"I don't feel guilty at all. My only regret is getting pregnant in the first place. Right now, I'm too young and having too much fun to be a mother" ["Janet," 24].
•
"It's disgusting that some doctors still impose their morals on patients and refuse women the right to have an abortion. They're acting pig-headedly and taking away our freedom of choice. There are numerous reasons for a termination, and each of them should be accepted" ["Anna," 24].
•
"If a woman decides she wants an abortion there should be no barriers put in her way. Something must be done about the attitude of some NHS doctors. If they're against abortion then get them the hell away from it and the women who choose to have one" ["Mary," 26].
•
"I'm glad I had a termination. If I hadn't gone through with it I'd now have a two-year-old I couldn't provide for and I wouldn't have been able to follow my career. Making the choice is something to be admired" ["Lucy," 22].
•
"I haven't once regretted my decision to have an abortion. I'm grateful I had a choice and hardly ever think about it now. Thanks to the 1967 Abortion Act I'm not a single mother caring for an unwanted child" ["Jo," 29].
—
Various young aborting women in Britain, quoted in Sarah Maber. "Abortion & You." Company Magazine [a Great Britain "teen" magazine], December 1997, pages 129 to 132.
Mace, Gene
"Sometimes abortion is the redemptive thing to do."
—
Reverend Gene Mace, United Methodist Church minister, chaplain at the Methodist Medical Center in Peoria, Illinois, member of the Clergy Advisory Board of Planned Parenthood Association of the Greater Peoria Area, comments made at a Planned Parenthood-sponsored Interfaith Community Breakfast held in Peoria on Thursday, January 15, reported in the January 17, 1998 edition of the Peoria Journal Star.
Machan, Tibor
"Why confine the right to suicide, assisted or not, to the infirm? ... Limiting the right to assisted suicide to the sick and disabled is, in fact, unjust discrimination."
—
Tibor Machan. "The Right to Die is Another of Our Freedoms." The Orange County Register, November 30, 1998.
MacIntyre, M. Neil
"I would never use it [sex selection abortion], and my wife and I would never use it. However, to deny such a test raises serious questions — such as, is the geneticist imposing his personal bias on someone else?"
—
Dr. M. Neil MacIntyre, Professor of anatomy and human genetics at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland. Quoted by J.L. Lazarevic. "Ethics Bug Scientist in Child Sex Choice." The Pittsburgh Press, February 29, 1976, page B-4.
Mackinnon, Catharine
"I think that what women are conditioned socially to experience as love is a form of annihilation of self ... Feminism stresses the indistinguishability of prostitution, marriage and sexual harassment. Compare victims reports of rape with women's reports of sex. They look a lot alike ... In this light the major distinction between intercourse (normal) and rape (abnormal) is that the normal happens so often that one cannot see anything wrong with it."
—
Catharine MacKinnon, professor of law at the University of Michigan, quoted by Christina Sommers. "Hard-Line Feminists Guilty of Ms.-Representation." Wall Street Journal, November 7, 1991, page A14.
Madonna (singer and actress)
"I've always known that Catholicism is a completely sexist, repressed, sin- and punishment-based religion."
—
Trash queen Madonna, quoted in US Magazine, June 13, 1991, and in "Madonna Blasts Catholics." American Family Association Journal, September 1991, page 3.
"I don't think pornography degrades women. The women who are doing it want to do it. No one is holding a gun to their head. I don't get that whole thing."
—
Madonna, Sex (1992). Quoted in Suzan Bibisi, Los Angeles Daily News. "Madonna: Sex Has Some Raunchy Text, Artistic Photography." The Vancouver [Washington] Columbian, October 22, 1992, page B2.
"From this moment on, we are pure fraud, and don't you forget it! We are going to make the best blood-and-guts hemorrhage we know how to put together, and present them with it at the county hospital. Unlike the woman who begs for an abortion on grounds of insanity, or rape/incest fun laws, and must face morality delays, the hemorrhaging woman and her physician know her condition will not wait for the legal moralists to carry on long discussions. Thus, if you appear on the hospital scene with a roaring hemorrhage, you stand a fair chance of getting abortion care without investigations, degradations, and rejections presently meted out by mediocre hospital abortion committees and smirking district attorneys.
"The first thing you need to know is where and how to borrow blood for your hemorrhage. So, as all women must, we turn to our kitchen for the ingredients.
"Home-Made Hemorrhage Ingredients"
2-3 lbs. of raw beef liver, freshly sliced
1 small syringe (ear or infant)
3-4 sanitary napkins
Old clothing you can get very bloody
1 taxicab ...
"Wash your hands. Scrub your fingernails thoroughly. Examine beef liver. Don't wilt or collapse: blood is the stuff of life. Cut the liver into small pieces and squeeze every bit of blood into a clean bowl. Ideally, you need about three cups of blood. If there are clots, so much the better, so do not mash or destroy these. They give an authentic look to your efforts ... Tuck a piece of plastic under your bottom so you won't ruin your rug or bedding. Lie flat on your back with your legs elevated. Prop up pillows if necessary. Tuck the mashed pieces of liver far up your vaginal tract. Take the little rubber syringe, fill it from your interesting bowl of hemorrhage-mix and squirt your vaginal tract full of as much blood as it will hold ...
"If you have followed your instructions faithfully to this point, you will not really have to fake weakness and pallor. You already look and feel sick! Acting a "life or death" role is always exciting, so expect an increased pulse rate and do not worry about your pounding heart. Appear worried, confused and very ignorant of everything. The medical profession loves the image of the dull, cow-like woman, so be what they want you to be."
—
Patricia Maginnis and Lana Clarke Phelan. The Abortion Handbook for Responsible Women [North Hollywood: Contact Books], 1969, pages 119 to 121, and Ninia Baehr. "Abortion Without Apology: A Radical History for the 1990s" [Boston: South End Press], 1990, pages 19 and 20.
Maguire, Daniel C. (former Board member, 'Catholics' for a Free Choice (CFFC))
1.
In making moral judgements about abortion, it is important to avoid rigid and negative attitudes toward sexuality itself.
2.
The decision to abort can be a moral decision justified by many circumstances; the decision can also be unjustified.
3.
Abortion must be legal for women to even begin to make a moral choice with real freedom.
4.
The abortion decision involves intrinsic values. These values include, but are not limited to, the value of a woman's life and her life plan and the value of the fetus.
5.
We all have an obligation to work actively to create a society in which women will not need to choose between the value of their own well-being and that of the fetus.
"It is important to understand that while abortion does involve the taking of a human life — because all life that is in and of a human being is human life — in order to call it murder we would have to believe that prenatal life in the early stages of pregnancy is a human person and that there were absolutely no reasons that justified the taking of that life. ... [However], you may feel you have reasons that justify abortion regardless of your beliefs about personhood."
"Nor is [abortion] a question of the man's rights. You have no moral obligation to consult him or to consider his desire that you continue the pregnancy. ...
"Thus, the Catholic Church, when considered in its rich diversity, teaches that some abortions can be moral and that conscience is the final arbiter of any abortion decision. Unfortunately, the Catholicism that is taught in many Catholic parishes does not reflect the richness of the Catholic faith."
—
Marjorie Reiley Maguire and Daniel C. Maguire (former member of the 'Catholics' for a Free Choice Board of Directors). "Abortion: A Guide to Making Ethical Decisions." 'Catholics' for a Free Choice," September 1983 [NOTE: Obviously, Maguire and Maguire believe that parishes that are liberal on abortion are "mature," "diverse," "open," and "rich." Those that uphold authentic Catholic teaching on abortion are "narrow," "punitive," and "impoverished." Notice how they slyly 'compliment' the Church while asserting that pro-life priests and laity are not part of the "real" Church].
"What are the real 'hard cases' for pro-abortionists? Try Daniel and Marjorie Maguire. Daniel said of his wife; "She is anti-abortion, as you would know, but allows for tragic moral exceptions." What are these "tragic moral exceptions?" She says "Such factors as your age, health, financial ability to care for yourself and a child, the health of the fetus, whether you are married or single, the kind of emotional support you have from family or friends, and your plans for your own future need to be considered in deciding if your reasons are justifiable."
—
Daniel Maguire (former member of the 'Catholics' for a Free Choice Board of Directors) and Marjorie Reiley Maguire, quoted in Mary Meehan. "The Maguires Bring Abortion Issue to a Turbulent Boil." National Catholic Register, May 27, 1984, pages 1 and 7.
"The pope came on Shepherd One, but he did not find sheep awaiting him. He found people who take Judeo-Christianity seriously and who do not feel that it can be reduced to the patriarchal, hierarchical, authoritarian model the pope thinks to be the one, true Catholicism. ... There are many alien presences in the church which, when recognized for what they are, must be rejected. The model of political monism which led political leaders to say "L'Etat c'est moi!" [the State, it is me!] and popes, in effect, to say: "L'Eglise c'est moi!" [the Church, it is me!] is one of these objectionable foreign objects. ... The reform of the papacy is past due. A central figure who could give voice to the main moral and religious hopes of Christendom, who could speak the thundering prophetic certitudes on hunger, racism, militarism, sexism, and the abuse of economic and political power, would be a welcome voice. ... this pope has managed to squander this moral authority by charging into issues where he has no privileged expertise. He tries to speak last words while first words are being spoken. He violates the Aristotelian principle that in moral matters we should seek no more certitude than is available. He fails to realize in James Gustafson's phrase that it has pleased God to leave some things unclear. By trying to shut down debatable issues like in vitro fertilization, the pope discredits his own considerable moral authority."
—
Daniel C. Maguire (former member of the 'Catholics' for a Free Choice Board of Directors). "The Pope and Post-Clerical Catholicism: Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), September-December 1987 [Volume VIII, Numbers 5 and 6], pages 1 to 3.
"Honest debate is the only way to get this abortion bone out of the Catholic throat so that we can get on to more important pro-life issues [like hunger, health care, overpopulation, and "militarism"].
—
Daniel Maguire (former Jesuit priest and former member of the 'Catholics' for a Free Choice Board of Directors), quoted in "The Catholic Legacy and Abortion: A Debate." Commonweal, November 20, 1987, page 657.
"Small wonder it is offensive to those vestigial defenders of the mind-shutting ancien r‚gime which did moral teaching (especially about sex) by dictatorial fiat. ... The bishops, like all religiously-affiliated persons, are legitimate "participants in the public life of this nation" [NOTE: But only if they agree with CFFC's position on an issue]. ...
"Matters that we would condemn at the level of personal choice may be countenanced in the public realm to avoid great harm to the common good. Thus, said Aquinas, a Christian legislator might permit prostitution if the attempt to cancel it out might do more harm to society than good. In effect, Aquinas and Augustine were personally opposed to prostitution but said it should nevertheless be legal. ...
