Catholics for Choice ---

[defendandprotect]

This organization is reporting that . . .

National Survey of Catholic Voters for Catholics for Choice
September 2009

Catholics in favor of a government health insurance plan -- 73% of ALL Catholics
83% of Latino/Latina Catholics

Catholics in favor of government or private insurance coverage
for REPRODUCTIVE healthcare services --

Pre-and postnatal care ----- ALL 95%/Latino/Latina 97%
HIV/AIDS testing ----- ALL 86%/ " 92%
Contraception ----- ALL 63% " 67%
Condoms to prevent HIV/AIDS ----- ALL 51% " 57%

Catholics in favor of private or government insurance coverage for abortion --

When a pregnancy threatens the life of the woman ----- ALL 84%/LL 87%
" results from rape or incest ----- ALL 76%/LL 80%
" poses long term health risks to the woman ----- ALL 73%/LL 77%
When test results show the fetus has a severe abnormal condition ----- ALL 66%/LL 71%
Whenever a woman and her doctor decide it is appropriate ----- ALL 50%/LL 53%




Catholic voters say healthcare is a social justice issue.
73 percent believe that providing healthcare for people who need it is important because it is a matter of social justice.

Lowering healthcare costs is a top priority for Catholic voters.
78 percent believe improving the economy should be the highest or second highest priority for President Barack Obama, followed closely by lowering healthcare costs (58 percent).

Catholic voters are split on President Obama’s ideas for healthcare reform. 52 percent strongly or somewhat agree with President Obama’s healthcare plan while 48 percent somewhat or strongly disagree.

Catholic voters overwhelmingly support a government plan that would make health insurance available to the uninsured. More than seven-in-ten somewhat or strongly favor a government plan for the uninsured, while only 27 percent somewhat or strongly oppose such a plan.

Catholic voters do not believe that Catholics should oppose healthcare reform if it includes abortion. 68 percent of Catholic voters disagree that, as a Catholic, you should oppose the entire healthcare reform plan if it includes coverage for abortion.

Catholic voters believe the US Catholic bishops are wrong on healthcare reform.
68 percent disapprove of US Catholic bishops saying that all Catholics should oppose the entire healthcare reform plan if it includes coverage for abortion and 56 percent think the bishops should not take a position on healthcare reform legislation in Congress.

Catholic voters are against refusal clauses for institutions that take taxpayer dollars. 65 percent said that hospitals and clinics that take taxpayer dollars should not be allowed to refuse certain procedures or medications based on religious beliefs. On AIDS prevention, 60 percent believe that hospitals and clinics that take taxpayer dollars should be required to include condoms as part of AIDS prevention.

A small minority of Catholic voters believes that abortion should never be legal. Only 14 percent believe the abortion should never be legal, while 85 percent of Catholic voters believe abortion should be legal in all, most or just a few cases.9

Catholics for Choice
http://www.catholicsforchoice.org/

One page summary of the poll
http://www.catholicsforchoice.org/topics/politics/documents/OnepgSummaryofPoll.pdf


I am a recovering Catholic -- but I have found the magazine "Conscience" put out by Catholics for
Choice to often be interesting, liberal/progressive, and generally anti-church hierarchy.

This particular issue also includes some info on the Ryan Report of sexual abuse in Ireland
and the report itself seems to be a cover up of the true extent of the involvement of government
and its courts in creating this systemic abuse in Catholic organizations/orders.

"The effect of the Ryan Report has been to shatter any comforting assumption that the horrors many were locally aware of had been peculiar to a particular order or institution.
The brothers and nuns had been running an island-wide network of child-torture centers, a Catholic archipelago of evil."

http://www.childabusecommission.com/rpt/ExecSummary.php


BASICALLY, WHAT'S BEING REPORTED HERE IS THAT CHURCH HIERARCHY IS REPRESENTING ITS OWN
INTERESTS IN SEEKING CONTROL OVER HUMAN REPRODUCTION AND WOMEN -- NOT THE INTERESTS OF
ITS MEMBERS. NOR THE INTERESTS OF ITS MEMBERS NOR THE AMERICAN POPULATION IN REGARD TO
HEALTH CARE REFORM.

[ralph m]

1. I'm married to a Catholic

Though I never went through the conversion process myself. We went our separate ways regarding religion, but my wife would be one of the majority liberal Catholics who never accepted Church demands regarding birth control. In recent years she has not attended mass on a weekly basis because of the fact that there are more haranguing statements on abortion, birth control and abstinence. Orders are likely coming from on high that liberal Catholic parishes have to start towing the party line and expounding on Catholic doctrine regarding sex, whether or not the priests want to preach it, and the locals want to hear it.

I've heard a few Catholic Church watchers theorize that ever since JPII became pope, it signaled an attempt for the conservatives to regain control, and since Benedict, it appears that they are willing to lose liberal Catholics in North America to meet the goal of a more loyal, authoritarian group of followers. They would rather have moderates who don't take sexual advice from celibate priests seriously, out of the Church entirely. The polling data from the Catholics For Choice group has confirmed for years that the leaders haven't been listening to the concerns of the majority of American Catholics. Some Catholics, like my wife.......and apparently Patrick Kennedy also, seem to keep hanging on and want to stay in the Church for reasons that I fail to understand.