Contrasting Catholic Views on Life and Death in the US: Open to Dialogue?

The following are two open letters discussing the current debate regarding reproductive care and abortion in the United States. The first is published by Faith in Public Life and the second by the Ethics and Public Policy Center. The full list of signatories can be found at their respective links.

Open Letter from Catholic Women: Reclaiming Public Debates about Abortion & Reproductive Justice
Faith in Public Life

We write as Catholic women at a time when the opinions of judges and lawmakers are viewed as more valid than our own lived experiences with reproductive health. We are theologians, scholars, advocates, mothers and daughters who watch in anguish as abortion bans make pregnancies even more dangerous for women. We see how decades of disinvestment in the social safety net and more recent restrictions on women’s reproductive care disproportionately impact Black and Hispanic women. We are moved by compassion and conscience to say clearly that laws and policies celebrated as  “pro-life” by our Church leaders often hurt women and demean our dignity. 

Culture wars over abortion have divided our Church, coarsened political discourse and left a legacy of mistrust and resentment. Pregnancy, parenthood and the totality of women’s lives have been turned into simplistic slogans. We are told to “choose life” even as the policies needed to build a culture of life and dignity for women and families are rejected by the same politicians who criminalize our reproductive decisions. 

We applaud Church leaders who walk with people as pastors, but a vocal segment of clergy has created a culture of stigma and shame that shuts down conversations about women’s health. This culture contributes to retaliation in the public square as somebishops weaponize Communion against Catholic politicians. In addition, when bishops describe abortion as the “preeminent priority” in elections, the fullness of Catholic social teaching is narrowed in ways that are exploited by partisan agendas and that devalue the theological and spiritual role of discernment in making difficult decisions.

We have three core reasons for speaking out.

• We need better public conversations about abortion and reproductive justice that acknowledge the full complexity of women, pregnancy, parenthood and reproductive decisions. It’s time to reclaim the public narrative from avocal minority of religious and political leaders who have monopolized these debates for too long.Catholic universities, parishes, faith-based non-profits and those of us who have a public platform as intellectuals, scholars and advocates should help foster these conversations.
• Catholic women have moral agency and baptismal dignity. We encourage Catholic women to share their experiences and recognize the power of their stories. It’s especially important for women to be heard in a Church led by an all-male hierarchy.Because it takes courage to have these challenging conversations, women can’t be expected to speak out unless Church leaders also work to create a culture of respect and listening. 
• We urge elected officials to support robust policies that address how economic, racial and reproductive justice are interconnected. Abortion is often viewed as a single issue, but women do not make decisions in isolation. The lack of quality health care, the high cost of raising children, poverty wages for workers, sexual violence and rape, and the racial gap in maternal mortality rates all impact how women make decisions about our reproductive lives. Reproductive justice is a holistic framework that makes these connections and rejects binary or single-issue solutions.

Our nation’s social safety nets fail to provide women with the support they need to have children and raise families in safe and healthy environments. The March of Dimes reports that more than two million women of childbearing age live in maternity care deserts where there is no hospital offering obstetric care, no birth center and no obstetric provider. Women in states with abortion bans are now nearly three times more likely to die during pregnancy or childbirth or soon after giving birth, according to a January 2023 report from the Gender Equity Policy Institute. 

Some states that ban abortion have chosen not to expand Medicaid, which covers about 40 percent of all births and the majority of births for low-income families. 

Even before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, states with the most restrictive abortion laws had some of the worst maternal and child health outcomes in the country. In 2021, the United States had one of the worst rates of maternal mortality in the country’s history, according to a report from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. For Black women in the U.S, the maternal mortality rate is nearly three times higher than the rate for white women. In Mississippi, bipartisan legislation recently passed that extends postpartum Medicaid coverage for new mothers to one year after birth, a move that we applaud and that addresses the moral scandal that most new mothers in the state lose Medicaid coverage after sixty days. 

We call on lawmakers to expand Medicaid; implement child tax credits that have proven to significantly decrease child poverty; support full, paid parental leave after the birth of a child; do more to help families cover the high cost of childcare; and ensure that workers are paid living wages. All of these policies are rooted in principles of solidarity, the dignity of work and the common good found in Catholic social teaching. We recognize that even many of our own Catholic institutions are not doing nearly enough to support policies that help women, children and families flourish. Catholic institutions should be national models for paying just wages to our workers, offering comprehensive pre-and post-natal health insurance coverage, and guaranteeing fully paid parental leave after the birth of a child.