"Expertise and teaching authority does not result from being appointed to church office, but from learning and study. Episcopal ordination does not, by transubstantiation, turn a non-theologian into a theologian. We owe a lot to O'Connor and Law for making this so obvious. ... Vatican II almost went overboard on the point: "The body of the faithful as a whole, anointed as they are by the holy One, cannot err in matters of belief." ...
"It is moral to remove a woman's cancerous pregnant uterus, but her loss of fertility and of the embryo, that she hoped would become her child, are painful collateral evils — but not moral evils. The surgery achieves the most good available. ... Contraception can be considerably less negative (a lesser evil) than an unwanted pregnancy. A woman who has an abortion may be making a pro-life choice since life is a rich mix of negatives and positives; she may be doing the least evil and the most possible good in her circumstances. ... When contraception fails, abortion could be positively counseled as the lesser evil. So, again, O'Connor is dead right. This lesser-evil business could shatter the oppressive simplicities that he brings to complex matters in which he has no experience and little expertise."
—
Daniel C. Maguire (former member of the 'Catholics' for a Free Choice Board of Directors). "Diversity on AIDS: Legitimate and Welcome." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), January/February 1988 [Volume IX, Number 1], pages 3 and 4.
"A recent study of views held by U.S. Catholics on abortion — taken from an extensive poll of attitudes on the issue by Hickman-Maslin Research Inc., a Washington, D.C. polling firm — showed that there exists "a lot of misinformation" about the issue, said pollster Harrison Hickman at the briefing [NOTE: This is precisely the mission of CFFC: To create confusion, indecision and division among the faithful].
"Many of Catholic and non-Catholic attitudes against abortion rights are driven by stereotypes which portray women who typically have abortions as liberal, college-educated and single, Hickman said [NOTE: According to the Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI), the research arm of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, these are precisely the characteristics of the average abortion patient. Therefore, this is no stereotype]. ...
"People are massively uninformed about Catholic tradition and thought, said [Daniel] Maguire, especially as a result of arguments by Catholic bishops that there exists a "clear and constant teaching" on the issue of abortion [NOTE: This is precisely the opposite of reality: There certainly is a "clear and constant" teaching by the bishops on abortion, and it is CFFC that is trying to muddy the waters]. ...
"There has been no systematic thinking in Jewish-Christian tradition on abortion. There is nothing in the Bible on it," Maguire said. Not until the end of the nineteenth century did the Vatican emerge with a rigid, anti-abortion position, that most persons, including legislators, believe is the "Catholic tradition." Because of this prochoice tradition in legitimate Catholic teachings, legislators who are prochoice must not allow prolifers to claim any moral ground or to challenge their religious integrity, he said" [NOTE: Get this? The Catholic church's legitimate teaching is "prochoice," according to Maguire]!
—
Janice Hughes. "The Catholic Constituency: What Church Leaders Don't Tell Congress." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), May/June 1988 [Volume IX, Number 3], pages 2 and 10.
"It is important to remember that sexual relations do not necessarily form a relationship, nor does insemination alone create fatherhood. ... You have no moral obligation to consult him or to consider his desire that you continue the pregnancy.
"If you are married to the man, or if you are in a stable, permanent relationship with him which you want to continue, and you both wanted to conceive, you would have a serious obligation to listen to and consider his views. You would own him a full explanation of the reasons for your decision. Ultimately, however, the decision is yours.
"In the case of an unplanned pregnancy in a marriage it is possible that your husband may want to have a baby while you may not. If he has already proven himself a good father and partner in parenting, providing not just his share of financial support but also his share of child care, you have a serious obligation to be sensitive to his wishes. Your husband also has an obligation to consider your wish not to have a child and not request that you put his desires above your own. ... Again, however, the final decision is yours.
—
Excerpt from Marjorie Reiley Maguire and Daniel C. Maguire (former member of the 'Catholics' for a Free Choice Board of Directors). Abortion: A Guide to Making Ethical Choices. Also excerpted in "What Obligation Do I Have To the Man Who Is Involved?" Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), July/August 1988 [Volume IX, Number 4], page 8.
"Even on the overheated issue of abortion there is no one "Catholic" position today. Any efforts to present the Catholic position on abortion is fallacious and theologically ungrounded.
"The Catholic doctrine of probabilism provided the theological basis for Catholic pluralism on abortion. This doctrine, while virtually unknown to most Catholics, blesses diversity of opinion in morally debated areas. ...
"Probabilism is based on the insight that a doubtful moral obligation may not be imposed as though it were certain. Ubi dubium, ibi libertas — "where there is doubt, there is freedom" — is probabilism's cardinal principle. ... It gives Catholics the right to dissent from hierarchical church teaching in a moral matter if they can achieve "solid probability." ...
"Intrinsic probability is attained by the individual in a do-it-yourself manner; it is accomplished when an individual person perceives the inapplicability of a particular teaching, even without help from theologian or other authority figures. Extrinsic probability involves reliance on authority figures, which in the past usually meant finding five or six reputable moral theologian who held the liberal view. ...
"Probabilism, in effect, has enfranchised the possibility of reasonable doubt, with frivolous doubt holding no credibility. ...
"There is a wholesome realism in this position. It says that one's reasons for private dissent from hierarchical church teaching have to be cogent and forceful, but they need not be so conclusive that they would convince anyone else. ... The operating paternalistic judgement has been that the laity does not have the perspicacity to arrive at probable opinions themselves. "Intrinsic probability" has been neglected, though it remains as an approved possibility for any Catholic.
"Attention instead has turned most often to "extrinsic probability." Thus, if you found five or six theologians, known for their "prudence and learning," who held the liberal dissenting view, you could follow them in good conscience even if the other ten thousand theologians — including the pope — disagreed.
—
Daniel C. Maguire. "Where There's Doubt, There's Freedom." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), Spring/Summer 1993 [Volume XIV, Numbers 1 and 2], page 15 [emphasis in the original].
"Theology basically is the quest to discover whether reality ultimately makes sense. In its vigor, it challenges all the assumptions contained in the tenured answers of a culture. As such, it is the resident heretic in the universe of discourse. Done well, it does not lead to peace."
—
Daniel C. Maguire, quoted in "The Examined Life." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), Spring/Summer 1993 [Volume XIV, Numbers 1 and 2], pages 50 to 52.
"Daniel Maguire, professor of moral theology at Marquette University, Milwaukee, warned against the "naivete" of treating the Vatican as the voice of all Catholics. "Catholicism is considerably richer than any segment of it, including the Vatican," Maguire said. The "dominant views of Catholic theology," in fact, are more liberal than the Vatican on contraception and abortion. ... Catholic teaching stands on a tripod, of which the hierarchy is only one leg; lay people and theologians, though often squelched, also contribute to Catholic theology. ... He [Maguire] cited population growth, environmental devastation, and death of one million women annually from reproductive causes — "a Holocaust every six years." ... "These problems will not go away by throwing condoms at them, but they will also not go away without condoms," Maguire said. "Artificial contraception and abortion ... are necessary options, and their moral respectability must be forthrightly maintained and vigorously defended. ... Coercive motherhood may be a greater villain than coercive birth restraint."
—
"Meetings: Fruitful Discussion." Conscience, Autumn 1993 [Volume XIV, Number 3], pages 51 and 53.
"Psychologists describe dysfunctional families in which everyone grumbles about the noises and smells in the house, but no one will admit that there is an elephant in the living room. Reactions thus far to the new encyclical Veritatis Splendor brings this to mind. Almost all comments to date have missed the gigantic presence of the elephant.
"Many others light on the references to the pelvic issues that have so consumed this and previous pontificates and remains a preoccupation here [NOTE: Who has a "preoccupation" with the "pelvic issues?" Take a look at the documents of the Church and the homilies of Pope John Paul II, and you will see that perhaps a maximum of five percent is taken up with addressing the so-called "pelvic issues." As for CFFC, well, it talks about little else. CFFC is by any definition obsessed with these issues].
"The immodest title of this encyclical had already set the tone. ... This arrogant nonsense was a leftover from the very incomplete First Vatican Council. This council carved out a little zone of divine cognitive assistance reserved for the pope and those members of the hierarchy who agreed with him. This type of thinking is not unusual in religious history. Cult leaders and Ayatollahs into our day claim special pipelines to the mind of God. It is a claim that is both arrogant and sacrilegious. ... John Paul II spells out what this charism is that he claims for himself. It is a unique "light and power capable of answering even the most controversial and complex questions" giving him privileged capacities for "discernment." This embarrassing oracularism is the elephant in the living room.
"The hallowed Catholic tradition of probabilism taught that in respectable debated issues, where good people for good reason disagree conscience is free. ... The problem with the encyclical is that it is not Catholic enough. It bypasses the subtleties and achievements of the Catholic past.
"This influential person who can draw overflow crowds in the four corners of the earth, who has the announced intention of influencing national and international policy, deserves strict scrutiny and candid criticism. ... Making infallible statements through the medium of fallible language is a naive dream.
"Hear the details of this actual case, dating from 1969. A young woman in a large eastern city in the United States has so many medical problems that she had been listed in critical condition several times during the pregnancy, but managed to give birth and survive. Her doctor recommended surgical sterilization and said he would not stay on as her physician if she did not have this done, since he did not think she could survive another pregnancy. A priest who subscribed to the papal teaching on birth control told her and her husband that they had only two alternatives: total sexual abstinence or the rhythm method. They chose rhythm. She got pregnant, and she died. The pope would say that this "martyrdom" bears splendid witness ... to the holiness of God's law." He is wrong. This woman was a martyr to ignorance. Ethical errors are not just unfortunate. They are often lethal. In sum, Veritatis Splendor is a dangerous document. It accents the pelvic issues within ethics to the neglect of the social teachings of Christianity and Judaism.
"The pope wants theologians and those in related disciplines to get a mandate from the local bishop to teach. For those teaching in Catholic colleges, the pressure of new ordinances already being developed is likely to be especially pernicious. This would crush theology and put an end to academic freedom.
"In a word, Veritatis Splendor is the sad legacy of a failed papacy. ... Instead, as in this encyclical, he has squandered his moral authority on issues on which he has no privileged expertise. ... The encyclical is an angry document.
"Theologians have served the church well. They are not infallible, and they surely do not treat one another as such. Collision and criticism among many minds competing freely together is the mark of a healthy theologate. But the pope does not believe that. Like Saul, he is furious and hurling his spears. It is sad, and unnecessary.
—
Daniel C. Maguire. "The Splendor of Control: A Commentary on Veritatis Splendor and the Elephant in the Living Room." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), Winter 1993/1994 [Volume XIV, Number 4], pages 26 to 29.
