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Catholics for Choice (CFC), formerly Catholics for a Free Choice, is a pro-choice organization based in Washington, D.C. that was founded in 1973 "to serve as a voice for Catholics who believe that the Catholic tradition supports a woman's moral and legal right to follow her conscience in matters of sexuality and reproductive health." CFC is currently led by President Jon O'Brien.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) states that CFC is not a Catholic organization.

History

CFC was founded in by Joan Harriman, Patricia Fogarty McQuillan, and Meta Mulcahy, as Catholics for a Free Choice, to promote access to abortion in the context of Catholic tradition. Its first president was Joseph O'Rourke, a Jesuit priest who was expelled from the order in 1974. CFC emerged from Catholics for the Elimination of All Restrictive Abortion & Contraceptive Laws, a New York lobby group that had been formed in 1970.

O'Rourke remained as president of CFC until 1979, when Pat McMahon was hired as Executive Director. McMahon shifted CFC's legal status from a lobby to an educational association, opening the group up to tax-exempt status and to foundation support. One result of this was a $75,000 grant on behalf of the pro-choice Sunnen Foundation which funded the group's first publications, the Abortion in Good Faith series.

In 1978 Frances Kissling joined the group, and in 1982 she was made president. She lobbied politicians and activists, many Catholic, to work in favor of giving women access to contraception and abortion.

In October 1984, CFC placed an advertisement signed by over one hundred prominent Catholics, including nuns, in the New York Times. The advertisement stated that "direct abortion ...can sometimes be a moral choice" and that "responsible moral decisions can only be made in an atmosphere of freedom from fear of coercion." The Vatican took disciplinary measures against some of the nuns who signed the statement, sparking controversy among American Catholics, and intra-Catholic conflict on the abortion issue remained news for at least two years.

Kissling led CFC until her retirement in February 2007. CFC's former Vice-President and Director of Communications Jon O'Brien was subsequently appointed as the organization's new President.

With other groups, the CFC successfully lobbied against the naming of John M. Klink, a former representative of the Holy See at the United Nations, to lead the State Department Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration in 2001. More recently, it has assisted in drafting legislation with the stated goal of reducing abortions, partly by increasing financing for family planning.

Mission

The organization describes its mission as "to shape and advance sexual and reproductive ethics that are based on justice, reflect a commitment to women's well-being and respect and affirm the capacity of women and men to make moral decisions about their lives. CFC works in the United States and internationally to ensure that all people have access to safe and affordable reproductive health-care services and to infuse our core values into public policy, community life and Catholic social teaching and thinking."

CFC argues that Catholic teachings on conscience mean that every individual must follow his or her own conscience.

Funding

In 2007, CFC had a budget of $3 million. It is supported largely by secular foundations such as the Ford Foundation.

Criticism

Church

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops has stated that " is not a Catholic organization, does not speak for the Catholic Church, and in fact promotes positions contrary to the teaching of the Church as articulated by the Holy See and the NCCB," and that "its activity is directed to rejection and distortion of Catholic teaching about the respect and protection due to defenseless unborn human life." It also stated that "The public relations effort has ridiculed the Holy See in language reminiscent of other episodes of anti-Catholic bigotry that the Catholic Church has endured in the past."

In response to similar accusations, theologian, ecofeminist and CFC board member Rosemary Radford Ruether wrote that CFC was part of a schism rather than a proponent of anti-Catholic bigotry; that the accusation was an attempt to portray the "Catholic right" as the only authentic Catholics; and that "the charge of 'anti-Catholicism' is being used as a scare tactic by the Catholic right in the service of repression of progressive Catholic views."

Other critics

Helen M. Alvaré, an associate professor of law at the Catholic University of America, said, "They had no grass-roots base among Catholics. There was nothing very different about them from other pro-choice groups in the arguments they made."

