Alternative Catholic views on abortion. (Sexual Rights and Reproductive Rights).

When considering the issue of abortion, the first thing that most people think of is whether they are for or against. But we want to approach the matter from a different angle. The act of abortion is almost always accompanied by a great deal of suffering. Women who have abortions feel an emptiness and sadness, even though they may be relieved by the quick solution that the abortion provided. At the same time, saying one is against abortion does nothing to diminish its frequency nor the suffering of the countless women who endure this experience in extreme conditions of insecurity and solitude.

Both the State as well as the Church have abandoned many women to their fate in the hands of mercenary doctors, midwives and others. The State avoids its responsibility by refusing to regulate abortion in public health services, which would reduce the serious consequences of botched abortions suffered by many women, especially the poorest. (Editors' note: In recent years, thanks to the tireless pressure of the women's health movement, legal abortion services have been established in Brazil's public system.) The Church shirks its role by insisting on its moralistic, abstract and ambiguous discourse and denying moral value to any abortive act, instead of providing pastoral accompaniment to those who find themselves obliged to make this ethical decision. Meanwhile, sectors of the Catholic hierarchy have attempted to impose their moral principles without respect for the lay dimension of the State and its commitments to citizens of diverse beliefs, including non-believers. This is obvious in the insistent lobbying by "pro-life" groups with Brazilian Parliamentarians, as well as in the alliance at United Nations conferences between the Holy See and fundamentalist groups to oppose progress in the field of sexual and reproductive rights.

But institutions are not homogeneous in their discourses, and thanks to the heterogeneous composition of these institutional bodies, common sense still prevails when human life is concerned. This is precisely what we are talking about: human life, the concrete lives of countless women. We are speaking of bodies, theological spaces where the "Spirit" resides, bodies made in the image and likeness of God. These women have been denied the most elemental principle of Christian theological tradition: the possibility of turning to one's own conscience in making ethical decisions. Women's lives are disrespected when they are sterilized without their consent to meet population control goals, but also when they are forced to bear an unwanted child, conceived either as the result of violence or due to lack of access to contraceptive methods.

There is a clear and urgent need to provide public reproductive health services and sex education for adolescents, youth and adults so that they do not have to resort to an extreme decision such as abortion. This is also a controversial issue for sectors of the Catholic Church which continue to assert, against all evidence, the efficacy of the so-called natural contraceptive methods and denounce the use of condoms, even in this era of HIV/AIDS. However, recognizing the ethical right of women to control their reproductive life does not at all make abortion a contraceptive method.

Given these considerations: how do the millions of Brazilian Catholic women who have interrupted a pregnancy feel? Let us not forget that behind the statistics on high abortion rates are flesh-and-blood women. Who are they? Where are they? Perhaps many are our acquaintances, friends, sisters. Many of them may not have been brave enough to talk about the suffering related to their abortion and carry with them an enormous sense of guilt. Perhaps out of this great fear, they continue to say they are against any abortive act because it is easier for them to deny the past and publicly adhere to the apparently hegemonic position.

We at Catholics for a Free Choice are concerned about these women, and we address ourselves especially to them. We want to communicate to them the Good News. It is not an invention but comes from the very tradition of Catholic thought. When we refer to "apparently hegemonic" position, we are affirming that there is more than one perspective in the Catholic religious discourse on sexuality, even though the official position attempts to present itself as monolithic and dogmatic. We also know that the history of Catholic thinking on abortion belies the assertion that ecclesiastic tradition leads to a single teaching which must be maintained intact forever.

Documents from the founding of Christianity show the diversity of positions in ecclesiastical thought and the many discussions and disagreements among theologians about abortion. There is also quite a diverse panorama in the early Christian writings of the Fathers of the Church--Patristics--and of the theologians of the early centuries. (1)

In the first centuries of Christianity, the most important theologians of the period argued that abortion was not taking a life during the first stages of pregnancy. Saint Augustine expressed the general position of the Church that both condemned both birth control and abortion because they destroyed the connection between the conjugal act and procreation, but also did not consider abortion as murder. He wrote:

"The great question of the soul is not to be decided hastily using imprudent opinions and judgments not subjected to debate. According to the law, abortion is not murder because there is not yet a living soul in a body which lacks sensations, given that the flesh is not yet formed and is not provided with senses." (2)

