Pro-abortion organization says Bush re-election is ‘frightening’

Nov 21, 2004 / 22:00 pm

The director of a pro-abortion organization, called Catholics for a Free Choice, said she and her members are “a bit sad, frightened and even demoralized” by the re-election of President George W. Bush.

In a letter to members, dated Nov. 3, Frances Kissling, president of the organization, said Bush’s re-election means “Bush’s War on Women proceeds unchecked” and efforts will begin by “the president's socially conservative Christian and Catholic base” to restrict women's, sexual and reproductive rights.

Kissling said she is concerned about the impact the election results will have on the Catholic Church in the United States. “The most troubling aspect of all this is the extent to which Bush's victory will further empower an incredibly arrogant, intolerant, anti-woman and anti-religious freedom faction in my church,” she said.

“It solidifies the alliance between the administration, the Vatican and that ultra-conservative segment of the American church that both Rome and Bush have used to keep women – and dissenters – in their place,” she stated.

She said Pope John Paul II “has succeeded in building a right wing movement among laity and destroyed resistance among progressives.”

She also called for a “careful analysis” of the way in which “these conservative religious forces have used gender, sexuality and reproduction as a way of weakening and dividing the resistance movement in the church.”

Kissling said Bush’s re-election will inspire her organization in the next four years to “roll up our sleeves, work harder, and reach out more wisely and broadly to build and lead a conscious movement of resistance to injustice.”

Catholics for a Free Choice has been formally declared an anti-Catholic organization by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.