# Catholic priest appeals to Donald Trump to end abortion **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 24, 2016, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-priest-appeals-to-donald-trump-to-end-abortion/775500 "2016-12-24T00:26:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2016, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-priest-appeals-to-donald-trump-to-end-abortion/775500/21 "2016-12-25T14:24:23Z")
I would be most surprised if, even with a Trump addition, SCOTUS could muster up a majority for an outright ban on abortion. That is an enormous step backwards and I could see one or two conservative Justices not wanting to take that step. Limitations? Perhaps. An outright ban? Unlikely. At least let us hope so. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2016, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-priest-appeals-to-donald-trump-to-end-abortion/775500/22 "2016-12-25T15:48:12Z")
[Here’s the original study](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD006417.pub3/full). Puddleglum’s link vastly misrepresents its contents: basically, they say that, with low to middling certainty, programs as currently designed, in isolation, with no other social support, don’t seem super-effective. The studies cover Africa, Latin America, and Europe, and don’t address US-based programs at all. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2016, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-priest-appeals-to-donald-trump-to-end-abortion/775500/23 "2016-12-25T16:49:30Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > I would be most surprised if, even with a Trump addition, SCOTUS could muster up a majority for an outright ban on abortion. That is an enormous step backwards and I could see one or two conservative Justices not wanting to take that step. Limitations? Perhaps. An outright ban? Unlikely. > > At least let us hope so. And I would be surprised if the next worst thing to a ban wouldn’t be possible, through zoning restrictions and unnecessary medical regulations. A ban in all but name is a ban, none the less. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2016, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-priest-appeals-to-donald-trump-to-end-abortion/775500/24 "2016-12-26T08:25:45Z")
> [@puddleglum](#): > > Just about every women in america already has access to contraceptives. > Comprehensive sexual education does not prevent [pregnancies](https://www.mercatornet.com/features/view/do-sex-education-programs-work-no-says-major-new-study/19035)or abortion. ““As they are currently designed, sex education programmes alone probably have no effect on the number of young people infected with HIV, other STIs or the number of pregnancies,” said lead author of the review, Dr Mason-Jones.” A lot of sex ed programs are as comprehensive as my understanding of Russian grammar. I guess Russian grammar includes verbs, nouns and adjectives, but don’t ask me anything beyond that. And having access to contraceptives, specially to contraceptives that your partner will not have a problem with using and which don’t mess up with other parts of your body, can be a bloody bitch. I’d be all in favor of ending abortion - by making it unnecessary, not by banning it. ---
**Author:** ![jacobson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/85f322/32.png) [@jacobson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jacobson)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-priest-appeals-to-donald-trump-to-end-abortion/775500/25 "2016-12-28T12:05:26Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > Donald Trump can’t do anything by himself about it. The president can’t undo a Supreme Court decision. At most he can make appointments to the SCotUS who he thinks will rule the way he wants, if such a case comes up. And there’s no guarantee one will. > > As far as indirect attacks, that’s been the case for years. It’ll mean access to abortions will depend on which state you live in, but that’s been becoming increasingly so for years. Everyone who wants an abortion will have to move to the Northeast or the West Coast. The majority of Justices were not for Abortion but even with Scalia they had to follow the earlier right to Choice, so I believe it is just a political way to get Pro-birth people to vote Republican. I had read and heard that many RC priests told people if they were RC they had to vote for Trump or a third party. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-priest-appeals-to-donald-trump-to-end-abortion/775500/26 "2016-12-28T15:37:48Z")
How is a new abortion case going to get to the Supreme Court if all the appellate courts rule against anti-abortion laws, citing _Roe_? Clearly, SCOTUS precedents have been overturned before, this is just my ignorance showing. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-priest-appeals-to-donald-trump-to-end-abortion/775500/27 "2016-12-28T16:07:04Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > How is a new abortion case going to get to the Supreme Court if all the appellate courts rule against anti-abortion laws, citing _Roe_? Clearly, SCOTUS precedents have been overturned before, this is just my ignorance showing. Virginia passes a law outlawing all abortions. A clinic owner sues. The federal district court rules in favor of the clinic, citing Roe. Virginia appeals. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals hears the case and again finds in favor of the clinc, as you suggest, again citing Roe and Casey. Virginia appeals (strictly speaking, Virginia requests certorari) by the US Supreme Court. At the Supreme Court, four votes are necessary to grant certorari. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-priest-appeals-to-donald-trump-to-end-abortion/775500/28 "2016-12-28T16:24:28Z")
