TCA Podcast, – “Conversations with Consequences,” Episode 153 – TCA Team Talks ‘Ask Your Husband’ & Why Is ACOG So Scared Of The Truth?
With the book ‘Ask Your Husband’ causing quite an online stir, Dr. Grazie Christie chats with TCA colleagues Ashley McGuire and Leigh Snead about the beauty of complementarity and how the Blessed Mother exudes both the tenderness of the maternal and the passion of the paternal–especially as the world gathers to consecrate both Ukraine and Russia to her Immaculate Heart. With headlines this week of two organizations changing the rules on how we talk about the unborn and abortion, Dr. Donna Harrison of AAPLOG joins with her take on why there is such a fear in talking truth about what we know about life in the womb. Father Roger Landry also offers an inspiring homily to prepare us for this Sunday’s Gospel on the Prodigal Son. Catch the show every Saturday at 7amET/5pmET on EWTN radio!
https://thecatholicassociation.org/podcast/ep-153-tca-team-talks-ask-your-husband-why-is-acog-so-scared-of-the-truth/
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1. Texans Are Still Getting Abortions, By Samuel Dickman and Kari White, The New York Times, March 25, 2022, Pg. A20, Opinion
[R]ecent data shows that the decline in the number of abortions in Texas was less than expected, dropping by about half compared to the same months in 2020.
There are a number of reasons the decrease in abortions isn’t as large as anticipated…But perhaps the biggest shift is an influx in donations to clinics and abortion funds that has thrown a financial lifeline to patients who otherwise would have to delay getting care until they had enough money.
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But people shouldn’t have to rely on abortion funds for essential health care. For the same reason we cringe with collective shame at the GoFundMe campaigns for people unable to afford their insulin, we should not tolerate a system in which people’s reproductive health care is determined by the emotional appeal of a fund-raising pitch or outrage about a draconian law.
Making abortion available as early as possible in a pregnancy — and preventing the hardships that result from high out-of-pocket costs and S.B. 8-style restrictions — will require more durable political change.
Ideally, it means repealing the Hyde Amendment and ending restrictions on private insurance coverage for abortion (currently in effect in 25 states), which punish the middle class in the same way that Hyde punishes the poor. It also means expanding Medicaid in Texas, Florida and the 10 other states that continue to refuse to accept federal funding that would allow their poorest residents to get health insurance. Long term, it means following the lead of other wealthy countries by providing universal, publicly financed health coverage that ensures equal access to care for injuries, illnesses and reproductive health needs, including abortion.
Samuel Dickman, an internist, is a health policy researcher at the Population Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin and an abortion provider. Kari White is an associate professor of social work and sociology and directs the Texas Policy Evaluation Project at the University of Texas at Austin.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/24/opinion/texas-abortion-funds-sb8.html
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2. What Citi’s abortion policy means for companies as Supreme Court considers tighter restrictions, By Elisabeth Buchwald, USA Today, March 24, 2022,11:18 AM
Citigroup quietly expanded employees’ health coverage in January to include paying for travel to obtain an abortion, a decision other large employers are likely to face as states impose new restrictions.
Illustrating the sensitivity of the issue, Citi did not proactively tell workers of the benefit change. Instead, the bank disclosed it on Page 20 of a 152-page investor proxy filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The filing said, “in response to changes in reproductive healthcare laws in certain states in the U.S., beginning in 2022 we provide travel benefits to facilitate access to adequate resources.”
Citi is the first major bank and one of a handful of corporations known to cover the expenses associated with getting an abortion since Texas instituted one of the nation’s most restrictive abortion limitations last year. The law makes it illegal for Texans to have an abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected, usually around six weeks of pregnancy.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/careers/2022/03/24/citi-response-texas-abortion-law/7090872001/
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3. 3 US Muslims sue over religious questioning by officers, By Associated Press, March 24, 2022, 5:26 PM
Three Muslim Americans filed a lawsuit Thursday alleging that U.S. border officers questioned them about their religious beliefs in violation of their constitutional rights when they returned from international travel.
The three men from Minnesota, Texas and Arizona sued Department of Homeland Security officials in a federal court in Los Angeles. The lawsuit was filed in California because some of the questioning allegedly occurred at Los Angeles International Airport.
In the lawsuit, the men claimed that U.S. border officers at land crossings and international airports peppered them with questions about whether they were Muslim and attended a mosque and how often they prayed.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/3-muslim-americans-sue-over-religious-questioning-in-travel/2022/03/24/62203554-ab91-11ec-8a8e-9c6e9fc7a0de_story.html
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4. High court: States must allow prayer, touch in executions, By Jessica Gresko, Associated Press, March 24, 2022, 5:01 PM
The Supreme Court said Thursday that states must accommodate the wishes of death row inmates who want to have their pastors pray aloud and even touch them during their executions.
The court ruled in the case of a Texas inmate, John Henry Ramirez, who challenged state rules that would have forced his pastor to remain silent and apart from him as he is put to death.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in an 8-1 opinion joined by conservative and liberal justices that “it is possible to accommodate Ramirez’s sincere religious beliefs without delaying or impeding his execution.” Some other states and the federal government have recently carried out executions where audible prayer and some physical contact were permitted in the execution chamber.
Only Justice Clarence Thomas dissented. Thomas said Ramirez has repeatedly attempted to delay his execution and his current lawsuit “is but the latest iteration in an 18-year pattern of evasion.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/texas-loses-high-court-case-over-prayer-during-executions/2022/03/24/acefa024-ab82-11ec-8a8e-9c6e9fc7a0de_story.html
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5. Pope condemns ‘shameful’ Ukraine war, but calls Western defense expenditures ‘madness’, By Inés San Martín, Crux, March 24, 2022
Pope Francis said on Thursday that what is happening in Ukraine is “unbearable” and this “shameful war” evidences a culture of “power and oppression.” He also called the decision by NATO countries to raise weapons expenditures “madness.”
The pontiff claimed even though there have been regional wars since the end of World War II, the one taking place in Ukraine now “has a greater dimension and threatens the entire world.”
Yet “the basic problem is the same: we continue to govern the world as a ‘chess board.’ where the powerful study moves to extend their dominance to the detriment of others,” Francis said. “The real answer, therefore, is not more weapons, more sanctions, more political-military alliances, but a different approach, a different way of governing the world, now globalized, and of setting up international relations.”
Francis said that it is evident that good politics cannot come from a culture of power understood as “domination and oppression, but only from a culture of care, care of the person and his dignity and care of our common home. This is proven, unfortunately negatively, by the shameful war we are witnessing.”
https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2022/03/pope-condemns-shameful-ukraine-war-but-calls-western-defense-expenditures-madness
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6. Arizona Legislature Passes 15-Week Abortion Ban, Bill comes ahead of pivotal Supreme Court decision that could alter abortion rights landscape nationwide, By Jennifer Calfas, The Wall Street Journal, March 24, 2022, 5:19 PM
Arizona lawmakers passed a bill banning most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, becoming the second state legislature to push through this restriction ahead of a pivotal Supreme Court decision that could alter the abortion rights landscape nationwide.
The Arizona House of Representatives passed the bill in a 31-26 vote Thursday. It now heads to the desk of Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican who has signed restrictions on abortion since becoming governor in 2015.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/arizona-legislature-passes-15-week-abortion-ban-11648156791?
___________________________________________________________TCA Media Monitoring provides a snapshot from national newspapers and major Catholic press outlets of coverage regarding significant Catholic Church news and current issues with which the Catholic Church is traditionally or prominently engaged. The opinions and views expressed in the articles do not necessarily reflect the views of The Catholic Association. |