"... and we said that if Catholics study the bishop's statement seriously, and do not agree that they have committed an excommunicable sin, then by church law they are not excommunicated. It is shocking that a bishop in the contemporary church would choose to exclude Catholics from participating in the life of the church in such a cavalier and Kafkaesque manner," CFFC president Frances Kissling said. ... "Even within the minimal 'due process' provisions of canon law," Kissling said, "such disregard of people's rights shows a profound lack of respect for the dignity of these Catholics. ... Theologian and CFFC board member Daniel Maguire told the Lincoln Journal Star that "excommunication is an obsolete theological concept. The good news is that even if he tried to excommunicate [member of the groups], his attempt would be invalid."
—
"CFFC Notebook: Bully with a Pulpit." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), Spring 1996 [Volume XVII, Number 1], pages 32 and 33 [NOTE: This is a great example of CFFC members simply declaring something to be so and hoping that others will believe their nonsense].
"Monolithic rigidity on moral matters is not the Catholic way. Even on the overheated issue of abortion, there is no "Catholic" position today. Any effort to present the "one and only" Catholic position on abortion is fallacious and theologically ungrounded. The theological basis for Catholic pluralism on abortion is provided by the Catholic doctrine of probabilism. This doctrine, while virtually unknown to most Catholics, blesses diversity of opinion in morally debated areas. ... Probabilism is based on the insight that a doubtful moral obligation may not be imposed as though it were certain. Ubi dubuum, ibi libertas — "where there is doubt, there is freedom" — is probabilism's cardinal principle. Probabilism means that moral decision making is ultimately in one's own hands; probability arises from insight, one's own or that of reliable experts, and does not depend on permission of authorities. ...
"In intrinsic probability, where one can decide for one's self against the reigning consensus, it is stipulated that one's reasons have to be "cogent, but not necessarily conclusive." There is a wholesome realism in this position. It says that one's reasons for private dissent from hierarchical church teaching have to be cogent and forceful, but they need not be so conclusive that they would convince anyone else. ...
"Not even Pope John Paul II, in his recent encyclical Evangelium Vitae, dares to suggest that his rigorous minority view on the subject is "infallible." The nineteenth-century concept of "infallibility," an assumed ability to make infallible statements through the medium of fallible language, has been laid to rest by mainstream Catholic theology today [NOTE: The "mainstream," of course, is CFFC and a small gaggle of dissenting groups. The Holy Father and his bishops still uphold this teaching]. While the pope was clearly tempted to proclaim his view infallible, he did not cross that line. By thus admitting that he might be wrong, he implicitly acknowledged the applicability of probabilism to the abortion question [NOTE: What a statement! If anyone says that he is not infallible, he is admitting that he might be wrong! In other words, CFFC, since it does not claim to be infallible, is admitting that everything it says might be wrong!] ... "Intrinsic probability" has been neglected, though it remains as an approved possibility for any Catholic. Attention instead has turned most often to "extrinsic probability." Thus, if you found five or six theologians, known for their "prudence and learning," who held the liberal dissenting view, you could follow them in good conscience even if the other ten thousand theologians — including the pope — disagreed. ...
"A final important lesson of probabilism is this: no moral debate — and that includes abortion — is beyond the scope of a probabilistic solution. To quote Father Davis once again: "It is the merit of Probabilism that there are no exceptions whatever to its application; once given a really probable reason for the lawfulness of an action in a particular case, though contrary reasons may be stronger, there are no occasions on which I may not act in accordance with good probable reason that I have found" [NOTE: Really? Let us show how badly Maguire misunderstands by asking: Would he still agree if we were talking about child sexual molestation — or the bombing of an abortion clinic?]
"... one now can find the experts among Protestant Christians. This considerably expands the use of probabilism on the abortion issue, as most mainstream Protestant views accept abortion as a moral option. This sea change in Catholic teaching has been little noted. It amounted to a surrender of the "one true church" concept in Catholicism. ...
"Abortion is never lacking in tragedy and would be better prevented by contraceptive care, but it is not always immoral [NOTE: "Not always?" Try asking a CFFC member if any abortion is "immoral." They will refuse to answer]. ... Could a person who holds the most rigorous position on abortion in our society — i.e., that it is always immoral — support a policy that permits some abortion? As a Catholic ethicist I answer that question "Yes."... Thus, a legislator who personally finds abortion always immoral may support the Roe v. Wade decision on abortion for these two reasons: (1) because the decision does not require anyone to have an abortion; it is a permissive, not a coercive, decision; and (2) because the abortion debate among Catholics, as well as among other Americans, is not settled [NOTE: Yet CFFC could not name one other issue by which such reasoning would apply].
—
Daniel C. Maguire (former member of the 'Catholics' for a Free Choice Board of Directors). "Catholic Options in the Abortion Debate: Probabilism in a Pluralistic Society." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), Summer 1996 [Volume XVII, Number 2], pages 19 to 23.
"I can trace the immediate stimulus for my going to a [abortion] clinic to the woman who visited with me in our home several days before her abortion at this same clinic. ... After her abortion, she told us she thought she had made the right decision, but she paid a price in tears and soul trauma. I remember her piercing words about the rosary-saying pickets: "They were taking a precious symbol of my faith and turning it into a weapon against me."
"I knew that my visits would not give me a woman's understanding of the abortion decision, but I hoped they might empty me a bit of my inculcated masculine insensibility [NOTE: A good 'feminist man' — groveling before the women].
"The clinic door still had traces of red paint from a recent attack. The door was buzzed open only after I was identified. I realized that these people live and work in fear of "pro-life" violence. ... A sign inside the front door said, "Please Help Our Guard. We May Need Witnesses if the Pickets Get out of Control. You Can Help by Observing and Letting Him/Her Know if You See Trouble."
"I asked Yeo about the "right-to-lifer's" claim that most women who have abortions are rich [NOTE: What pro-lifer has ever made this claim? As always, there is no footnote and no documentation for such an absurd claim]. ... I asked about the charge that doing abortions makes doctors rich. She assured me that, given the clinic's budget, all the doctors who work there would make more back in their offices. ...
"It became ironically clear to me that these women working in the abortion clinic prevent more abortions than the zealous picketers demonstrating outside. ...
"It struck me forcefully how aloof and misogynist it is not to see that the adoption path is supererogatory [more than is needed or required]. Here is one more instance of male moralists' prescribing the heroic for women as if it were simply normal and mandatory. ...
"I was shown the suction tube used and was surprised to find it only about twice the width of a straw. This was early empirical information for me as to what it is that is aborted at this stage.
"One staff member said it would seem that 90 percent of the men have "scorn for condoms." Making "love" does not describe those sexual invasions. For there hostile inseminators, nothing should interfere with their pleasure. A few women concede that they were "testing the relationship." ...
"The picketers were a scary lot. Because of them, a guard had to be on duty to escort the patients from their cars. Before the clinic leased the adjacent parking lot — making it their private property — some picketers would go up to the cars of the women, screaming and shaking the cars. The guard told me he was once knocked down by a picketer. Without the guard, some of them would surround an unescorted woman and force her to see and hear their message of condemnation. ... Their language was filled with allusions to the Nazi Holocaust. Clearly, they imagined themselves at the ovens of Auschwitz, standing in noble protest as innocent persons are led to their deaths. There could hardly be any higher drama in their lives. They seemed not to know that the Nazis were antiabortion too — for Aryans [NOTE: Similarly, pro-abortionists are antiabortion too — for those perfect babies they "want." For the "unwanted," the handicapped, those of the wrong sex or gender, and all the rest — well, they can be eliminated, just like the Nazis eliminated the "unwanted" Jews. For many more parallels between yesterday's Nazis and today's pro-abortionists, see Chapter 5 of The Facts of Life Compact Disc, "The Holocaust Analogy to Abortion"]. They also miss the anti-Semitism and insult in this use of Holocaust imagery. The six million Jews two million to three million Poles, Gypsies, and homosexuals killed were actual, not potential, persons. Comparing their human dignity to that of pre-personal embryos is no tribute to the Holocaust dead. Jews and other survivors of victims are not flattered. Sexism was also in bold relief among the picketers. Their references to "these women" coming here to "kill their babies" dripped with hatred. It struck me that, for all their avowed commitment to life, these were the successors of the witch-hunters. ...
MEETING THE EMBRYOS
"On my third visit to the clinic, I made bold to ask to see the products of some abortions. ... I held the cup in my hands and saw a small amount of unidentifiable fleshy matter in the bottom of the cup. The quantity was so little that I could have hidden it if I had taken it into my hand and made a fist. ...
REACHING CONCLUSIONS
"1. My four visits to the clinic made me more eager to maintain the legality of abortions for women who judge they need them. ... It also made me eager to work to reduce the need for abortion by fighting the causes of unwanted pregnancies: the sexism enforced by the institutions of church, synagogue, mosque, and state that diminish a woman's sense of autonomy; the poverty induced by skewed budgets; our antisexual bias that leads to eruptive sex; and the other macro causes of these macro tragedies. ... More often than we male theologians have dreamed, abortion is the best a woman can do in a world of diversified extremities. ...
"3. I came away from the clinic with a new longing for a moratorium on self-righteous and sanctimonious utterances from Catholic bishops on the subject of abortion. ... A position such as O'Connor's has two evil yields: It insults the Catholic intellectual tradition by making it look simplistic, and it makes the bishops the allies of a right wing that has been using its newfound love of embryos as an ideological shield for a mean-spirited social agenda.
"4. Saint Antoninus, the revered fifteenth-century Dominican bishop of Florence, presented common Catholic teaching when he defended early abortions to save a woman's life — a broad exception in the medical context of his day. Today's Catholic hierarchy might well begin their deliberations with a prayer to St. Antoninus, this pro-choice bishop, canonized a saint in 1523. He is a saintly representative of a pro-choice Catholic view. ... I am troubled by the bishops' insistence on presenting their rigid view as the only legitimate or even most typical Catholic view. The bishops are squandering their moral authority on issues where they have no privileged expertise. ... If anyone can find a statue or picture of St. Antoninus, I'll contribute it to the CFFC office."
—
Daniel C. Maguire. "Reflections of a Catholic Theologian on Visiting an Abortion Clinic." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), Autumn 1996 [Volume XVII, Number 3], pages 29 to 34. A modified version of this article first appeared as "A Catholic Theologian at an Abortion Clinic." Ms. Magazine, December 1984, pages 129 to 132.
