Statement of Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone in Opposition to Women’s Health Protection Act of 2021

HR 3755, the misnamed “Women’s Health Protection Act of 2021,” shows to what radical extremes the supposedly “Pro-Choice” advocates in our country will go to protect what they hold most sacred: the right to kill innocent human beings in the womb.  I support Archbishop Joseph Naumann in his demand to lawmakers to reject this “deceptively-named, extreme bill [that] would impose abortion on demand nationwide at any stage of pregnancy [and] … eliminate modest and widely supported pro-life laws at every level of government,” and, instead, that they “put the energy and resources of our federal government behind policies that recognize and support both mothers and their children.”  Any reasonable person with a basic sense of morality and inkling of decency cannot but shudder in horror at such a heinous evil being codified in law.

It is especially shameful that any self-professed Catholic would be implicated in such an evil, let alone advocate for it.  To Catholic politicians in particular, I implore you to listen to the words of Pope Francis who just last weekend, during his flight back to Rome from Slovakia, said: “Abortion is more than a problem.  Abortion is homicide….  It is a human life, period.  And this human life must be respected.  This principle is so clear, and to those who cannot understand, I would ask two questions: is it right to kill a human life to solve a problem?  Scientifically, it is a human life.  The second question: is it right to hire a hitman to solve a problem?”

This proposed legislation is nothing short of child sacrifice, and clearly in reaction, among other things, to the recently passed Texas Heartbeat bill.  It should come as no surprise, then, that that bill is being challenged by none other than The Satanic Temple and precisely on the grounds of religious freedom.  Indeed, HR 3755 is surely the type of legislation one would expect from a devout Satanist, not a devout Catholic.

I therefore ask all Catholics in our country immediately to pray and fast for members of Congress to do the right thing and keep this atrocity from being enacted in the law.  A child is not an object to be thrown away, and neither is a mother’s heart.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the answer to a woman in a crisis pregnancy is not violence but love.  This is America.  We can do better.