{"id":485,"date":"2021-10-27T13:14:51","date_gmt":"2021-10-27T20:14:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/?p=485"},"modified":"2021-10-27T13:14:51","modified_gmt":"2021-10-27T20:14:51","slug":"catholic-connections-to-abortion-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/2021\/10\/catholic-connections-to-abortion-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Catholic Connections to Abortion History"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Since more than half of U.S. Catholics (56%) favor legal abortion, we should review the Catholic connections to legal abortion history. Perhaps an understanding of how Catholics were targeted will help those deceived to see the value of the Church\u2019s position.<\/p>\n

Pro-abortion people say abortion is a women\u2019s issue, so men should have no say in the matter. Funny thing, it was two men<\/em> who founded NARAL and engineered the acceptance of abortion in America.<\/p>\n

Lawrence Lader and Bernard Nathanson saw an opportunity to capitalize on the sexual revolution of the 1960s. They realized a backup to contraception was needed, and a lot of money could be made from providing abortion, if it was legal.<\/p>\n

They tied the idea to the women\u2019s movement claiming abortion would enable greater independence. Lader persuaded reluctant feminist leaders to include abortion as a goal when the National Organization of Women was formed.<\/p>\n

Contrary to Lader\u2019s arguments, abortion exploits and harms women. It entraps them more with emotional and physical damage as it frees men of responsibility. That is why 67-72% of abortions are coerced. When men force women to have abortions, there is no \u201cchoice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most likely, Lader and Nathanson knew what an advantage abortion would be for men.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Photo by Gayatri Malhotra on Unsplash<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Larry Lader: Anti-Catholic Strategist<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Lader was rabidly anti-Catholic. He unsuccessfully sued the IRS in an attempt to strip the Church of tax exemption. His excuse was that the Church\u2019s opposition to abortion amounted to political activity. Other lawsuits against the Church followed.<\/p>\n

Lader and Nathanson knew that Catholic opposition was politically crippling. So, they devised a \u201cCatholic Strategy<\/strong>.\u201d According to a 2019 article by Fr. Peter Logsdon, the intent was to shift enough Catholic voters to support pro-abortion candidates by<\/p>\n

\u201c1) blaming the Pope, bishops and priests anytime a woman died due to complications of an illegal abortion,<\/p>\n

\u201c2) emphasizing Catholic politicians who were softening their position against abortion,<\/p>\n

\u201c3) supporting Catholic candidates who were in support of decriminalizing abortion, and<\/p>\n

\u201c4) implementing the \u2018Catholic Strategy\u2019 which persuaded Catholics, politicians and voter that they could straddle the fence on this issue by remaining \u2018personally\u2019 against abortion but vote with the idea that every woman deserves the right to choose.\u201d https:\/\/www.prweb.com\/releases\/terry_beatley_of_hosea_initiative_reveals_dr_bernard_n_nathansons_eight_point_plan_used_to_legalize_abortion\/prweb16320308.htm<\/a><\/p>\n

Sound familiar? The media hypes these points. New York Governor Mario Cuomo became nationally famous for his \u201cpersonally opposed\u201d speech at Notre Dame that other cowardly politicians have rushed to embrace and now use as an accepted, even expected, standard.<\/p>\n

Lader wrote a biography of Margaret Sanger, the eugenicist that even Planned Parenthood disavows now, and was thus convinced that women had to control their childbearing, by whatever means.<\/p>\n

It was Lader\u2019s argument about the right to privacy in sexuality and birth control that was used by the Supreme Court to justify legalizing abortion.<\/p>\n

Bernard Nathanson, The Abortion King<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Dr. Nathanson became known as \u201cThe Abortion King\u201d because he supervised or performed 60,000 abortions. He personally persuaded Planned Parenthood to do abortions and trained their staff.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Image by Jeff Jacobs from Pixabay<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However, Nathanson was eventually repulsed by the killing. He admitted in his books Aborting America <\/em>and The Abortion Papers: Inside the Abortion Mentality <\/em>that they always knew abortion killed a human who was separate from the mother.<\/p>\n