Maguire, John
"One of the problems for people like me who were born into the Catholic Church — especially an Irish Catholic Church — during the 1930's and 1940's was that we were raised in total denial of all things sexual. Everything in this realm was evil, surrounded like Hitler's stalags, by deadly fences and land mines. Mortal sins everywhere. ... Daily, I was being confirmed in my belief that I should heed first and always the voice of my inner peace, regardless of what my official religious teachers might seek to foist upon me. ... In July 1992 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a statement that presented anew a centuries-old and outmoded formula of human nature that owed more to the Stoic philosophers then to Jesus: Rome decided that people whose sexual orientation was towards others of their own sex should admit that our very nature as sexual beings is essentially disordered; and that, as a result, we have special propensities towards sin and evil. ... Being homosexual was just a fact, part of the core that made me me. ... My existence as a homosexual person had a meaning in God's purposes. If I was to be true to Him as my creator — I was to be true to Jesus as my brother and my Lord — if I was to be true to myself — if I was to accept my solidarity with my brothers who fifty years ago were murdered across Europe because another distorted ideology had claimed they did not constitute human perfection — then I had a duty to accept and affirm my sexuality as part of my humanity. ... Contrary to predictions of some geriatric clerics locked away in Vatican palaces, these realizations did not make me madly promiscuous. But then, fearful of their own selves, unwilling to believe really that the God we all claim to serve is a God enfleshed, they do not want to believe or even hear that."
—
John Maguire. "Why Hide It Behind a Fig Leaf?: Creativity, Sexuality, Faith and Religion." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), Winter 1993/1994 [Volume XIV, Number 4] pages 12 to 15 [italics in the original].
"We grew up in a sexist church that excludes women from ordination. Catholic theology teaches that priestly ordination is for men only. When the pope re-affirmed the Roman Catholic church's stand on priestly ordination of men only, this was made a doctrine of faith. Theologians and other religious may not speak about this matter. I believe this kind of attempt of control by the Vatican is an abuse of power. It is dehumanizing, demoralizing, and a form of spiritual abuse. It is an assault on the sanctity of a person's conscience, and the removal of the right to freedom of thought and speech. ... Many Catholics are coming to see that this kind of theological argument based on "biology" is nonsense. Moreover, people are beginning to realize the spiritual violence being done to men and women's consciences by the institutional Catholic church."
—
Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Corrigan Maguire. "A New Pentecost." In "An Enlightened Church: Letters to Young Catholics." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), Summer 2002 [Volume XXIII, Number 2], pages 7 to 21.
Maguire, Marjorie Reiley ('Catholics' for a Free Choice (CFFC))
1.
In making moral judgements about abortion, it is important to avoid rigid and negative attitudes toward sexuality itself.
2.
The decision to abort can be a moral decision justified by many circumstances; the decision can also be unjustified.
3.
Abortion must be legal for women to even begin to make a moral choice with real freedom.
4.
The abortion decision involves intrinsic values. These values include, but are not limited to, the value of a woman's life and her life plan and the value of the fetus.
5.
We all have an obligation to work actively to create a society in which women will not need to choose between the value of their own well-being and that of the fetus.
It is important to understand that while abortion does involve the taking of a human life — because all life that is in and of a human being is human life — in order to call it murder we would have to believe that prenatal life in the early stages of pregnancy is a human person and that there were absolutely no reasons that justified the taking of that life. ... [However], you may feel you have reasons that justify abortion regardless of your beliefs about personhood."
"Nor is [abortion] a question of the man's rights. You have no moral obligation to consult him or to consider his desire that you continue the pregnancy. ...
"Thus, the Catholic Church, when considered in its rich diversity, teaches that some abortions can be moral and that conscience is the final arbiter of any abortion decision. Unfortunately, the Catholicism that is taught in many Catholic parishes does not reflect the richness of the Catholic faith."
—
Marjorie Reiley Maguire and Daniel C. Maguire (former member of the 'Catholics' for a Free Choice Board of Directors). "Abortion: A Guide to Making Ethical Decisions." 'Catholics' for a Free Choice," September 1983 [NOTE: Obviously, Maguire and Maguire believe that parishes that are liberal on abortion are "mature," "diverse," "open," and "rich." Those that uphold authentic Catholic teaching on abortion are "narrow," "punitive," and "impoverished." Notice how they slyly 'compliment' the Church while asserting that pro-life priests and laity are not part of the "real" Church].
"Personhood begins when the bearer of life, the mother, makes a covenant of love with the developing life within her to bring it to birth. It is in the nature of things that woman creates the 'soul' just as much as she nourishes the body of developing human life."
—
Marjorie Reiley Maguire, in the March/April 1984 'Catholics' for a Free Choice (CFFC) newsletter Conscience. Also quoted in Mary Meehan. "The Maguires Bring Abortion Issue to a Turbulent Boil." National Catholic Register, May 27, 1984, pages 1 and 7.
"God wills dissent to reach the blindness and hardness of heart of many Church leaders. Dissent is a constructive not a destructive activity in the religious community. ... If the Church were like a woman's club or the national football league, then rules would be paramount in determining membership. I could be kicked out for dissenting from the opinions and directives of Church leaders in such areas as women's ordination, contraception, sterilization, abortion, divorce, and even the right to dissent. However, since the Church is a community whose members are gathered together by God, membership is not a gift from Church leaders that can be taken away at their command. Dissent with laws and rules of the Church does not mean that I have put myself outside Church membership. It is simply an indication that the rules and laws must be examined anew by all the members of the Church to determine whether they have ceased to serve the whole Church. ... No one ... should allow herself to be drummed out of the corps or badgered into leaving by those who cannot tolerate diversity in the Body of Christ."
—
Marjorie Reiley Maguire. "Dissent in the Catholic Church." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), September-December 1987 [Volume VIII, Numbers 5 and 6], page 8.
"It is important to remember that sexual relations do not necessarily form a relationship, nor does insemination alone create fatherhood. ... You have no moral obligation to consult him or to consider his desire that you continue the pregnancy.
If you are married to the man, or if you are in a stable, permanent relationship with him which you want to continue, and you both wanted to conceive, you would have a serious obligation to listen to and consider his views. You would own him a full explanation of the reasons for your decision. Ultimately, however, the decision is yours.
In the case of an unplanned pregnancy in a marriage it is possible that your husband may want to have a baby while you may not. If he has already proven himself a good father and partner in parenting, providing not just his share of financial support but also his share of child care, you have a serious obligation to be sensitive to his wishes. Your husband also has an obligation to consider your wish not to have a child and not request that you put his desires above your own. ... Again, however, the final decision is yours.
—
Excerpt from Marjorie Reiley Maguire and Daniel C. Maguire (former member of the 'Catholics' for a Free Choice Board of Directors). Abortion: A Guide to Making Ethical Choices. Also excerpted in "What Obligation Do I Have To the Man Who Is Involved?" Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), July/August 1988 [Volume IX, Number 4], page 8.
"The voice of the officers of the Catholic Church on reproductive matters speaks to me of a materialistic God ... whose greatest joy comes from playing cruel reproductive tricks on women and watching them squirm."
—
Marjorie Reiley Maguire, 'Catholics' for a Free Choice (CFFC) member, quoted in Phyllis Zagano. "The Limits of Choice." National Catholic Register, October 12, 1986.
"As a woman who used to be associated with Catholics for a Free Choice, I was disappointed to read the United Nations has recognized CFFC as an official nongovernmental organization, for the fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing (NCR, March 31). I think the Vatican was right on this one but not because CFFC claims to be a pro-choice group.
"I believe CFFC does not deserve accreditation because it has actually become an anti-woman organization. Various personal experiences with CFFC have led me to believe that its agenda is no longer simply to defend the legality of a woman's abortion choice against efforts to recriminalize that choice. Instead, I now see CFFC's agenda as the promotion of abortion, the defense of every abortion decision as a good, moral choice, and the related agenda of persuading society to cast off any moral constraints about sexual behavior. I don't think this is a Catholic or pro-woman agenda whether you are liberal or conservative, pro-life or pro-choice.
"Moreover, CFFC had only a handful of dues-paying members when I was associated with it, although it had a large mailing list. It got its funding from private foundations. Thus, the recognition of CFFC by the United Nations actually has the effect of giving an NGO seat to a lobbying group for private foundations under the pretext that CFFC represents the voice of thousands of Catholic women.
"I also agree with the Vatican that CFFC's claim to the name "catholic" is very questionable. Even if most of its dues-paying members were baptized Catholic, that does not necessarily make them "Catholic" today. Only an outdated, legalistic, zap theology, which CFFC adherents reject in every other respect, would call people Catholic simply because they were baptized.
"A person does not have to agree with every position of the Vatican or even the pope to be a loyal Catholic. However, the positions of the pope and the Vatican at least deserve a hearing from Catholics, and dissent should be respectful. CFFC's sexual agenda seems to have deafened it to any good news coming from the Vatican. Moreover, CFFC's "in your face" style of dissent has hurt Catholic women by making the Vatican think that all feminists are like the radical feminists at CFFC, and that Catholicism and feminism are therefore incompatible.
"Additionally, I think that the label "Catholic" is proper only for a person who participates in the sacramental life of the church. Thus, regular attendance at Mass (except for the elderly and invalids) seems to be the minimum sign of membership in the church. When I was involved with CFFC, I was never aware that any of its leaders attended Mass. Furthermore, various conversations and experiences convinced me they did not. I myself did not. Today I see this failure as proof that I was not actually a Catholic for a Free Choice."
—
Marjorie Reilly Maguire, former Board member of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice (CFFC). Complete text of the letter to the editor of the National Catholic Reporter entitled "Not Catholic," and published in its April 21, 1995 edition.
"My husband [Dan Maguire], who was also a pro-choice activist, left me in 1990 for another woman. Before I knew about the other woman, I pleaded with my husband to return to the marriage. I expected our pro-choice friends to rally to my aid. I thought they would confront my husband with the dissonance between his divorce action and his pro-woman rhetoric. Instead, I got a cold shoulder from most of my pro-choice, feminist friends. In effect I was aborted from their field of concern. They had a man on their side whom they did not want to lose, but I was expendable. I was even asked why I was making a fuss that could hurt "the cause." When I answered that my "cause" was women, not abortion per se, I was told that I was mixing up my personal life with public concerns.
"When I reminded them that the feminist doctrine is that "the personal is the political," their answer was to drop me entirely. A few even aided my husband in some of his divorce actions against me. So much for the liberationist, feminist rhetoric about the "hermeneutical privilege" of women's experience and the "preferential option" for women as oppressed persons in society!