Critics of Catholics for Choice argue that only a negligible fraction of CFC's income come from subscription fees and over 97% of its funds are donated by tax-exempt groups and private foundations including the Ford Foundationand George Soros. Other contributers have included the Playboy Foundation. Its original offices were provided by Planned Parenthood and it was originally funded by the Unitarian Church. It has also been noted that, despite the Catholic moniker, its top contributers are supporters of abortion but don't appear to support the Church in any way: "While all of CFFC's five principal backers have supported Planned Parenthood, the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League or NOW, not one is known to have contributed to officially recognized Catholic nonprofits."

The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights and the Catholic News Agency have described the organization as anti-Catholic.

Excommunication

Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Nebraska issued an interdict in March 1996 forbidding Catholics within his diocese from membership in 12 organizations, including CFC, in which membership is described as "...always perilous to the Catholic Faith and most often is totally incompatible...", in a letter of formal canonical warning published in the diocesan newspaper, the Southern Nebraska Register. Members of the diocese were given one month from the date of the interdict to remove themselves from participation in the named organizations or face automatic excommunication. The excommunication was affirmed by the Holy See.

References

1. Catholics for Choice – About Us
2. ^ U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops – Office of Communications
3. Priest Expelled for Forbidden Baptism Sarasota Herald-Tribune, p. 4b, Oct. 18, 1975
4. "When the swallows come back to Capistrano" Bottum, Joseph. First Things, Oct. 1, 2006. at highbeam.com. Retrieved 2011-07-14.
5. ^ The New York Times. Backing Abortion Rights While Keeping the Faith. Banerjee, Neela. February 27, 2007
6. Dillon, Michele (1999). Catholic identity: balancing reason, faith, and power. Cambridge University Press. p. 106.
7. "After 25 Years, a Catholic Warrior Steps Aside" Burke, Daniel. Religion News Service. 2007-02-22. at CFC website. Retrieved 2011-07-14.
8. ^ Catholics for Choice – About Our Work
9. Ruether, Rosemary Radford (Autumn 2000). "The Mantra of Anti-Catholicism". Conscience: The Newsjournal of Catholic Opinion.
10. Richard Doerflinger, “Who Are Catholics for Choice?” Supplement to the Catholic League Newsletter, n.d.; reprinted from America, November 16, 1985; no pagination.
11. Catholic League Alleges that George Soros Funds 'Catholic Left' - Politics & Policy - Catholic Online
12. Catholic League claims Catholic political groups are financed by George Soros - Catholic News Agency October 20, 2008
13. Mobray, Joel The anti-Catholic Catholic group: antireligious feminists are using Catholics for a Free Choice to oppose the Vatican and church hierarchy and to raise millions of dollars for a left-liberal agenda, August 5, 2002, Insight on the News
14. Mobray, Joel The anti-Catholic Catholic group: antireligious feminists are using Catholics for a Free Choice to oppose the Vatican and church hierarchy and to raise millions of dollars for a left-liberal agenda, August 5, 2002, Insight on the News
15. Mobray, Joel The anti-Catholic Catholic group: antireligious feminists are using Catholics for a Free Choice to oppose the Vatican and church hierarchy and to raise millions of dollars for a left-liberal agenda, August 5, 2002, Insight on the News
16. Mobray, Joel The anti-Catholic Catholic group: antireligious feminists are using Catholics for a Free Choice to oppose the Vatican and church hierarchy and to raise millions of dollars for a left-liberal agenda, August 5, 2002, Insight on the News
17. CATHOLICS FOR CHOICE NEEDS TO CONVERT Catholic League Dec. 3, 2009
18. Pro-Marxist, anti-Catholic groups unite to attack Mexican Bishops CNA July 24, 2006
19. EXTRA SYNODAL LEGISLATION: Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz
20. "Catholics in 12 Groups Excommunicated in Nebraska". Daily News. Los Angeles, California: The Free Library, by Farlex. Associated Press. May 16, 1996. Retrieved July 18, 2011.
21. CNS STORY: Vatican affirms excommunication of Call to Action members in Lincoln, retrieved 2011-07-19

External links

• Catholics for Choice Official website
• Conscience Magazine

• Pro-choice organizations in the United States
• Pro-choice religious organizations
• Organizations based in Washington, D.C.
• Organizations established in 1973
• Christianity-related controversies
• Roman Catholic Church in the United States
• Christian political organizations