Prevention not prohibition.

I CONGRATULATE JON O'BRIEN for his article. If the U.S. bishops supported safe, affordable, reliable, birth control, thousands of abortions could be prevented. I do not see how a prolife hierarchy can continue to keep their heads in the sand on this issue.

According to polls, U.S. Catholics practice birth control to plan their families. The bishops need to catch up with the majority of the flock and practice what they preach. They need to promote affordable child care, health care for everyone, and responsible birth control.

This would do more to prevent abortions and would be the best choice of all for a prolife, pro-woman church.

BRIDGET MARY MEEHAN

Roman Catholic womanpriest

Falls Church, Va.

THANK YOU FOR PRINTING

Jon O'Brien's commentary.

My memory takes me back a few years to when my parish in Springfield, Ill., was commemorating Respect Life Sunday. The pastor spoke about the church's opposition to abortion. Then he posed a startling question to the congregation: Until we are truly willing to help women with everything they need--housing, health care, financial and emotional support--how can we, in good conscience, tell them what to do? As individuals and as the church, are we willing to do what is really necessary? The truth is disturbing: No, we are not.

We expect women to follow church law. Unfortunately, they usually have to do it on their own without much more than minimal support from the rest of us. It's time to get off of our high horses and stop telling other people what to do. The honest truth is that the hubbub about the so-called Partial Birth Abortion Act is not going to change the fact that many women, including Catholic women, have unintended pregnancies. And as long as women face unintended pregnancies, they will contemplate the option of abortion. The answer is to provide education and resources so that women can prevent unintended pregnancies and can plan for motherhood when they are ready financially, physically, emotionally and spiritually.

Brigid F. Leahy

Springfield, Ill

ABSTINENCE HAS BEEN taught to American children for decades by schools and religious organizations. Something isn't working. The U.S. government--with influence from Christian lobbyists--has focused so much on preventing premarital sex that it has lent a hand to greater evils. Premarital sex happens and, because of the lack of availability for contraceptives, has led to unwanted pregnancies and abortions.

O'Brien has left us with some serious moral questions. Is contraception so deplorable that we are willing to allow women to get to the point where abortion becomes an option, or unwanted children are put up for adoption? In this modern era we need our church. We need our bishops and cardinals. We need them to be beacons of hope, of justice and of morality. We need to know that our faith and our church can be a weapon against poverty, war and intolerance.

As O'Brien explains, we need to create a means of prevention against evils, not close our eyes and go the course.

Timothy Walsh

Philadelphia

I COMPLETELY AGREE WITH Mr. O'Brien. The way to eliminate the overwhelming majority of abortions is through prevention of unwanted pregnancies. The laity has taken the lead on this issue: Education and contraception are the keys to preventing unwanted pregnancies. Church policy-makers need to realize that we, the laity, are following the core of Catholic teaching in following our consciences to help prevent unwanted pregnancies. Our efforts would be more effective if they would work with us and lose their rigidity.

Corinne Sabo

San Antonio 

THANKS TO JON O'BRIEN for saying unequivocally that "prevention not prohibition" is what prochoice Catholics want. Just as LGBTQ Catholics are changing the conversation from homosexuality to heterosexism, so too a change in the abortion debate is in order. A concerted Catholic focus on sex education, contraception and adoption is a powerful possibility. I daresay it will accomplish more than the "abortion wars" did to create a welcoming and just society.

Mary E. Hunt, Ph.D.

Co-director, Women' s Alliance

for Theology, Ethics and Ritual

Silver Spring, Md.

JON O'BRIEN PROVIDES A valuable suggestion to progressive Catholics. Shifting the focus from divisive debate to practical solutions can help progressive Catholics take action in order to reduce the number of abortions.

At the Women's Ordination Conference, we are seeing more and more that progressive Catholic women, including women who have recently been ordained, are making a difference in their parishes and faith communities. These women are renewing their own community or creating new ones that are open, inclusive and welcoming to people and the issues they face in everyday life--the fear and often the reality of unintended pregnancy being one of them. Economic issues are also being recognized: whether the woman has access to contraception and knows how to use it, whether she is insured and has access to child care, and many more. These economic issues are on top of the social stigma of being a teenage and/or single mother. These women know that it is critical to address the underlying issues in order to reduce the number of times a woman has to deal with unintended pregnancy.

O'Brien describes a way for us to use our shared aims to work for positive change now. I applaud him and Catholics for a Free Choice for reaching across the seemingly endless chasm to help build a bridge of common ground that we can walk on together as American Catholics.

Aisha S. Taylor

Executive director, Women's

Ordination Conference

Fairfax, Va.