"When the actions of my feminist friends revealed to me the consequences of the pro-choice rhetoric, my eyes were opened to aspects of the pro-choice movement that I had not previously considered. I began to see the abortion movement as not so much a pro-woman movement as a pro-sexual-liberation movement. I saw how advocacy for the legality of abortion subtly shifts to moral justification for abortion. That, in turn, promotes a moral neutrality toward the irresponsible sexual behavior which too often is the cause of abortion-"irresponsibility" is a word that is rarely mentioned in pro-choice circles — "contraceptive failure" is presented as the cause of most abortions, rather than sexuality without moral constraints. In this way, abortion rhetoric plays into a degenerate male sexual agenda, rather than promoting the moral agency of women.
—
Marjorie Reiley Maguire. "Rhetoric and Reality." Human Life Review, Winter 1996, pages 60 to 66.
Maher, Bill (host of ABC's "Politically Incorrect")
Host Bill Maher: "Look, it's a fact of life. Priests, a lot of times, molest boys, okay? They are celibate and it's a magnet for homosexual pedophiles."
Guest William McNamara: "The Church should allow priests to marry and give the altar boy's rectums a break."
—
Exchange on ABC's "Politically Incorrect," August 8, 2000. Described in Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. 2000 Report on Anti-Catholicism, available on-line at the Catholic League's Web site here.
"I believe in God, I just don't think God would want this enormous silly bureaucracy between him and me."
—
Host Bill Maher on the ABC show "Politically Incorrect," October 10, 2000. Described in Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. 2000 Report on Anti-Catholicism, available on-line at the Catholic League's Web site here.
"Which is the perfect description of religion itself. I mean, what is scarier than drinking the man's blood every Sunday? That's not a spooky ritual? 'Here kids, drink his blood and eat his body.' Like that's not pagan? What can be more pagan than that?"
—
Host Bill Maher on the ABC show "Politically Incorrect," October 27, 2000. Described in Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. 2000 Report on Anti-Catholicism, available on-line at the Catholic League's Web site here.
"There is nothing more perverted than celibacy."
—
Host Bill Maher on the ABC show "Politically Incorrect," July 11, 2001. Described in Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. 2000 Report on Anti-Catholicism, available on-line at the Catholic League's Web site here.
Mahowald, Mary B. ('bioethicist')
"As with many troublesome ethical issues, the slippery slope argument is applicable to transplantation of fetal tissues. For example, we may initially permit only the transplantation of tissues from dead fetuses. If this does not prove successful or adequate, we may then transplant tissue from nonviable but living fetuses. Routinization of the practice could lead to transplantation of larger and larger portions of the brain, to transplantation of entire brains from viable fetuses, or to harvesting organs from other donors who are not dead, but are dying or chronically ill."
—
Mary B. Mahowald, Jerry Silver, and Robert A. Ratcheson. "The Ethical Options in Fetal Tissue Transplants." The Hastings Center Report, April 1987.
Mailer, Norman (founder, People for the 'American' Way (PAW))
"Let me say something that's shocking. I am perfectly willing to grant that life starts at conception. If a woman doesn't want to have a child, then I think it's her right to say no. But let's not pretend that it isn't a form of killing."
—
Norman Mailer on the David Frost Show. Quoted in "Norman Mailer Speaks Out on Sex and AIDS." American Family Association Journal, March 1992, page 3.
"Art is worth a little risk."
—
Norman Mailer, founder of People for the 'American' Way (PAW), quoted in George Sim. "Norman Mailer and God." National Catholic Register, December 7, 1989, page 5 [NOTE: Mailer and other New York City intellectuals lobbied to get psychopathic convicted murderer Jack Abbott released from prison, and he promptly killed a waiter, leaving a young widow and four little children. Mailer, upon being questioned on his position after this brutal murder, made the above callous reply. One must speculate what his response would have been if Abbott had slaughtered some of Mailer's own family members or a few of his fellow 'intellectuals'].
Malveaux, Julianne (USA Today)
"I hope his wife feeds him lots of eggs and butter and he dies early like many black men do, of heart disease. ... He is an absolutely reprehensible person."
—
USA Today columnist and Pacifica Radio talk show host Julianne Malveaux on Justice Clarence Thomas, on the November 4, 1994 PBS "To the Contrary" Show.
Mandela, Nelson (former President of South Africa)
"We Communist Party members are the most advanced revolutionaries in modern history. ... the enemy must be wiped out from the face of the earth before a Communist world can be realized."
—
Former South African President Nelson Mandela, during his 1962 trial for terrorism. Quoted in The Wanderer, July 1, 1990, page 6.
"We are heartened that the alliance between ourselves and the [Communist] Party remains as strong as it has always been."
—
Former South African President Nelson Mandela, quoted by Patrick Buchanan. "Mandela Should Alarm Free Men." Conservative Chronicle, July 4, 1990, pages 1 and 3.
"We are in the same trench, struggling against the same enemy: The twin Tel Aviv and Pretoria regimes, apartheid, racism, colonialism and neocolonialism."
—
Former South African President Nelson Mandela, praising megaterrorist Yassir Arafat. Quoted in "On the Record." National Review, July 9, 1990, page 9. Also see Mona Charen. "Do We Need Heroes Like Nelson Mandela?" Conservative Chronicle, July 4, 1990, page 3.
"There's one thing where Cuba stands out head and shoulders above the rest — that is in its love for human rights and liberty."
—
Former South African President Nelson Mandela, applauding Cuban dictator Fidel Castro during a visit to Angola. Quoted in "On the Record." National Review, July 9, 1990, page 9. Also see Mona Charen. "Do We Need Heroes Like Nelson Mandela?" Conservative Chronicle, July 4, 1990, page 3 [NOTE: During this same visit, Mandela referred to arch-terrorist Muamar Gadhafi as a "comrade in arms." As a reward for his fawning praise of Communism, Mandela received Russia's Lenin Peace Prize shortly before his visit to the United States].
Manes, Christopher (radical environmentalist)
"[We desire] an end to all commercial logging ... the elimination of the automobile, coal-fired power plants, and manufacturing processes using petrochemicals ... and, most important[ly], the reduction of the human population to an ecologically sustainable level."
—
Christopher Manes, Green Rage: Radical Environmentalism and the Unmaking of Civilization [New York City: Little, Brown], 1990. Quoted in Bruce Frohnen. "Humans Last!" National Review, September 17, 1990, page 50.
Mann, Judy (Washington Post columnist)
"With powerful backing from the Catholic Church and Christian evangelicals, abortion opponents dress themselves up in the moral garb of saints and lambaste the other side as murderers, creating a poisonous atmosphere in which terrorism against abortion providers is not only tolerated but in some circles esteemed as some sort of holy act."
—
Washington Post columnist Judy Mann, in the October 28, 1998 issue of the paper, trying to blame the Catholic Church for the shooting of abortionists [NOTE: Mann thinks that calling abortionists murderers leads to terrorism — but linking the Catholic Church to murder is just fine]. Described in Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. 1998 Report on Anti-Catholicism, available on-line at the Catholic League's Web site here.
Manson, Charles (mass murderer)
"If I have rights, then the trees have rights. Trees are living things just as much as I'm a living thing. Who has the right to chop the trees down? Nobody has the right to take life."
—
Convicted mass murderer Charles Manson, spokesman for the environmental group Air, Tree, Water, Animals (ATWA), quoted in Cletus Nelson. "Extinguish Humans, Save the World: Pentti Linkola and Ecology's Forgotten History." EYE Magazine, November/December 1999 [NOTE: ATWA's Web site is at http://www.atwa.com/atwa.htm].
Manuela Ramos (Peruvian pro-abortion group)
"We do not condone forced sterilizations, but no one can deny that Fujimori's program was excellent in terms of access and information."
—
Susana Chavez of the Peruvian women's group "Manuela Ramos," quoted in "Coercion Better than Catholicism According to Peruvian Women's Groups." Friday FAX [C-FAM (the Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute)], July 25, 2003 [Volume 6, Number 31] [NOTE: Manuela Ramos is defending the population control policy of President Alberto Fujimori, which forced more than 200,000 Peruvians — almost entirely women — to be sterilized under his compulsory "family planning" program].
Maraldo, Pamela (former President of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA)
"Let me set the record straight: My identity as a Catholic is firmly rooted in the fundamental teachings of the Roman Catholic Church — compassion for the vulnerable, tolerance of others, and moral responsibility for the world around us. In addition to such basic tenets of faith, however, the Church — as a social institution — has always adopted socio-political positions. Many of these, like the Church's early espousal of slavery and its silence in the face of the Holocaust, have been entirely antagonistic to the fundamental teachings of Christ. ... Throughout history, the Church has found it necessary to re-evaluate such teachings. For example, until as recently as last year, the Church persisted in condemning Galileo as a heretic for daring to suggest that the Earth revolves around the Sun!"
"It is unfortunate that the Catholic hierarchy is so deeply threatened by the beliefs of mainstream Catholics — especially those of us who speak out against decrees that we find inconsistent with Catholic faith. We are not out to do battle with the Church; on the contrary, we seek to ensure that traditional Catholic values continue to thrive in modern times."
—
Pamela Maraldo, former President of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA). "Pro-Choice and Catholic: PPFA's New Leader Charts a New Course." Planned Parenthood Challenges, Spring 1993, pages 8 and 9.
"I go to church on Sunday but do not subscribe to many of the basic tenets of the Church. That does not mean I am any less a Catholic."
—
Pamela Maraldo, former president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), quoted in "More on Maraldo." National STOPP News, January 20, 1993, page 1.
"Jesus has little to say about sexuality, so it is impossible to cite Gospel text to support efforts to direct human sexual behavior" [NOTE: This is a perfect example of how CFFC writers deceive themselves and deliberately attempt to deceive others. Just some of the Biblical (and Gospel) admonitions against certain types of sexual behavior are as follows: Homosexual activity: See Deuteronomy 23:17; 1 Kings 14:24, 15:12, 22:46; and 2 Kings 23:7. Divorce: See Matthew 5:31-32, 19:3-9; Luke 16:18; and 1 Corinthians 7:10-15. Fornication: See 2 Chronicles 21:11; Isaiah 23:17; Ezekiel 16:26,29; Matthew 5:32, 19:9; John 8:41; Acts 15:20,29, 21:25; Romans 1:29; 1 Corinthians 5:1, 6:13,18, 7:2, 10:8; 2 Corinthians 12:21; Galatians 5:19; Ephesians 5:3; Colossians 3:5; 1 Thessalonians 4:3; Jude 1:7; and Revelation 2:14,20-21, 9:21, 14:8, 17:2,4, 18:3,9, and 19:2. Adultery: See Exodus 20:14; Leviticus 18:20, 19:20, 20:10-12; Deuteronomy 5:18, 22:13-29, 27:20, 27:23; Proverbs 6:26, 6:29, 6:32; Matthew 5:27,28,32, 15:19, 19:9,18; Mark 7:21, 10:11-12,19; Luke 16:18, 18:20; John 8:4-11, Romans 7:3, 13:9, 1 Corinthians 6:9; Galatians 5:19; Ephesians 5:5; and Hebrews 13:4] ...
