Opinion: Bishops Shouldn't Dictate Behavior
Appeared in Philadelphia Inquirer Letters
by Carol E. Tracy, Executive Director, Women's Law Project
Catholic bishops are now making decisions about women's health care in the United States, decisions based on their perception of morality.
In the past decade, more than 10 million American women have made a moral decision to have an abortion. How can an institution that permitted and facilitated the sexual abuse of countless numbers of children dare to proclaim what is moral? What has happened to this country's founding principle of separation of church and state?
It is one thing for the Catholic Church to direct its parishioners on its teaching. It is a whole other matter to have 350 paid lobbyists directing Congress on women's health care. That Congress is accepting the church's mandates is appalling. (Also see WLP Blog: Democrats Sacrifce Women's Rights for Political Gains, and Comprehensive Health Care Reform - Unless You're a Woman.)
U.S. Court of Appeals Upholds Modified Pittsburgh Buffer Zone Law
On October 30, 2009, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued an 83-page ruling in Brown v. City of Pittsburgh, in which an anti-abortion protester challenged the constitutionality of Pittsburgh’s Medical Safety Zone Ordinance.
Chief Justice Scirica, writing for a three-judge panel that included Judges Ambro and Smith, upheld the constitutionality of both operative provisions of the ordinance —a 15-foot fixed no-protest zone around clinic entrances and a floating 8-foot personal bubble zone of protection around each person approaching the clinic. The court determined that both zones are content-neutral and consistent with the First Amendment speech and free exercise clauses, the Equal Protection Clause, and the Pennsylvania Religious Freedom Protection Act. See full press release.
WLP Files Amicus Brief Urging 3rd Circuit Court to Reject Myths About
How a Sexual Assault Victim Should Behave
On September 28, 2009, the Women’s Law Project filed an amicus brief with the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Reedy v. Evanson, a civil rights case brought by a woman who was sexually assaulted during the course of a robbery. Ms. Reedy promptly complained to the police but, instead of investigating her complaint, the police arrested her, charging her with falsely reporting a crime and other crimes. More...
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