In the United States, abortion is at its lowest level since the procedure was legalized everywhere in 1971. Abortion is at or near an irreducible minimum. This is issue is dead, but nobody much seems to realize it. Many things are like that. Lots of people think American cities are crime-infested no-go areas. That has not been true in decades. Perception lags behind reality. ---
**Author:** ![Donpeyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a4c791/32.png) [@Donpeyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donpeyote)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-priest-appeals-to-donald-trump-to-end-abortion/775500/29 "2016-12-28T17:39:40Z")
More Black Americans (Aborted Children) have died because of Roe v Wade in last 43 years than Black Folks in General have died from War , Famine ,Accident, Weather disaster , Slavery & Klan activities & lynchings ,Aids , Sickle Cell Anemia in last 350 years of America . ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-priest-appeals-to-donald-trump-to-end-abortion/775500/30 "2016-12-28T17:41:01Z")
> [@Donpeyote](#): > > More Black Americans (Aborted Children) have died because of Roe v Wade in last 43 years than Black Folks in General have died from War , Famine ,Accident, Weather disaster , Slavery & Klan activities & lynchings ,Aids , Sickle Cell Anemia in last 350 years of America . Your source? ---
**Author:** ![Donpeyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a4c791/32.png) [@Donpeyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donpeyote)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-priest-appeals-to-donald-trump-to-end-abortion/775500/31 "2016-12-28T17:45:11Z")
Numbers supplied by providers over last 43 Years . ---
**Author:** ![Donpeyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a4c791/32.png) [@Donpeyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donpeyote)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-priest-appeals-to-donald-trump-to-end-abortion/775500/32 "2016-12-28T17:46:20Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > Your source? Which part of my post do you think is disingenuous ? ---
**Author:** ![Corry\_El](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecae2f/32.png) [@Corry\_El](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corry_El)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-priest-appeals-to-donald-trump-to-end-abortion/775500/33 "2016-12-28T17:50:21Z")
> [@jacobson](#): > > I had read and heard that many RC priests told people if they were RC they had to vote for Trump or a third party. You need more evidence than that. It’s explicitly prohibited for priests to do that, and I’ve never heard one do it in decades in the pews, that is endorse or ‘disallow’ a particular candidate. The Church is pro-life, and priests say to weigh this in voting. However the Church is also officially (the US Conference of Catholic Bishops) quite liberal on immigration and that’s mentioned as an issue to consider at least as often IME. Likewise gun control, Church on the left. Also the Church hierarchy buys into more than not the idea that Christ’s teachings imply a strong welfare state, though rank and file Catholics are as likely to disagree with that, explicitly or implicitly in their voting, as with right to life (I don’t think a particular level of welfare state is either pro or anti-Christian, Jesus said ‘give, yourself, voluntarily, to the poor’; he didn’t say ‘vote to force that guy other there to pay more for the poor’, although He didn’t say not to either…). The point being, if you read the issue messages in a typical Catholic parish as endorsing the party with those positions, the message is distinctly mixed. Only if you focus on right to life is the RCC lined up with the Republicans in the US\*. People break all kinds of rules and there must be cases in a huge institution. But the rule against priests saying who to vote for or not to vote for is not winked at and ignored IME. \*secondarily gay marriage, but very secondarily. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-priest-appeals-to-donald-trump-to-end-abortion/775500/34 "2016-12-28T18:03:41Z")
> [@Donpeyote](#): > > More Black Americans (Aborted Children) have died because of Roe v Wade in last 43 years than Black Folks in General have died from War , Famine ,Accident, Weather disaster , Slavery & Klan activities & lynchings ,Aids , Sickle Cell Anemia in last 350 years of America . You’re not an American until you’re born (indeed, the circumstances of one’s birth determines if you’re a U.S. citizen or not), so your statement is fanciful as well as of questionable relevance, even if accepted as true under generous interpretation. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-priest-appeals-to-donald-trump-to-end-abortion/775500/35 "2016-12-28T18:03:59Z")