"From the start, there have been inconsistencies in church views of abortion and the use of contraceptives. One striking example is the career of Peter of Spain, the thirteenth-century medical writer of immensely popular book called Thesaurus Pauperum (Treasure of the Poor). He offered an extensive listing of herbal recipes for pre- and post-coital oral contraception. Not only was Peter not censured by his church — he even became pope, as John XXI, in 1276.
"Humanae Vitae is more about Pope Paul VI and the values of the clerical elite in which he lived than it is about divinely inspired, unchangeable truth. His views of "the natural moral law" were filtered through a theologically glossed misogyny. ... This misogyny, which has informed so many aspects of church life, is a primary subtext of the condemnations of birth control.
"To my mind, the church would do well to follow Christ's example of compassion, respect for women, and silence on questions of human sexuality and reproduction. ... What is appalling about Humanae Vitae, and Pope John Paul II's new and equally pernicious encyclical, Veritatis Splendor, is that both authors should have been able to see the immorality of enforced child birth. ... Someday the church will recognize the realities of human nature and human needs. And then Humanae Vitae will take its place with other embarrassing teachings in the annals of Vatican, curiosities for generations to come."
—
Pamela J. Maraldo. "Misogyny That Will Pass." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), Winter 1993/1994 [Volume XIV, Number 4], page 38. This article is part of the commentary "Tarnished Silver Anniversary: Reflections on Humanae Vitae."
Mattel Corporation
"Barbie exudes a flirtatious attitude in her heavenly merry widow bustier ensemble accented with intricate lace and matching peekaboo peignoir ... She'll be simply sassy in a short pearl-grey satin slip trimmed in black lace and thigh-high stockings that add a hint of flair ... a delicate black merry widow bustier with pink bow attachment. Her matching robe offers alluring cover ... Golden hoop earrings and high heels complete this simple but elegant ensemble, perfect for dress-and-play fun."
—
Mattel Corporation's descriptions of its sixth "limited edition" Lingerie Barbie collection, launched in February 2002. Described in Deborah Roffman. "Way Too Much Fantasy With That Dream House." The Washington Post, December 22, 2002, pages B2 and B4 [NOTE: Whatever happened to all of the feminist shouting over making women into "sex objects?"].
Margulis, Lynn (anthropologist)
"For millions of years the earth got along without human beings, and it will do so again. The only question is the nature of the human demise that has already begun."
—
Dr. Lynn Margulis of the University of Massachusetts, coauthor of the "Gaia Hypothesis," speaking at the November 1998 annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association in Philadelphia (organized by Colorado abortionist Warren Hern), in answer to the question "Is the human species a cancer on the planet?" "Anthropologist Symposium Calls Human Beings a Cancer Infecting Planet Earth." Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute (CAFHRI) Friday FAX, January 1, 1999.
Marie Stopes International (MSI)
"A fascinating and disturbing insight into a population policy that could have changed the world but for the machinations of the Vatican."
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Tim Black, Chief Executive, Marie Stopes International (MSI), London, commenting on Stephen Mumford's virulently anti-Catholic on-line book The Life and Death of NSSM 200: How the Destruction of Political Will Doomed a U.S. Population Policy, downloaded from http://www.iti.com/iti/kzpg/ on September 22, 1998 (no longer available). The comment is included in the document.
Marks, John (U.S. News & World Report)
"Like many other women in what used to be the German Democratic Republic, she worries that political liberation has cost her social and economic freedom. ... The kindergartens that cared for their children are becoming too expensive, and West Germany's more restrictive abortion laws threaten to deny many Eastern women a popular method of birth control. ... East Germany's child-care system helped the state indoctrinate its young, but also assured women in the East the freedom to pursue a career while raising a family."
—
U.S. News & World Report special correspondent John Marks, July 1, 1991 news story.
Marks, F. Raymond
"We now "let go" of some babies, notwithstanding the rules against euthanasia. But we do not announce this to the world. Such practice allows the actors to hide from themselves the fact that they have changed or departed from the rule while announcing their strict adherence to the absolute rule of sanctity of life in all cases."
—
Attorney F. Raymond Marks, euthanasia conference participant, quoted in Victor G. Rosenblum and Michael L. Budde. "Historical and Cultural Considerations of Infanticide." National Right to Life News, April 11, 1985, page 11.
Marron, Thomas
"Lucifer, each note sounds like
your sweet name, lyrical, holy.
It bursts over heaven
while you break your long
back over the world.
Brother, first of us,
you never heard songs
like these. They shine
in heaven's edges.
For you, all
the angels are dancing."
—
Thomas Marron. "Songs for the Angels. Three: Gabriel Considers His Horn." 'Catholics' for a Free Choice (CFFC) newsletter Conscience, Spring 1994, page 20.
Marshall, Thurgood (United States Supreme Court Associate Justice)
"Do the right thing and let the law catch up with you."
—
Pro-abortion retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall, during a speech after accepting an award from the Individual Rights Section of the American Bar Association. Quoted in Julianne Malveaux. "'Big Tent' Appearances Within GOP Deceiving." The Oregonian, August 26, 1992, page B5.
Martin, A. Damien (Institute for the Protection of Lesbian and Gay Youth)
"There has never been a single documented case of change in sexual orientation."
—
A. Damien Martin of the Institute for the Protection of Lesbian and Gay Youth, quoted in Warren Bird. "New York Tax Dollars Fund a High School for Homosexuals." Christianity Today, August 9, 1985, page 37.
Martin, Pat (Winnipeg NDP Member of Parliament)
"The Pharisees have met and have determined that I am evil without ever speaking to me. I will not apologize to anyone. Jesus was very firm in his condemnation of the Pharisees and I answer to a higher power than these assholes."
—
Winnipeg NDP Member of Parliament Pat Martin, responding to critics of his stand in favor of homosexual "marriage," quoted in "Pro-Homosexual 'Marriage' Member of Parliament Resorts to Name-Calling and Foul Language Against Critics." LifeSite Daily News, September 4, 2003.
Marx, Karl
"Communism begins from the outset with atheism. Communism, as fully developed naturalism, equals humanism."
—
Karl Marx, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts.Karl Marx, quoted in D.L. Cuddy. "Are Public Schools Opening the Door to Humanism?" National Federation for Decency Journal, October 1986, page 21.
Masters and Johnson ('sexologists')
"We're born man, woman, and sexual beings. We learn our sexual preferences and orientations."
—
William Masters and Virginia Johnson, interview with United Press International, April 23, 1979.
Mathis, Deborah (Gannett News Service)
"The Christian Right per se and some particular members on Capitol Hill have helped inflame the air so that the air that these bad people breathed that night was filled, filled with the idea that somehow gays are different, and not only are they different in that difference, they're bad and not only are they bad, they are evil and therefore evil can be destroyed. The next step to that to me, it's a three-step process, and that ends in destruction. I don't say that they were told to do that, they certainly weren't part of any plan to do that, but again, what air are they breathing now? It's the air filled with that hate. ... I mentioned Trent Lott, Jesse Helms and Dick Armey particularly. The Christian Coalition, the Family Research Council and the Concerned Women for America."
—
Deborah Mathis of Gannett News Service, speculating on who inspired the murder of Matthew Shepard, on the October 17, 1998 "Inside Washington."
Mathison, Tyler (ABC)
"About 3.7 million Americans, wage-earning Americans, are paid the minimum wage or less."
"On Capitol Hill today, the minimum wage and how best to embarrass your opponent. For ten million Americans, it's a very personal issue."
"In fact, only about 330,000 employees, most of them part-timers, today work for the minimum."
"An estimated 9.7 million Americans make the minimum wage or close to it."
—
ABC economics correspondent Tyler Mathisen, April 23, 1996 "Good Morning America;" Peter Jennings, April 23, 1996 "World News Tonight;" ABC reporter Bob Zelnick, April 24, 1996 "Good Morning America;" and ABC anchor Carole Simpson, April 28, 1996 "World News Sunday."
Matulis, Sherry
"I'd like to see how they'd ["holier-than-thou" pro-lifers] fare if they were put in the position of being young and raped and pregnant and scared witless — if they thought that they could very well die and leave two little children motherless. I'd like to see if their smug psuedomorality would hold up if they had to experience firsthand what a real "abortion mill" was all about: The incredible, indescribable filth and stench. The cobwebs hanging from the ceiling. The blood-spattered floor. The two-aspirin "anesthetic." The slop bucket at the end of the old enameled kitchen table. The drunken old butcher coming at them, a whiskey glass in one hand and a sharp instrument in the other, saying to them "You can take your pants down now, but you shoulda — ha, ha — left 'em on before." Putting his fist in their faces and saying, "This is gonna hurt and you'd better keep your mouth shut or I'll shut it for you! Whacking away at their insides for 15 eyeball-popping minutes. And then — insult added to injury — offering them $20 of their $1,000 back for "a quick blowjob ...
"Women young, old, black, white — known to the medical books only by their initials and their perforated or Lysol-damaged wombs and their resultant infections and suffering and eventual deaths. Women really too young to be called women undergoing hysterectomies at age 16. Women with bottles of household disinfectants, sometimes even lye; no need for a hysterectomy, nothing's left to take out. Women with bent heads and unbent coathangers, screaming in the night — dead at 16, 18, 20, 22. Women for whom the phrase right to life was totally without meaning or substance, who were murdered as surely as putting a gun to their heads by the same sort of blue-nosed and hypocritical element in our society that once again rears its ugly, unfeeling head to laud what might be and to condemn what is ..."
"And although a rose is a rose is a rose, you will never hear anti-choice proponents raise their voices against spontaneous abortion [miscarriages]. You will never see them picket or march on Washington or take any other action to try to stop or even lessen this spontaneous "holocaust." And you will certainly never hear them decry their God with his big abortion mill in the sky for this wanton destruction of "innocent life" — this "mass murder" of up to 80 percent of all those fertilized eggs they refer to as "unborn children." Because to discuss it — to really examine its implications — is to put the lie to all their mystical twaddle" [emphasis in original].
—
Sherry Matulis. "Why Abortion Must Remain the Law of the Land." The Humanist, July/August 1992, pages 35 to 37 and 49. Adapted from her 1991 "Humanist Heroine Award" speech.
Mauro, Tony (USA Today)
"Supreme Court nominee David Souter wants the world to stop viewing him as a nerd. Senate Democrats want to know if, instead, Souter is a neanderthal — a mean-spirited conservative bent on wrecking constitutional protections for women, minorities, and accused criminals."
