Catholic Groups Behind Mifepristone Ban Are Part of Century-Long Tradition

For Religion Dispatches, CTA communications coordinator and Vision Council member Lauren Barbato delves into the Catholic physicians’ group behind the legal challenge to mifepristone, a drug used in medication abortions. Lauren writes:

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

CMA’s position on abortion, like Kacsmaryk’s, is clear: They adhere to the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, a code of ethics composed by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and adopted by all Catholic medical institutions. Directive 45 defines abortion as the “directly intended destruction of a viable fetus.” The directives also block most effective, non-invasive treatments for miscarriages and pregnancy-related complications. 

The USCCB positions the ERDs as a beacon of Catholic identity in an increasingly bio-medicalized healthcare system. But bio-medicalization, as I often remind my college students, is not always a threat—to the Catholic bishops or to religion in general. Rather, the bigger threat is losing what historian Kathleen Joyce, in her analysis of 20th-century Catholic hospitals, deemed “Catholic power” in American medicine. 

Read the full piece here.