This essay does not pretend to cover exhaustively the history of Catholic ideas on abortion, but rather challenges the current belief that the Catholic Church always considered abortion to be murder. Perceiving dissension among theologians in relation to the issue of abortion throughout the history of Catholicism provides a different perspective on the current discourse of the Catholic hierarchy which is presented as the product of a lineal and monolithic history. This is simply not true. The Vatican doctrine on abortion is not one of the issues on which the Pope is declared infallible. Instead, it is an issue for ecclesiastical legislation related to penitence and therefore can and must be discussed by Catholics.

In Catholic tradition, rigidity in moral issues is not inherent. In the case of abortion, there is not one sole, exclusive Catholic opinion with theological foundation. A little-known Catholic doctrine, Probabilism, underlies the diversity of opinions when a moral debate arises. (3) Elaborated by Catholic theologians in the 17th century, it is based on the idea that a moral obligation which provokes doubts cannot be imposed as if it were beyond dispute. The fundamental principle which guides Probabilism is, "Where there is doubt, there is liberty." This ancient doctrine is current and useful for pluralist societies such as our own.

Probabilism affirms the rights of the faithful to dissent from the Church hierarchy on moral issues if their arguments are based on a "firm probability." This probability can be intrinsic or extrinsic. Intrinsic probability refers to the individual perception of the inapplicability of a moral teaching. Extrinsic probability relates to the possibility of seeking support in theological authorities to dissent from a moral teaching. The Catholic tradition considers sufficient the existence of five or six theologians of moral reputation who defend the differing point of view.

According to Daniel C. Maguire: "The Church protected extrinsic probability to such an extent that when at least five or six eminent theologians were known to have a progressive point of view on a moral issue, canon law demanded that confessors inform those confessing of the existence of legitimate, differing points of view so that they could have recourse to Probabilism if they so desired. The confessor was obliged to do this even when he was not in agreement with the alternative opinion." (4)

Despite the widespread ignorance of this doctrine, Probabilism still remains as a Catholic concept in support of recourse to informed individual conscience. Increasingly, the Catholic faithful are aware that abortion is not immoral. (5) More than five or six serious theologians now defend the possibility that an abortion can be a moral act. Neither the Church nor society gains anything by taking an authoritarian position impeding this debate.

Another Catholic thinker and a specialist on ethical questions, Professor Malherbe of Belgium, resorts to a classic recourse of the Church, that of the "lesser evil." When a decision must be made in a difficult situation, the alternative which causes less harm is chosen. Positively stated, Malherbe prefers to speak of choosing "the better road." In the case in which a woman has to choose between her happiness and a potential human life, nothing prevents us from thinking that an ethically and religiously acceptable decision is to choose one's own happiness. (6)

As Catholic women, we affirm the right to continue to profess our faith in an adult and responsible manner and to seek a permanent dialogue with the ecclesiastical authorities without renouncing our moral capacity to make decisions about our lives, especially with regard to sexuality and human reproduction.

Notes

(1.) Hurst, Jane (1999). "A Historia das ideias sobre o aborto na Igreja Catolica" in Uma Historia nao Contada. Sao Paulo: Publicacoes CDD.

(2.) Ibid.

(3.) This is quite a relevant and complex doctrine in the history of the Catholic Church. In this text we refer only to its fundamental principle.

(4.) Maguire, Daniel C. (1999). "Opcoes catolicas para o debate sobre o aborto: o probabilismo numa sociedade plural," in Aborto: descobrindo as bases eticas para decidir com liberdade. Cadernos CDD, Sao Paulo: Publicacoes CDD.

(5.) More than 80 percent of Catholics interviewed in the newspaper O Estado supported the legalization of abortion. 0 Estado (Sao Paulo) Aug. 28, 1997.

(6.) Rosado, Maria Jose (n.d.). "O Direito a Vida e os Direitos da Mulher," mimeo.

The author is a Brazilian teacher of religious science and directs Latin American regional relations for the Brazilian branch of Catholics for a Free Choice. This article was originally published in the magazine Democracia Viva (IBASE, Rio de Janeiro) No. 8, 2000.