Focusing the debate on \u201cchoice\u201d was an intentional diversion from the reality of abortion. In fact, he hired a public relations firm to help coin slogans like \u201cMy Body, My Choice\u201d and other euphemisms used by abortion advocates to center on the woman and dehumanize the child.<\/p>\n

Nathanson also admitted that they lied about the number of illegal abortions annually in the U.S. (1M versus the actual 100,000) and of the women who thereby died (10,000 vs. 250). The CDC reported for 1972, the year before Roe, there were only 39 deaths from illegal abortions. Unfortunately, the media proliferated the lies, as Nathanson and Lader expected.<\/p>\n

Once Nathanson had his change of heart, he became a pro-life advocate and produced the film Silent Scream<\/em> to show the brutality of a child\u2019s death by abortion.<\/p>\n

He also journeyed from being an atheist to being a Catholic.<\/p>\n

Conversions from Pro-Abortion to Pro-Life and<\/em> Catholic<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Norma McCorvey, the Jane Roe of Roe v. Wade, never had an abortion, but she worked at an abortion facility. There she was influence by protestors to become a Christian and later a Catholic.<\/p>\n

There are multiple former abortionists\/abortion activists who have become pro-life Catholics. Their choice has often stemmed from the Church\u2019s leadership and message in defending the unborn.<\/p>\n

There are also several books on the history of abortion in America. One by another Catholic convert and a witness to much of the manufactured connection of abortion to the women\u2019s movement is Sue Ellen Browder\u2019s Subverted<\/em>.<\/p>\n

