The Ecumenical Moloch
The Latest Assault on the Unborn in the Name of the World’s Religions
by Anne Barbeau Gardiner
In his introduction to Sacred Rights: The Case for Contraception and Abortion in World Religions, the editor, Daniel Maguire, makes the startling claim that no one can take away a woman’s right to abortion without engaging in religious persecution: “To criminalize a right that is grounded in the world’s major religions is criminal itself. It is also a form of religious persecution.” Do the essays prove that a right to abortion is both sacred and grounded in the traditions of the world’s major religions? (I am focusing on abortion, which Maguire calls the necessary “backup option” to contraception.)
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Anne Barbeau Gardiner is Professor Emerita of English at John Jay College of the City University of New York. She has published on Dryden, Milton, and Swift, as well as on Catholics of the 17th century.
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