Women

The Right-to-Lifers (backed. primarily by the Catholic hierarchy) in their continuing opJosition to women's right to choose abortion have opened a Pandora's Box. They have often stated that the right to choose abortion will lead to evils such as forced sterilization and forced euthanasia which existed in Nazi Germany, and they have compared the current liberal abortion situation in the U.S. to Germany under the Nazis. They have presented slide shows likening aborted fetuses to the slaughtered 6 million Jews of Nazi Germany. "They didn't have a choice either," is now their nauseous bit of hypocrisy goes.

The woman's movement completely rejects these allegations of the compulsory-pregnancy pushers as we feel that granting women the freedom to control their own bodies reflects a philosophy quite the opposite of Nazi Germany's. Freedom of choice for women was as absolutely out of place in the Nazi philosophy as it is in the philosophy of the Catholic Church.

To set the record straight, here is Hitler's pronouncement on abortion and contraception: "The use of contraceptives means a violation of nature and a degradation of womanhood, motherhood and love...Nazi ideals demand that the practice of abortion shall be exterminated with a strong hand."

Because the Right-to-Lifers have opened up eir box of evil suggestions, we would like to rn the tables and examine the Catholic Church's le in Nazi Germany, their complicity with forced erilization there, and their complete silence on e slaughter of the 6 million Jews in the very gas ambers designed for and first tried out in the rced euthanasia program.

Forced Sterilization

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(The following information is taken from the book, The Catholic Church and Nazi Germany by Guenter Lewy, 1964.)

In January 1934 the faithful were told that according to Catholic doctrine it was forbidden to volunteer for sterilization or apply for sterilization of another. However, no explicit reference was made to the Nazi sterilization law which provided for compulsory sterilization of all persons affected with certain diseases or disabilities.

By March 1935, however, the Church seemed to have reconciled herself to the fact that most Catholic officials helped enforce the sterilization law. At that time the conference of the bishops of the Cologne church province suggested that as long as no uniform stand on sterilization could be found, no instructions at all be issued to confessors "so as not to cause confusion." Eventually with the help of an elaborate chain of reasoning the bishops decided that Catholic physicians and social workers might report to the authorities those inflicted with ills calling for sterilization.

When the question arose whether Catholic nurses might assist in sterilization operations, the Church at first pronounced a resounding "No." But in 1940 the Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office in Rome ruled that Catholic nurses in state-run hospitals could assist at such operations if a sufficiently important reason was present. Again, an elaborate chain of reasoning was put forth to justify its decision.

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page 2/What She Wants/July. 1974

Pete Wager

Euthanasia Gas Chambers

And

The

RESISTANCE

To

CONTRACEPTIVES

Do-it-yourself kit

On the question of compulsory euthanasia -the forceful reaction of the Catholic Church was probably the most important reason why Hitler abandoned his euthanasia program. But when Hitler proceeded to "The Final Solution of the Jewish Question" in the very same gas chambers designed for and first tried out in the euthanasia program, the episcopate hesitated to risk a clash with the regime. Here the Church did not speak out or condemn in any meaningful way. By its official silence it gave tacit approval to Hitler's extermination of Jews and leftist critics of his regime.

Immoral Force Today

The Catholic Church is a force to be dealt、 with. Today they continue with their immoral fight against abortion rights, gay rights and the ERA. An unconstitutional abortion bill has just passed the Ohio congress. It was drafted by the Ohio Conference of Catholic Lawyers. Nationally, four Roman Catholic Cardinals testified as antiabortion-rights witnesses at hearings held recently by the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments. According to the New York Times, June 2, 1974, "Their appearance, some believe, may have been an embarrassment to the (anti-abortion-rights) movement's efforts to disassociate itself from the widely held notion that it is a front organization for the Church."

Gay Rights

On the question of gay civil rights, the Catholic Archidiocese of New York City and the Uniformed Fire Officers Association succeeded in defeating Intro 2, The Gay Rights Bill. The bill would have made it illegal to discriminate against the gay community there, numbering at least one million, in matters of jobs, housing and public accommodations. As it is homosexuals do not enjoy their full rights as persons under the Constitution.

ERA

Nor do women enjoy full rights. Catholics are encouraged by the Hierarchy to work to defeat the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution (ERA). The National Council of Catholic Women (CCW) has come out against the ERA, and at a recent convention, (May '74) the Cleveland Diocesan CCW took a stand against it. In an article appearing in the Plain Dealer last year (March 3, '73) it was reported that Charlene Ventura, a young Catholic woman with two small children, "said that much misinformation on the ERA was being circulated through Catholic school. She charged that thousands of women, especially Catholic women, were being exploited and fed lies about the ERA by people whose interest would best be served by defeating this amendment." A staff member of WSW reports that in 1968-69 she worked as a first grade teacher in a Catholic elementary school in East Cleveland and received a year's salary of $4300, ($2.10 per hour).

Death Penalty

On the question of the death penalty which has recently been restored, the Church has not protested. Senator William Buckley, one of the chief lay spokesones for the Catholic hierarchy in anti-abortion rights matters and sponsor of an anti-abortion-rights Constitutional Amendment, showed how really concerned he is for life by voting for the death penalty. (Buckley added an amendment barring the execution of a pregnant woman in order to protect the fetus.)

Before abortion was legalized thousands of women paid a "death penalty" or were maimed at the hands of illegal abortionists. Did the Church protest at that loss of life? No! Seven out of ten legal abortions would have been performed anyway, illegally, and the country will return to that situation if the Church has its way.

Has the Catholic Church built a movement for free universal child care in the same way they are paying for and building the anti-abortion-