V%C3%ADctor Manuel Fern%C3%A1ndez-%28cropped%29.
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Duluth, Minnesota (OpEdNews) April 19, 2024: My first OEN article was titled "Why Obama Should Shun the Pope's Views on Abortion" (dated October 10, 2009):
In it, I made it clear that I regard the Roman Catholic Church's position that distinctively human life begins at the moment of conception as mistaken and untenable.
Granted, a life-form begins at the moment of conception. But I do not think that that life-form is distinctively human life. Rather, I see distinctively human life as beginning at birth when the fetus emerges from the mother's womb and is viable.
More recently, I have reflected on the doctrinally conservative Pope Francis' objections to gender theory in my somewhat lengthy OEN article "Walter Ong, Judith Butler, and the Vatican on Gender" (dated April 8, 2024):
Next, I shifted my focus in my short OEN article "How Important Will the Abortion Debate Be in the 2024 elections?" (dated April 10, 2024):
Now, in the present essay, I am still concerned about how important the abortion debate will be in the 2024 elections.
However, certain recent events have brought home just how radical the Church's teaching about the moment of conception is.
In February 2024, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos (i.e., the life-forms produced at the moment of conception), produced through in vitro fertilization (IVF) are considered to be human children and that a person could be held liable for accidentally destroying them. Because in vitro fertilization is a widespread practice in the United States today, the ruling set off alarm bells, to say the least.
See Kayla Epstein's BBC article "Alabama IVF ruling: What does it mean for fertility patients?" (dated February 22, 2024):
Not surprisingly, the Roman Catholic Church has not only opposed legalized abortion, but also in vitro fertilization. See the online article "Each Life has Immeasurable Value from the Moment of Conception, says Bishop Burbidge on IVF Issues" (dated March 8, 2024):
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