—
Beginning of the September 13, 1990 USA Today cover story by legal reporter Tony Mauro.
Mayer, Henry
"The Life and Death of NSSM 200 pulls no punches and exposes very clearly the Vatican's role in obstructing efforts to slow an extremely dangerous population explosion. One of the most damning indictments was its quotation from Federal Judge Dooling, a practicing Catholic, in his decision striking down the Hyde Amendment. He says, 'The amendment was a ploy by anti-abortion congressmen frustrated in their attempt to pass a Constitutional amendment that would override the Supreme Court's 1973 pro-abortion decision; its purpose was quite simply to circumvent the Court's ruling and prevent as many abortions as possible.' These zealots go to great lengths in this effort and almost invariably hurt the most vulnerable and weakest members of our society, poor women.
"The serious repercussions of this misguided policy will affect us for decades to come as the effects of the rapid growth in population take their toll. Mumford is to be commended for his scholarly work and for his courage in exposing the Vatican effort to control our government and laws."
—
Henry Mayer, M.D., Medical Corporation, Redwood City, California, favorably commenting on Stephen Mumford's virulently anti-Catholic on-line book The Life and Death of NSSM 200: How the Destruction of Political Will Doomed a U.S. Population Policy, downloaded from http://www.iti.com/iti/kzpg/ on September 22, 1998 (no longer available). The comment is included in the document.
"McBeal, Ally" (FOX television)
McBeal: "Nuns are not supposed to have sex with other nuns."
'Nun:' "A priest has sex with a boy, he gets transferred. At least my lover was of legal age, for God's sake."
Female colleague at McBeal's law firm: "Maybe I can talk them into rehiring her. I'm very good at flirting with clergy. At Communion, I always got the extra wafer."
'Nun:' "If the sex is great, you can't be a nun."
McBeal (in confessional): "I went to bed with a guy, partly because he had a uh, uh, It was uh big, big. God, I slept with it, uh, him."
Priest (responding): "I often hear that size doesn't matter. How was it?"
McBeal: "It was great, unbelievable. You have no idea. I mean, I assume you don't. It was amazing. Am I forgiven?"
—
Exchange between Ally McBeal and a Catholic nun dismissed for breaking her vow of celibacy, on the November 2, 1998 episode of FOX's television show "Ally McBeal." Described in Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. 1998 Report on Anti-Catholicism, available on-line at the Catholic League's Web site [NOTE: It transpires that the priest was soliciting and videotaping lascivious sexual details in confession for his documentary "World's Naughtiest Confessions."
McCall, Nathan (Washington Post)
"The first time I shot somebody, it felt, God, it felt great. I mean, years later, I read this like, magazine, and it likened the feeling to ejaculation, or orgasm, and I thought about it, and it really was. ... When John Wayne shoots somebody, he rides off into the sunset. Why can't I, you know? Young people don't make the logical connections that adults assume they make about those kinds of things. That's why you've got to get rid of the guns."
—
Criminal-turned-Washington Post reporter Nathan McCall in profile on ABC's "20/20," February 18, 1994.
McCarthy, Colman (Washington Post)
"The reason for not supporting U.S. troops was the same for not supporting Iraqi troops, or any troops anywhere for any reason. They are anti-life."
—
Washington Post columnist Colman McCarthy, quoted in P.J. O'Rourke. American Spectator's Enemies List [New York City: The Atlantic Monthly Press], 1996, page 84.
"Well, they [U.S. soldiers] really didn't risk that much, number one. And second, to honor people who believe in violence is to honor the ethic of violence. And if you believe violence solves problems, you overlook quite a lot of morality. You overlook what Gandhi said: 'An eye for an eye and we all go blind.' So why celebrate that? Why honor these people?. ... Instead of celebrating, we ought to have a national month of mourning for what we did in that area of the world. We supplied them weapons endlessly and they used them. And then after we mourn, we ought to ask them to forgive us for what they did."
—
Washington Post columnist Colman McCarthy on CNN's "Crossfire," April 19, 1991.
"Every month a truck would come from some slaughterhouse. I had become friendly with the cows; I knew them as individuals. ... I first realized something was ethically wrong with the milk industry — and I was right in the middle of it. You don't really know your relationship with an animal until you're making your living off of it. But I don't think it's right to exploit animals for money, or for any reason. ... I want [pets] to be free of humans. I think we should have a 20-year plan to phase out breeding [dogs]. Then, after a few centuries, we can move on to cats."
—
Washington Post columnist Colman McCarthy in The Animals' Agenda, an animal rights magazine, quoted by Washington Times columnist John Lofton, September 16, 1988.
McClendon, Sarah
"It will take 100 years to get the government back into place after Reagan. He hurt people: The disabled, women, nursing mothers, the homeless."
—
White House reporter Sarah McClendon in USA Today, February 16, 1990.
McClure, Robert (United Church of Canada)
"To bring an unwanted child into the world is the greatest obscenity."
—
Robert McClure, former Moderator of the United Church of Canada, quoted in Blodwen Piercy. "Who Are the ANTI-CHOICE and Why Do They Do What They Do?" Humanist in Canada, Autumn 1989, pages 3 to 5.
McCombs, Phil (Washington Post)
"To watch this President connect with people emotionally is an awesome thing. It's a raw, needy, palpable, electrifying thing that happens. There was no smile. It's as if he's soaking up the people like he's soaking up the sun, with the warmth pouring deep and direct into his political soul and recharging him, refilling him somehow once again with his own humanity and some sense of his role in the destiny of his country. Then, the hunger slaked, the great Beast of Need fed once again, it seemed you could almost see the gratitude pouring off his brow like sweat as he made his way."
—
Washington Post reporter Phil McCombs, March 30, 1994 "Style" section story on Clinton vacationing in California.
McCullough, Valerie (abortion mill owner)
"No matter how you put it, we're in the business of selling abortions ... Use a positive approach. It's not, "Do you want a termination" but "when?" Put the question to them as a sure sale. Limit their choices ... "The first step is to get their money. Tell them they need to put down a $100 deposit. I don't want to fool around if these girls aren't serious."
—
Abortion mill owner Valerie McCullough, quoted in "The Abortion Profiteers." Chicago Sun-Times, November 19, 1978.
McEwen, Mark (CBS weatherman)
Weatherman Mark McEwen: "Well the thing with Catholicism — you can do whatever you want as long as you feel guilty about it."
Co-host Julie Chen: "And say three Hail Marys."
—
Exchange on the CBS program "The Early Show," January 31, 2000. Described in Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. 2000 Report on Anti-Catholicism, available on-line at the Catholic League's Web site here.
McGuire, Judy
"Four years at St. Thomas the Apostle grade school combined with 16 years attending Mass on at least a weekly basis have earned me the right to Catholic-bash. It's a repressive, hypocritical religion run by mean-spirited men. ... Nothing makes a girl feel more badass than stumbling home past primly dressed parishioners early Sunday morning, still wearing last night's sequined skirt (now on backwards) ... all the while emitting the delicate (and enticing) aroma of semen, cigarettes, and stale beer."
—
Judy McGuire. "Dategirl." Seattle Weekly, June 8, 2000. Described in Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. 2000 Report on Anti-Catholicism, available on-line at the Catholic League's Web site here.
McMahon, James (late-term abortionist)
"[James T.] McMahon is one of relatively few doctors in the country who specialize in performing abortions up to 24 weeks, or almost six months, into a pregnancy ... "That's my specialty," this former altar boy says of abortion. "That's my expertise. That's my passion." ... McMahon gradually began to specialize in it [abortion], abandoning plans for a family practice that would have included obstetrics. "I felt that you can't do both. You do a delivery, and then you do a late abortion," he says. "I couldn't take the emotional roller-coaster ride." ... McMahon says that is conscience and his religious beliefs (he still attends Mass occasionally} have answered the basic questions that arise from later abortions. "I frankly think the soul or personage comes in when the fetus is accepted by the mother" [NOTE: If McMahon were Jewish, would the article make so many references to his faith, we wonder?]
"The doctor does abortions up to 26 weeks, because he does not feel he can turn a 12- or 16-year old away and send her to be mother," the administrator of the Los Angeles clinic says."
—
Karen Tumulty. "The Abortions of Last Resort: The Question of Ending Pregnancy in Its Later Stages May be the Most Anguishing of the Entire Abortion Debate." Los Angeles Times Magazine, January 7, 1990, pages 10, 12-15, 34, 35 and 37.
"After 20 weeks, where it frankly is a child to me, I really agonize over it because the potential is so imminently there ... On the other hand, I have another position, which I think is superior, and that is, "Who owns the child?" It's got to be the mother."
[Late-term abortion] "is my specialty. That's my expertise. That's my passion." McMahon abandoned plans for family practice because "I felt that you can't do both. You do a delivery, and then you do a late abortion. I couldn't take the emotional roller-coaster ride."
—
Third-trimester abortionist James T. McMahon, who performs partial-birth abortions, quoted in the American Medical News, July 5, 1993 and in the Los Angeles Times Magazine, January 7, 1990. Also quoted by Nat Hentoff. "It's Just Too Late: Third-Trimester Abortions are an Outrage and an Insult to the Human Race." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 27, 1993.
McNamara, Robert (former President of the World Bank)
"Short of thermonuclear war itself, [population growth] is the gravest issue the world faces over the decades immediately ahead. ... Indeed, in many ways rampant population growth is an even more dangerous and subtle threat to the world than thermonuclear war, for it is intrinsically less subject to rational safeguards, and less amenable to organized control."
—
Former President of the World Bank, Robert McNamara. Address to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Washington, D.C., April 28, 1977. Quoted in Stephen D. Mumford. "Abortion: A National Security Issue." The Humanist, September/October 1982, pages 12, 13 and 42; also in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, April 15, 1982, pages 951 to 953; also see Stephen D. Mumford and Elton Kessel. "Role of Abortion in Control of Global Population Growth." Clinics in Obstetrics and Gynecology, March 1986 [Volume 13, Number 1], pages 19 to 31.
McNeill, Father John, S.J. (founder of Dignity)
"I have publicly challenged the teaching and practice of the Magisterium [teaching authority of the Catholic Church] concerning homosexual persons ... because its present teaching and pastoral practices have caused enormous amounts of unjust suffering among gay people."
—
Father John McNeill, S.J., founder of the dissenting pro-homosexual 'Catholic' organization Dignity, quoted in "Jesuit Founder of Dignity Dismissed After Defying Order to Be Silent." ALL News, February 16, 1987 [NOTE: Father John McNeill has been dismissed from his Order for causing "widespread grave external scandal"].
McRee, Lisa
"China has a one-child policy. Is that a good idea for all countries?"
