Catholics for Choice Highlights New Data from Pew on Catholics and Abortion
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday, April 15, 2024
Contact: Ashley Wilson, Strategic Communications Advisor
Phone: 202-294-4081
Email: awilson@catholicsforchoice.org
Catholics for Choice Highlights New Data from Pew on Catholics and Abortion
WASHINGTON — Catholics for Choice, which serves the pro-choice Catholic majority, released the following statement from President Jamie L. Manson, M.Div., in response to the newest data from Pew Research Center on U.S. Catholics and abortion.
“The latest data from Pew on Catholicism and abortion tells us what Catholics for Choice has known all along: support for legal abortion access is the majority opinion among Catholics. The updated numbers reflect that six in ten Catholics think abortion should be legal in all or most cases, and only 11% of Catholics agree with the church hierarchy that abortion should be illegal.
“Even among Catholic Republicans, abortion legalization is popular. According to Pew, 78% of Catholic Democrats think abortion should be legal in all or most cases — and a stunning 43% of Catholic Republicans agree. This demonstrates that these Catholics have reflected on their lived experiences of pregnancy and abortion, and they determined that church teaching on reproductive rights is at odds with their carefully formed consciences and beliefs.
“What is striking to me is how, given the hard line of the US bishops, Catholics seem to be falling away from the church. Pew found that only 28% of Catholics attend Mass weekly or more often, and 58% of Catholics are over age 50. I pray our hierarchy realizes that these numbers do not reflect the idea that Catholics are leaving the church, but that the church is leaving them. This data should be a wake-up call for our hierarchy — particularly the US bishops — that its teaching on sexuality and reproductive health is simply inadequate. While the clergy will claim that these numbers reflect a triumph of the secular over the sacred, in fact, what they demonstrate is a profound pastoral crisis in our church.”
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Catholics for Choice shapes and advances sexual and reproductive ethics that are based on justice, reflect a commitment to a person’s well-being and respect, and affirm the capacity of all people to make moral decisions about their lives.
