UN Committee Against Torture Questions Holy See On Efforts To Curtail Women’s Health Care Globally

[theHandpuppet]

AWID
Association for Women's Rights in Development
UN Committee Against Torture Questions Holy See On Efforts To Curtail Women’s Health Care Globally
Source: Center for Reproductive Rights
May 12, 2014

Representatives of the Holy See were asked by a United Nations Committee yesterday to answer for its interference with women’s access to reproductive health care across the globe leading to cruel and degrading treatment...

...During the UN Committee review earlier this week, Holy See representative Cardinal Silvano Tomasi claimed that "by no means does the Holy See enforce or impose this code on any individual," but the evidence proves otherwise. Indeed, Vice-Chair of the UN Committee Felice Gaer noted that Holy See officials had "called for the blanket criminalization of abortion by other governments....I agree that that this policy should not be imposed on others. How do you respond to the argument that that is exactly what's going on?"

In 2009, Archbishop Jose Cardoso Sobrinho and Cardinal Giovanni Batista Re publicly condemned the mother and doctors of a nine-year-old girl who had become pregnant following years of sexual abuse, because they decided to perform an abortion to save her life. UN Committee member George Tugushi questioned the Holy See about this and similar cases, noting the humiliation of women the Holy See inflicts and finding that "when [women and girls] are subjected to additional pressure when they have undergone such a trauma, it should be considered ill-treatment."

Cardinal Tomasi disavowed responsibility for this and another similar case in Nicaragua but stated that "these are two exceptional cases." However, as the Center for Reproductive Rights highlighted in its submission to the UN Committee, there have been several other cases where Vatican officials have interfered in women's reproductive health, including a 2013 case where Holy See officials persuaded the government of El Salvador to deny access to abortion for a pregnant woman named Beatriz whose life was at risk because of lupus and kidney failure. Holy See officials have also interfered with policymaking in other states surrounding reproductive rights, including the Philippines, Peru, Nicaragua, the United States, and many others....

MORE at http://www.awid.org/News-Analysis/Women-s-Rights-in-the-News2/UN-Committee-Against-Torture-Questions-Holy-See-on-Efforts-to-Curtail-Women-s-Health-Care-Globally

[niyad]

1. sadly, we know the answer to this--the rcc basically hates women, period.

[theHandpuppet]

2. It never ceases to confound and depress me...

... to see so many women who otherwise consider themselves feminists twist themselves into pretzels in order to defend or minimize the incredibly harmful, misogynic dogmas of the church. Or at least not speak up. When women's lives are at stake, it doesn't pay to be polite.

[niyad]

3. I have been speaking up my whole life--the primary reason I got thrown out!

[theHandpuppet]

4. Or got freed, depending on your point of view

Honestly, I've really given a lot of thought about why so many women seem so timid or loathe to speak out against the horribly damaging, misogynic dogmas of the church. No one seems to have a problem speaking their mind when it comes to the firebreathing evangelicals and their nonsense but then so many of them come off as blowhard bullies or clownish buffoons. It's easy to spot them and also to reject them. What's really tough is to confront the oppressor who comes to you with a sweet smile on his face and a soothing voice. He's the patriarchal figurehead of an entirely patriarchal institution, the daddy who loves you and would let you come to no harm. WRONG. This is exactly the kind of powerful, male religious leader who has been pushing those buttons for eons in order to keep women in their place and to punish those who step out of line. There are entirely too many women willing to go along with this bullcrap... or at least keep silent even as they watch other women truly suffering as the result of institutional misogyny.
Look at the current Pope. Reminds you of Edmund Gwenn from Miracle on 34th Street, doesn't he? So it doesn't matter how many times he soundly condemns contraception, abortion, equality for women, gay marriage and adoption (or the horrible things he's said about LGBTs), or even squashes the fledgling feminist efforts of progressive nuns. Try saying you're not buying this load, even on DU. You'll have more public defenders on your ass than Gwenn's Kris Kringle had defense witnesses.
I don't know what people are looking for but as for me, I don't need that kind of validation, not at that price. All I know is that millions of women and girls around the globe are suffering because they lack the basic human right to equality. Forbidden the autonomy even of their own bodies and the power to make decisions concerning the size of their families, they and their children can be thrust into abject and generational poverty. Or seeking an alternative but denied a choice, end up in a back alley abortion. If it makes some folks feel better not to dwell on this, they can just keep telling themselves that Daddy knows best.
There are, thankfully, a number of strong, stalwart women here who have not and will not remain silent. To them I can only say, I've got your back. We've got a long road to travel but one day we'll get there, together. We may just have to dump a lot of old baggage along the way.

[niyad]

5. I agree with everything you are saying. I got thrown out for daring to challenge them, but I was on

my way out the door anyway. Did not bother me in the slightest. Like you, what I cannot understand is how feminists, anyone who loves and cares about women, can abide ANY of the abrahamic, woman-hating religions.

The current occupant of the chair of the rock is just a better pr figure than the most recent ones. difference in degree, not kind.