—
"Good Morning America" co-host Lisa McRee to Bill McKibben, author of Maybe One: A Personal and Environmental Argument for Single-Child Families, May 30, 1998.
Lisa McRee: "What's the difference between your message and the message of David Duke?. ... In terms of fairness, you've said things that have angered Jews, that have angered gays, that have angered women, that have angered minorities. In fact, just the other day, you said that there are certain groups that assimilate more easily into what is basically an American society which is of European derivation. As a woman, if I was a minority, why shouldn't I be scared of you?"
Buchanan: "... No nation of God's Earth has done more to fight discrimination, or has made greater progress in doing so, than the United States of America."
Lisa McRee: "But you want to turn that around!"
—
Exchange on ABC's "World News Now," February 26, 1992.
"Women who've been polled seem to put it behind them as well, and are willing to move on and forget about it. Is that because Bill Clinton's been such a great President whom they elected in great part, or is there something I want to say almost sexy about a man who can get away with things over and over again?"
—
"Good Morning America" co-host Lisa McRee to Deborah Tannen, August 18, 1998.
"Couldn't this be just a witch hunt, couldn't the Democrats and President Clinton's people who've been defending him all these months be right, that even though he screwed up there's some political motivation there. Couldn't that be right?"
—
Lisa McRee to humorist P.J. O'Rourke, September 10, 1998 "Good Morning America."
Merchant, Norris
"Alas, Baghdad is not an abortion clinic. Otherwise our U.S. "pro-life" chieftan might rush in to rescue all the "children" in wombs about to be violated by wanton mothers and evil abortionists. But Iraqi soldiers and civilians, being full-grown into dangerous "Homo sapiens" maturity, can expect no such consideration. For "pro-lifers," SuperBush among them, shown themselves ready killers of adults. ... If any "pro-choicer" among us has ever argued with "pro-life" militants, experienced their intensity, or observed their frequent contempt for feminists, "liberals," and similar (as they would have it) "murderous" ilk, such a debater might well foresee certain "pro-lifers" making admiral cut-throats on any battlefield, inspiringly vigorous combatants against intelligensia, "heretics," feminists — in short, anyone who does not assume the fetal position, physically or spiritually.
"Why not, then, a special corps of "pro-life" enthusiasts, to bolster SuperBush's "Desert Shield?" In their ranks could be found, doubtless, many a hate-filled assassin, potentially. No doubt a certain number of "pro-lifers" find themselves already in Saudi Arabia, ready to slay when a Great Man so orders. But why not recruit an entire regiment, or even army of such superlative ideologues — with their frequent ultra-"patriotism," their ho-hum unconcern with any life outside the womb — their indifference to bodies with false ideas.
"A carniverous phalanx of "pro-lifers!" The thought terrifies. It might induce instant second thoughts in one's "enemy." When no fetal entity is involved, the "pro-lifer" — look at SuperBush, for example — can grind out exemplary death threats. ..."
—
Norris Merchant. "Richest, Most "Advanced" Nation Declares Itself Prepared to Kill Tens of Thousands, of Another Race and Tribe, Because of An Accident of Birth: Pro-Life Leader Willing to Wipe out Tens or Hundreds of Thousands Who Threaten Power and Profits." The Human Quest, March-April 1991, pages 7 to 9.
Merton, Andrew
"When an unemployed hairdresser named John C. Salvi III allegedly murdered two receptionists at family planning clinics in Brookline, Massachusetts, most of his fellow crusaders against abortion said they were shocked. ... All the talk about we-don't-do-that-sort-of-thing-we're-only-nonviolent-protesters-devoted-to-the-humanity-of-the-fetus was very nice. It was also garbage, designed to cover up two inconvenient facts about the antiabortion movement in the United States: (1) significant elements of it have always advocated punishment — for anyone even remotely connected with abortion, and (2) its actions give the lie to its belief in its most fundamental tenet: that human life from the moment of conception, is sacrosanct. ...
"All of which would be horrible enough even if the antiabortionists believed what they say — that the fetus, the embryo, even the newly-fertilized zygote are equal in moral stature to the born human being. But the fact is, they don't. ...
Thus, the case of Bernard Nathanson demonstrates that deep down, the antiabortion activists do not accord the unborn the same status as the born, and are simply using abortion as an excuse to wage war with their perceived enemies, the humanists" [NOTE: The author thinks that pro-lifers, by not demanding the execution of Nathanson, are being inconsistent. Don't you just love these guys?]
—
Andrew Merton. "Violent Words, Telling Deeds." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), Spring/Summer 1995 [Volume XVI, Numbers 1 and 2], pages 18 and 19.
Mendiola, Frank (pro-abortion and pro-homosexual activist)
"... you people, the media, will come down with a harder line on those people who are harassing the clinics."
—
Veteran pro-abortion activist and homosexual Frank Mendiola, explaining the purpose of calling in numerous bomb threats to clinics, abortionists, and even his own home, as described in "Pro-Life Action League Helps Expose Pro-Abortion "Bomber."" The Advocate (publication of Advocates for Life Ministries), Portland, Oregon, May 1988, page 10. Also see Patt Morrison. "Zealot's Tale: Pro-Choice Activist Faces Sentencing in Bomb Threats to Stir Sympathy for Cause." Los Angeles Times, December 10, 1987, pages F1, F4, and F6.
Michals, Duane (photographer)
"Christ Sees a Woman who has Died During an Illegal Abortion."
—
The title of one of a series of photographs by Duane Michals entitled "Christ in New York," showing a bearded man standing over the bloodied, partially covered body of a woman. These photos were displayed by the Ackland Art Museum of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, June-October 1998. The summary of the work says that this is a commentary on "religious hypocrisy," and, that as "a meditation on ... political and social oppressions," Michals' "work reflects his own early Catholic upbringing."
Michelman, Kate (president, National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARRAL))
"We think abortion is a bad thing. No woman wants to have an abortion."
—
Kate Michelman, president of the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL), quoted in Howard Kurtz. "Poor Choice of Words from Abortion Rights Advocate?" The Washington Post, February 7, 1994, and in Jodi Enda's December 11, 1993 article in the Philadelphia Inquirer [NOTE: Five days after Michelman made her statement, NARAL issued a press release saying that she "has never said — and would never say — that 'abortion is a bad thing'." Michelman backed off her denial when informed that Enda had tape-recorded her statement. But on January 26, 1994, in testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee, Michelman said "The reporter absolutely quoted me incorrectly. What I said was that the fact that we have so many abortions in this country represents a failure of policy." Later, she claimed that "I would never, never, never, never, never mean to say such a thing. I do think at the very least I was taken out of context." Enda responded to these attacks on her integrity by saying that Michelman's repeated denials were "... a little disconcerting ... If she says she was misquoted, she's not telling the truth"].
"There's a qualitative difference in the nature of their [pro-life] involvement ... It's a life and death issue for them, and that creates a zealousness about it, about their work, that I don't think is matched quite on our side. The strength of the [pro-abortion] movement really resides in the mainstream view that government has no role in this decision."
—
Kate Michelman, President of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARRAL), quoted in Brigid Schulte of the Knight-Ridder News Service. "Abortion Foes Mix Passion, Technology." The Oregonian, February 19, 1995, page A14.
"I, for instance, wouldn't salute a woman leaving her family. And yet I had a friend — I struggled with this — I had a friend who left her family because she couldn't be a mother. She just couldn't. She had two children and made the decision to leave her family, leave her marriage ... That was one of the hardest things for me to cope with: trying to understand how a woman could leave her children. Yet I have enormous respect for the fact that there might be circumstances where you would have to."
—
Kate Michelman, President of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARRAL), quoted in Liza Mundy. "The Hillary Dilemma." The Washington Post Magazine, March 21, 1999, pages 7-11, 22-25, and 29.
"RU-486 is properly called an 'abortifacient.' Because it is a drug that can induce a menstrual period after the implantation of a fertilized egg in the uterus, it can terminate a woman's pregnancy in its earliest stages."
—
National Abortion Rights Action League "Factsheet" quoted in "From the Horse's Mouth." National Right to Life News, February 12, 1990, page 13.
"A NARAL poll in February [1980] showed that 88 percent of registered voters believe abortion should be available to women."
—
Mother Jones Magazine, June 1980, page 18.
"It never fails to amaze me how little respect they have for women's capacity to understand what goes on in our bodies. I faced a crisis pregnancy after having three children, and I didn't need anyone to show me a sonogram to inform me that my pregnancy would result in giving birth to a person."
—
Kate Michelman, President of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARRAL), objecting to pro-life groups using ultrasound to show women their babies. "Congressional Bill Would Help CPCs Purchase Ultrasound Technology." Associated Press, February 1, 2002; Steven Ertelt's Pro-Life Infonet at http://www.prolifeinfo.org, February 4, 2002 [NOTE: If ultrasound is useless for helping women "understand what goes on in their bodies," then why do so many of them change their minds about aborting their babies after seeing them?]
Milano, Alyssa (actress)
"That's where the lesbian scene came in, because in Catholicism, supposedly the nuns are lesbians. That's okay, but penetration isn't? How f—ed is that religion?
—
Actress Alyssa Milano, in the April 1996 issue of Premiere Magazine, describing her movie. She also revealed that she has a tattoo of the Sacred Heart on her rear end because she "like[d] the way it looks." Further, she has rosary beads tattooed on her back "because [she] was raised Catholic. It's a bit out of rebellion." Described in Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. 1996 Report on Anti-Catholicism, available on-line at the Catholic League's Web site here.
Milhaven, John Giles (former member of the 'Catholics' for a Free Choice (CFFC) Board of Directors)
"The [Human Life] amendment asserts two things: (1) The fertilized human ovum is a person; (2) the fertilized human ovum, like all persons, ought never be deprived of life unless perhaps indirectly in efforts to save the mother's life. Before modern times, neither of these two assertions made up an official position of the Catholic Church. At no point in the past was either assertion made universally by pope and bishops. This is an historical fact that no one denies. ... The fetus is human life, precious and demanding respect" [NOTE: But never quite enough respect to keep it from being killed for convenience or any other reason, in CFFC's view].
—
John Giles Milhaven (former member of the 'Catholics' for a Free Choice Board of Directors). "The Problems With an Anti-Choice Amendment." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), July/August 1986 [Volume VII, Number 4], page 18.
"Fifteen years ago I was pro-choice because I judged the new fetus to be a little thing. Today I am much more pro-choice that I was then, because I judge the new fetus to be a big thing, important, precious. Not the biggest thing in the world, not the most important, not the most precious. Far from it — the life of the fetus can often be outweighed by other realities of human life. But the life of the fetus is a big enough, important enough, precious enough thing for pregnant women I have listened to th
