'Abortion Is Only Wrong If The Women Want It'
Advocate for Ohio women details oft-forgotten Catholic abuse, use of abortion by men
The Catholic Church has a nightmarish history of sexual abuse of nuns — and despite its vocal and powerful opposition to abortion — use of the procedure by the men of the Church.
This is the narrative pulled together and surfaced recently on social media by a woman who heads a political action committee (PAC) which advocates on behalf of women and girls in Ohio.
“Friendly reminder, the Catholic Church forced upon and paid for abortions, a lot. They protected (still do) rapist priests who rape nuns They rape, impregnate these women, then forced the women to terminate those pregnancies. It's never been about life,” tweeted Shannon Freshour, founder of SNOW PAC, a group focused on supporting the next generation of women elected officials in Ohio, and around the country.
A Democrat, Freshour also ran unsuccessfully against hard-right Republican Rep Jim Jordan, in 2020.
The issue of abortion rights has exploded in recent weeks, since the leak of a US Supreme Court decision which would fully overturn Roe v Wade and nearly 50 years of legal access to abortion rights.
In airing the issue of sex abuse of Catholic nuns, and abortions forced by men in the Church, Freshour cited several news stories about the issue and even quoted Pope Francis, himself, who in 2019 acknowledged, “It is true ... there have been priests and even bishops who have done this. I think it is still going on because something does not stop just because you have become aware of it.”
Freshour also cited a 1994 report on sexual abuse of nuns.
Just as the world has seen the rise of the #MeToo movement of women speaking out — and fighting back against — sexual assault and other sexual wrongdoing, a #NunsToo movement has emerged, and now sexual abuse of Catholic nuns is more widely discussed, she said.
And men of the church have a history of arranging abortions, in secret, to help cover up the crimes.
This includes a 1988 case from Malawi, where a bishop dismissed the leaders of a women's religious order because they complained that 29 nuns had been made pregnant by local priests, according to one news story posted by Freshour.
Sister Maura O'Donohue, who died in 2015, had been one of those on the front lines of exposing the wrongdoing, reported that a priest arranged for a nun to have an abortion; the nun died during the abortion, and the priest then officiated at her funeral.
“It's never about ‘life’ it's always about control and power. Abortion is only wrong if the women want it: completely acceptable form of birth control for men to use,” she also tweeted.
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