> [@Donpeyote](#): > > Which part of my post do you think is disingenuous ? Curious people are curious. Asking for cites is 100% normal and expected here. It’s not an accusation of lying or anything against you. Did you speak to all abortion providers personally over the last 43 years? Or, as is more likely, did someone else ask those questions and publish the answers where you could read them? And if so, could you point the rest of us to that publication? ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-priest-appeals-to-donald-trump-to-end-abortion/775500/36 "2016-12-28T18:08:22Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > Curious people are curious. Asking for cites is 100% normal and expected here. It’s not an accusation of lying or anything against you. > > Did you speak to all abortion providers personally over the last 43 years? Or, as is more likely, did someone else ask those questions and publish the answers where you could read them? And if so, could you point the rest of us to that publication? ^ This. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-priest-appeals-to-donald-trump-to-end-abortion/775500/37 "2016-12-28T18:08:49Z")
> [@Donpeyote](#): > > More Black Americans (Aborted Children) have died because of Roe v Wade in last 43 years than Black Folks in General have died from War , Famine ,Accident, Weather disaster , Slavery & Klan activities & lynchings ,Aids , Sickle Cell Anemia in last 350 years of America . And what would those two numbers be? ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-priest-appeals-to-donald-trump-to-end-abortion/775500/38 "2016-12-28T20:03:33Z")
I think we can say with some small amount of pride that no Catholic priest has had an abortion in America in quite some time! ---
**Author:** ![jacobson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/85f322/32.png) [@jacobson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jacobson)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2016, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-priest-appeals-to-donald-trump-to-end-abortion/775500/39 "2016-12-29T02:12:11Z")
> [@Corry\_El](#): > > You need more evidence than that. It’s explicitly prohibited for priests to do that, and I’ve never heard one do it in decades in the pews, that is endorse or ‘disallow’ a particular candidate. > > The Church is pro-life, and priests say to weigh this in voting. However the Church is also officially (the US Conference of Catholic Bishops) quite liberal on immigration and that’s mentioned as an issue to consider at least as often IME. Likewise gun control, Church on the left. Also the Church hierarchy buys into more than not the idea that Christ’s teachings imply a strong welfare state, though rank and file Catholics are as likely to disagree with that, explicitly or implicitly in their voting, as with right to life (I don’t think a particular level of welfare state is either pro or anti-Christian, Jesus said ‘give, yourself, voluntarily, to the poor’; he didn’t say ‘vote to force that guy other there to pay more for the poor’, although He didn’t say not to either…). > > The point being, if you read the issue messages in a typical Catholic parish as endorsing the party with those positions, the message is distinctly mixed. Only if you focus on right to life is the RCC lined up with the Republicans in the US\*. People break all kinds of rules and there must be cases in a huge institution. But the rule against priests saying who to vote for or not to vote for is not winked at and ignored IME. > > \*secondarily gay marriage, but very secondarily. I read it on FB during the election time. It could well be one of the fake news stories. But there was a picture of a RC priest with the article. ---
**Author:** ![Doubticus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@Doubticus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doubticus)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2017, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-priest-appeals-to-donald-trump-to-end-abortion/775500/40 "2017-01-03T20:54:34Z")
> [@Donpeyote](#): > > More Black Americans (Aborted Children) have died because of Roe v Wade in last 43 years than Black Folks in General have died from War , Famine ,Accident, Weather disaster , Slavery & Klan activities & lynchings ,Aids , Sickle Cell Anemia in last 350 years of America . And yet many more unattached zygotes of all races have been lost. 18% rejection rate of all fertilized eggs. Cite: [http://www.patheos.com/blogs/lovejoyfeminism/2012/10/zygotes-lost-with-birth-control-v-without-birth-control.html](http://www.patheos.com/blogs/lovejoyfeminism/2012/10/zygotes-lost-with-birth-control-v-without-birth-control.html) Where’s the outrage? Time to mount a class action suit against God. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-priest-appeals-to-donald-trump-to-end-abortion/775500.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catholic-priest-appeals-to-donald-trump-to-end-abortion/775500.md?page=3)