Medical Realities–Why I No Longer Use the “Prolife Label”

The Catholic Church has immense power to do great good or great harm. Throughout her history, she has done both. Hands-down, the Catholic Church is the leader in liberating immigration injustice, poverty, and a number of charities, schools, humanitarian aid, and hospitals, but when it comes to the marginalization of LGBTQ+ people and their families and overstepping into the medical care of lay Catholics and even into secular civil society, that’s a totally different story.

Thankfully, the Catholic Church has made strides to better-include and semi-affirm LGBTQ+ people, but it still has a long way to go in this area, and it must come to grips with the harm it has caused. The Church’s overreach in reproductive, gender affirming healthcare, and anything involving embryos (like in vaccines) are a different matter. I understand that these are serious life and moral issues, but doctrine shouldn’t override doctors, experts, and medical realities because this is a safety issue for millions of people globally.

98% of Catholics have used artificial contraception. One in four abortion patients is Catholic. 65% are pro-choice, and only 8% of the Catholic laity supported the overturning of Roe v Wade because there are medical realities involved. The polar opposite is true among much of the hierarchy and those who totally align with the hierarchy. The overreaching power of the Catholic Right over many decades into peoples’ doctors’ offices and mental healthcare offices through civil law is not only unacceptable but dangerous.

I’m not discarding the Church’s teachings or not loving the charitable justice aspects of the Church which I wholeheartedly appreciate. I am questioning the application of doctrine over doctors.  When it comes to peoples’ medical care of any kind, particularly women’s healthcare, gender-affirming care, LGBTQ+ psychology, mental healthcare, vaccines, and healthcare involving embryos, the Catholic Right and hierarchy shouldn’t be involving themselves with politicians to enforce Catholic doctrine on lay Catholics and civil society, particularly if they don’t consult with medical and mental healthcare practitioners. Doctrine should be used as a guardrail for Catholic moral guidance and the individual moral conscience, not a harmful weapon to exert power and abuse over anyone’s individual Catholic conscience or civil society. This is why our founding fathers established the separation of Church and State from the beginning.

Let’s be positive now. Below we have a long, beautiful carpet from “Catholics for Choice” reaching up to the Vatican saying “Pope Francis, listen.” There is a reason for this carpet, and that’s to connect every day Catholic laity and their stories to the Vatican and Pope Francis. These stories involve the medical realities I mentioned. The sooner the hierarchy starts listening and stops overreaching into the medical care I mentioned, the more of a just society we will have because no one has more power and influence than the Catholic Church. She needs to use her power and influence for beneficial justice and always include the laity and doctors in any decisions they make. The hierarchy likes to say, “we aren’t a democracy.” They need to actively listen and actually start to make changes. Otherwise, it’s a danger to millions globally whether someone is Catholic or not. The Church created her guide on bioethics which is beneficial for Catholics seeking moral guidance, but the Church shouldn’t tamper with the medical community, only work with the medical and mental healthcare community. When medical professionals who have devoted their lives to a particular area of expertise come to a collective consensus about any given topic, it’s past time to start listening and stop exerting power.  Millions of lives outside the womb depend on it.