from, “the stain of original sin.”  That (for women) any desire for sex that cannot lead to pregnancy is sinful, lustful, and shameful... LGBT sexual relations is an abomination (even if the “modern, hip, progressive pope” says you may not burn forever in hell for that sin)... abortion is murder... birth control is a failure of your duty to god, and divorce is a failure of duty to family (and always a failure of the woman).

This soul-crushing indoctrination from the churches, from the summer camps, and at home, crushes lives and shatters dreams. Women who fail to live up to this nonsense are made to live in shame, taught to hate themselves, and forced to endure toxic gossip and condemnation from church authorities and “community.” They are told to repent, pray for forgiveness from this tyrannical god, and pay a bunch of money to the Church for sacraments and services to absolve them of this sin and shame. Assaulted or raped? It’s your fault. Beaten and abused? It’s your fault. Left by your husband? It’s your fault. Don’t want, or can’t afford, to have a kid (or ANOTHER kid)? It’s your fault.

And young boys, too, are reared with this poison. Trained to become numb and dumb, thick-headed brutes responsible for “protecting women” and their “purity”—really, to be cruel-hearted and often violent enforcers for this Dark Ages bullshit.

For those in the grip of the life of the Catholic Church, this is not just harmless private practice of one’s beliefs and morality. The hard core doctrine of the Vatican and its allegedly infallible pope has dominance in the Catholic Church, it ensnares the lives of millions and threatens the future of many more. The leadership of the Catholic Church, and many Catholics in powerful positions, are a driving force in an effort to remake and reshape laws of the U.S. in horrific ways aimed at implanting and instituting a theocracy in this country, in the very near future.

The Catholic Church and the All-out Assault on Women’s Right to Abortion

But bad as that is, it’s not enough.  The Church has also been on a decades-long assault to pervert the laws of this land to reflect these twisted views.  And this finds concentrated expression around their fanatical assault on the right of women to decide themselves whether and when to have a child.

Right-wing Catholics have been a pillar of the anti-abortion movement in the U.S. since 1967. This is a movement that inflicted a documented 8,812 acts of violence, including murder and arson, against abortion providers between 1977 and 2017. And the number is growing. Abortion providers reported that in 2020 there was “an increase in vandalism, assault and battery, death threats/threats of harm, stalking, and hoax devices/suspicious packages from 2019.” Catholics who oppose this are attacked and ostracized.

Very significantly, five of the nine Supreme Court justices who may soon issue a decision on Roe v, Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion across the country, are Catholic fascists, and have given every indication they will gut or eliminate this right. (The sixth Catholic justice, Sonia Sotomayor, is not part of the fascist wing of the Court, and will almost certainly vote against overturning Roe.)

St. Patrick’s in New York City is among the most known and celebrated institutions of Catholicism in this country. It and its leader, Timothy M. Dolan, have long been at the forefront of attacking and seeking to deny the humanity of all women, and eliminate a basic right, the right to abortion.

When Church Doctrine Becomes Government Law

Even greater damage is inflicted on women and girls, and sustained by government institutions, when Church doctrine becomes law. In 2019, “Lucia”, an 11-year-old girl in northern Argentina, was raped and was then subjected to delivery by a C-section (cesarean section, a surgical procedure) against her will. She had been denied an abortion after weeks of hospitalization. The local archbishop sent out messages to his “flock” to “guard the fetus.” A doctor in the region said, “In the north of Argentina, there are lots of Lucías and there are lots of professionals who turn their back on them.” (In 2020, massive protests rocked Argentina, and limited rights to abortion became law.)

In El Salvador, since 1998 over 140 women accused of aborting a fetus have been jailed, some with sentences of up to 35 years in prison. One woman described how her 30-year-old daughter, Manuela, had miscarried at home, seven months into her pregnancy. Hospital staff accused her of aborting the fetus, and Manuela was convicted of aggravated homicide and sentenced to 30 years in prison. She died in prison of lymphoma.

This Doctrine Already Does Great Harm in the U.S.

In the U.S., the harmful influence of Catholic doctrine on health care has been expanding rapidly, and already has done great damage in imposing horrific religious doctrine on medical practice. (See  factsheet for more on this.) Scientific American reported that Catholic-sponsored and affiliated hospitals grew by 26 percent between 2001 and 2016, and that a study of them indicated that “restrictions on reproductive health services at those facilities translates to more than 9,500 fewer tubal ligations per year.” (Tubal ligations are a form of contraception.) In many regions across the country, no other health care is available, and in five states (Alaska, Iowa, South Dakota, Washington, and Wisconsin) 40 percent or more of all acute care beds in the state are in hospitals with Catholic restrictions.

These Catholic hospitals get federal funding, but have received “[f]ederal and state exemptions (which) have allowed such hospitals to refuse to provide some of the care that conflicts with Catholic doctrine, such as abortion and sterilizations. Catholic health systems have sought even broader religious exemptions from having to comply with government policies.”

In 2010, St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix performed an abortion and successfully saved the life of a pregnant woman suffering from severe pulmonary hypertension. Doctors said if her pregnancy wasn't terminated, she would likely die of heart failure.

The Catholic bishop of Phoenix ended the Church’s affiliation with the hospital—for saving the life of this woman, but not the fetus she carried! He also excommunicated the nun who had authorized the operation. (Excommunication means exclusion from Church sacraments, and is the highest punishment within the Church.)

Catholic doctrine forbids abortion in the event of rape and incest. A Catholic journal explained, “if a child is conceived in a pregnancy caused by rape, then this child is just as innocent and precious as the woman who was victimized and he or she should not be killed because of the actions of the rapist.” First of all, it is a fetus, not a child. More importantly, the woman is a full human being, who should not be forced by the church, the government, or anyone else, to have a child against her will.

A Good and Proper Symbol to Protest

Subordination of women has been deeply ingrained and institutionalized within the Catholic church for 2,000 years (it’s entire existence). Patriarchy (rule by men) and control over women’s sexuality and reproduction is the ugly core of forced servitude of women to men.

All this infuriating, putrid oppression is what the Catholic Church upholds and enforces. Denial of the right to abortion is foundational to this enslavement. What does it mean to say that a woman’s highest calling is to be a mother? What does it mean to say that a fetus is “just as precious as” a woman?

It means that, in the eyes and power of the Catholic Church, a woman is, above all, an incubator. 

NO!

FORCED MOTHERHOOD IS FEMALE ENSLAVEMENT!

Where will you be on February 27? What will you be doing?