We end with an invitation for more Catholics and other people of faith to join us in our effort to create better public conversations about abortion and reproductive justice that reject tired labels and grapple with complexity. Each of us have deeply personal and often different views about abortion, and we respect the fact that people of goodwill have sincere disagreements on these issues. By sharing our stories, convening dialogues and building new coalitions, together we can do our part to reject divisive culture wars and focus on uniting behind a comprehensive agenda that supports women and families.

For a Life-Affirming Consensus: An Open Letter
Ethics and Public Policy Center

Dear Sisters in Christ,

In response to your recent open letter in which you expressed your concerns about women’s health and restrictions on reproductive care, we write to share with you our own experiences as medical professionals who regularly care for women and children.

We are Catholic women who are doctors, physician assistants, and nurses, board-certified in obstetrics and gynecology, family medicine, pediatrics, psychology, neonatology, radiology, maternal-fetal medicine, pediatrics, and midwifery. Collectively, we are experts in maternal health, pregnancy complications, fetal pain, fetal development, perinatal hospice, newborn and premature baby care, postpartum depression, post-abortion aftermath, infertility, and abortion complications.

We come from racially, socioeconomically, and ethnically diverse backgrounds, and care for equally diverse patients. Together we have accompanied thousands of women through their pregnancies, delivering babies, correcting adverse outcomes and complications from abortions, and addressing post-abortion infertility issues. Those among us who treat women who have miscarried or who are diagnosed with an ectopic pregnancy have always been permitted to do so in the context of our Catholic faith and have never been deterred because of Catholic medical and ethical directives.

We wish to share with you how “following the science” has only strengthened our understanding of the Catholic Church’s “unchanged and unchangeable” teaching on abortion. In doing so, we hope to expand your own understanding of the humanity of the unborn and the God-given dignity that they possess as members of the human family.

You rightly draw attention to the fact that women “do not make decisions in isolation.” As medical professionals who interact with pregnant women on a daily basis, we have seen first hand the coercion that can be present in an abortion decision. As you know all too well, some corporations will now pay $4,000 for one of our patients to travel for an abortion, but will not offer her paid maternity leave. Or there’s the man who says he “will be there” for his girlfriend if she chooses abortion; but if she chooses life, is nowhere to be found. Or someone like the struggling single mother who finds she is pregnant again the same week her baby’s father is incarcerated. And so on. In each of these scenarios, it is our ethical duty as healthcare professionals—and moral obligation as Catholics—to care for both the mother and her child, to uphold the human dignity of both, and to protect and defend both.

We have seen first-hand the damage that 50 years of abortion on demand has imposed on women. We grieve that our equality in business, education, politics, and society has often come at the expense of the lives of millions of unborn human children. We are deeply saddened, but not surprised, that legal abortion did not result in a society that fully accommodates pregnancy and childbirth, but rather continues to undermine the unique gift that has been entrusted to us as women: bearing and nurturing new life. In fact, our medical training teaches us that this is precisely what healthy bodies are able to do.

At the same time, we marvel at the advances in medical care that allow us to get to know our unborn patients at earlier and earlier stages. We are grateful that the age of viability for our unborn patients has (as of this writing) dropped to 21 weeks and that fetal surgery can be performed as early as 16 weeks gestation. We have seen the relief on the faces of mothers and fathers when we are able to tell them the wonderful news that their baby’s congenital defect can now be corrected in utero, and that pediatric anesthesiologists will make certain their unborn child does not experience pain.

We have treated prematurely born infants and children, corrected abortion complications (like perforated uteruses and sepsis) in our hospital emergency rooms, and counseled post-abortive women suffering from depression and regret. Through perinatal hospice programs, we have compassionately accompanied families who are given an adverse prenatal diagnosis, holistically caring for both mother and baby, assuring that the child has a painless and peaceful transition to the Lord and that he or she is celebrated and welcomed in this life, no matter how brief that time may be.

Our gifts and talents in our individual areas of expertise are given each day in service of women and children, for the good of society. We see no conflict in simultaneously being faithful daughters of the Church.

We would welcome a “comprehensive agenda” that would better genuinely support women and families. But we cannot in good conscience support that agenda if human rights violations like abortion are offered as a solution to unplanned or unwelcome pregnancies. Abortion is not healthcare, and it is not a solution to social and economic difficulties.

We would also like to extend an invitation to you: Will you discuss abortion with us in a frank and honest conversation that includes science, faith, and reason? Are you willing to take in our experiences as medical professionals, as well as those of our patients? Are you open to meeting with us in a public forum where the harms of abortion to women will be laid bare?

We would like to unite our efforts as Catholic women, so that together we can arrive at a life-affirming consensus that will benefit not only women, but the Church and greater society.

We look forward to hearing from you.