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Shhh... Don't Speak of Abortion: Roe v. Wade at Thirty-Six
By Frederick Clarkson
http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/religionandtheology/1009/
January 22, 2009
Rev. Anne C. Fowler, Rector of St. James Episcopal Church in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts told me a story about a Catholic nun who once told her that while she didn't know about the morality of abortion, if we were to have the right, then everyone should have access.
The moral of Rev. Fowler's story cuts to the core of the politics of abortion in America. Though nominally a right under Roe vs. Wade, decided thirty-six years ago today, the reality is that there are many obstacles-some insurmountable-to both receiving and providing abortion care in the United States. And yet, strange as it may seem, there remains a steady silence about abortion which, according to pro-choice leaders, is party due to the stigmatization of abortion. The result is that much of what passes for discussion is really just an elaborate avoidance of the subject.
The latest high profile exhibition of this avoidance is the "Governing Agenda" recently published by two Democratic Party-aligned Washington, DC-based think tanks, Third Way and Faith in Public Life. This document, two years in the making, and endorsed by a variety of prominent evangelicals; and the process by which it came into being have been met with both accolades and tough criticism. Intriguingly, the document does not actually discuss abortion-that most controversial of subjects on which it claims to have found common ground.
Is the Agenda Broader or Narrower?
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http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/religionandtheology/1009/
