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  • Title: To make a seamless garment, use a single piece of cloth.
    Author: Gudorf CE.
    Journal: Conscience; 1996; 17(3):10-21. PubMed ID: 12178867.
    Abstract:
    While the Roman Catholic Church embraces anyone who does not use contraception and does not encourage others to do so, a similar statement about abortion is not enough; Catholics must also support anti-abortion legislation. This essay argues that decisions about the legality of abortion must be kept separate from individual decisions. This view is justified by reference to Catholic teaching on war which follows a significantly different method of moral decision-making than that applied to abortion. In fact, the methods applied to war would support a different interpretation of abortion. For example, while injunctions against the direct killing of innocent life apply to both abortion and war, there are no religious sanctions against those who destroy innocent life during wars (which is unavoidable in modern warfare) as there are towards women who have abortions. This inconsistency rests in the separation of reality into a public sphere, in which the Church views itself as a newcomer, and the private sphere, in which the Church asserts ownership. Another difference in the treatment of war and abortion can be seen in the fact that the Church's political involvement in abortion seeks to deny rights to some while giving them to persons unrecognized by law. This ignores the fact that real personhood is not possible without having a sense of bodily integrity, but bodily integrity is championed by the Church in other contexts (antislavery, condemnation of torture, etc.). The Church can not say that women accept the possibility of pregnancy when they engage in sexual intercourse, because by teaching that natural methods of contraception are acceptable, the Church has separated intercourse from procreation. Also, many women have no moral choice about their participation in intercourse. As is done in the case of war, abortion should be equated with killing, which is not intrinsically evil, rather than with murder. The Church does not obligate Catholics to perform good deeds or to save innocent life (starving children), yet women are being told they must make extreme sacrifices to protect fetal life.
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