We Catholics should be proud that these abortion advocates received the grace to convert to pro-life and Catholic. We should do all we can to help others down that path.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since more than half of U.S. Catholics (56%) favor legal abortion, we should review the Catholic connections to legal abortion history. Perhaps an understanding of how Catholics were targeted will help those deceived to see the value of the Church\u2019s position. Pro-abortion people say abortion is a women\u2019s issue, so men should have no say […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4580,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[361,370,364,355,367,358],"class_list":["post-485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-patheos-catholic","tag-abortion-history","tag-catholic-strategy","tag-catholics","tag-lader","tag-naral","tag-nathanson"],"yoast_head":"\nCatholic Connections to Abortion History<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Anti-Catholic prejudice was used to sell abortion by NARAL's two male founders, but one of them, and other abortionists since, became pro-life and Catholic.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/2021\/10\/catholic-connections-to-abortion-history\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Catholic Connections to Abortion History\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Anti-Catholic prejudice was used to sell abortion by NARAL's two male founders, but one of them, and other abortionists since, became pro-life and Catholic.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/2021\/10\/catholic-connections-to-abortion-history\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Musings From the Pew\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/lois.kerschen\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-10-27T20:14:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/1433\/2021\/10\/gayatri-malhotra-0XFPG5ntedo-unsplash-1-300x158.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lois Kerschen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@llkerschen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lois Kerschen\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/2021\/10\/catholic-connections-to-abortion-history\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/2021\/10\/catholic-connections-to-abortion-history\/\",\"name\":\"Catholic Connections to Abortion History\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-10-27T20:14:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-10-27T20:14:51+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/#\/schema\/person\/69dc96c459773f7eaf12d1f5bdfd1d44\"},\"description\":\"Anti-Catholic prejudice was used to sell abortion by NARAL's two male founders, but one of them, and other abortionists since, became pro-life and Catholic.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/2021\/10\/catholic-connections-to-abortion-history\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/2021\/10\/catholic-connections-to-abortion-history\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/2021\/10\/catholic-connections-to-abortion-history\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Catholic Connections to Abortion History\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/\",\"name\":\"Musings From the Pew\",\"description\":\"Commentary on being Catholic; observations and experiences.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/#\/schema\/person\/69dc96c459773f7eaf12d1f5bdfd1d44\",\"name\":\"Lois Kerschen\",\"description\":\"There have been many different titles for the work I have done \u2013 Educator, Writer, Editor, Administrator \u2013 but the one that has applied to me from birth is that of Catholic. With rare exceptions, I am in a pew on Sunday trying to be attentive and prayerful. My mind wanders a lot, and not just to problems or plans, but also to what I would like to say about things I hear in the homily or the readings. Thus the name \u201cMusings from the Pew.\u201d This column will be about life as a Catholic and the challenges we face. I have been a pro-life activist for many years, so life issues will be discussed frequently. I have also traveled to a lot of parishes, so I want to share what I have seen or experienced with other Catholics in a different setting. Call it \u201cThe Wandering Pew\u201d within \u201cMusings from the Pew.\u201d My blogs will not be theological treatises but the observations and suggestions of an active, answer-seeking mind. I find great joy in the Catholic faith and want to defend the Church so that others may find that joy. Background: Bachelor's in chemistry\/biology\/history; Master's in creative writing; doctorate in English literature. Have published American Proverbs About Women and various literary and scholarly articles. Co-founded Democrats for Life of America; currently serve as Consistent Life Network board member and with the Proportional Representation Coalition of California as the American Solidarity Party representative. Music minister at my church.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/lois.kerschen\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/lois-kerschen-94850611\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/llkerschen\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/author\/lkerschen\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Catholic Connections to Abortion History","description":"Anti-Catholic prejudice was used to sell abortion by NARAL's two male founders, but one of them, and other abortionists since, became pro-life and Catholic.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/2021\/10\/catholic-connections-to-abortion-history\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Catholic Connections to Abortion History","og_description":"Anti-Catholic prejudice was used to sell abortion by NARAL's two male founders, but one of them, and other abortionists since, became pro-life and Catholic.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/2021\/10\/catholic-connections-to-abortion-history\/","og_site_name":"Musings From the Pew","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/lois.kerschen\/","article_published_time":"2021-10-27T20:14:51+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/1433\/2021\/10\/gayatri-malhotra-0XFPG5ntedo-unsplash-1-300x158.jpg"}],"author":"Lois Kerschen","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@llkerschen","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Lois Kerschen","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/2021\/10\/catholic-connections-to-abortion-history\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/2021\/10\/catholic-connections-to-abortion-history\/","name":"Catholic Connections to Abortion History","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/#website"},"datePublished":"2021-10-27T20:14:51+00:00","dateModified":"2021-10-27T20:14:51+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/#\/schema\/person\/69dc96c459773f7eaf12d1f5bdfd1d44"},"description":"Anti-Catholic prejudice was used to sell abortion by NARAL's two male founders, but one of them, and other abortionists since, became pro-life and Catholic.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/2021\/10\/catholic-connections-to-abortion-history\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/2021\/10\/catholic-connections-to-abortion-history\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/2021\/10\/catholic-connections-to-abortion-history\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Catholic Connections to Abortion History"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/","name":"Musings From the Pew","description":"Commentary on being Catholic; observations and experiences.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/#\/schema\/person\/69dc96c459773f7eaf12d1f5bdfd1d44","name":"Lois Kerschen","description":"There have been many different titles for the work I have done \u2013 Educator, Writer, Editor, Administrator \u2013 but the one that has applied to me from birth is that of Catholic. With rare exceptions, I am in a pew on Sunday trying to be attentive and prayerful. My mind wanders a lot, and not just to problems or plans, but also to what I would like to say about things I hear in the homily or the readings. Thus the name \u201cMusings from the Pew.\u201d This column will be about life as a Catholic and the challenges we face. I have been a pro-life activist for many years, so life issues will be discussed frequently. I have also traveled to a lot of parishes, so I want to share what I have seen or experienced with other Catholics in a different setting. Call it \u201cThe Wandering Pew\u201d within \u201cMusings from the Pew.\u201d My blogs will not be theological treatises but the observations and suggestions of an active, answer-seeking mind. I find great joy in the Catholic faith and want to defend the Church so that others may find that joy. Background: Bachelor's in chemistry\/biology\/history; Master's in creative writing; doctorate in English literature. Have published American Proverbs About Women and various literary and scholarly articles. Co-founded Democrats for Life of America; currently serve as Consistent Life Network board member and with the Proportional Representation Coalition of California as the American Solidarity Party representative. Music minister at my church.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/lois.kerschen\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/lois-kerschen-94850611\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/llkerschen"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/author\/lkerschen\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4580"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/musingsfromthepew\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}