ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE, CATHOLICS FOR CHOICE: ABORTION OUR ``RELIGIOUS'' RIGHT CLUB OF LIF

ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE, CATHOLICS FOR
CHOICE: ABORTION OUR ``RELIGIOUS'' RIGHT


CLUB OF LIFE 
by Linda Everett 
Among the dozens of  briefs entered in the
abortion cases the U.S. Supreme Court
will hear this fall, is one by the
Anti-Defamation League (ADL) of B'nai
Brith. Joining the ADL are Catholics
for Free Choice, B'nai Brith Women,
and Women's American ORT--all groups
that have held for 10 or 20 years that
abortion on demand is a woman's right. 
	The present brief, written by ADL
attorney Kenneth Bialkin, contends that
there are many views on abortion, and
that state restrictions on abortion
effectively establish but one religious
view--that abortion is morally wrong. 
      - Religious Repression? -
	And, claims the brief, when a
state ``endorses [that] religious
view,'' it restricts a woman's exercise
of her own religious belief about
terminating pregnancy. ``Requiring a
woman to conform her actions to the
government's view of when life begins
is repugnant to the protections of the
free exercise clause.'' 
	A similarly spurious argument
could be made about any murder case:
That is, if a would-be murderer, for his
own ``religious'' reasons, concluded
that the victim did not qualify for
inclusion in the injunction ``Thou
Shalt Not Kill,'' then, presumably, the
state would have no right to tell the
murderer otherwise. 
	Upcoming abortion cases before the
high court include: , No. 88-790, Illinois,
which requires that clinics performing
first- and second-trimester abortions
meet the same standards as full-care
hospitals; , No.
88-805, Ohio requires that at least one
parent be notified before a minor
obtains an abortion; , No. 88-1125, and
, No.
88-1309, Minnesota requires that both
parents be notified in such a case. 
            - Fallacies -
	The  briefs discount that
the state might act out of secular
interests. The ADL argues that ``These
statutes are in fact animated by the
religious beliefs of the legislators as
to when life begins and when abortions
should be permissible under their
theological scheme.'' The Illinois
legislators, they say, were concerned
for the life of the fetus, not the
mother. Whatever the claims, there is
good medical cause for regulating
clinics. One New York woman is dead,
and another in a coma, because the
abortionists left the patients with
assistants who ignored warning
signs--or, in one case, never called
for emergency help during the 90
minutes the post-abortion patient was
in dire stress, until she died. 
	It is ludicrous that the briefs
consider 13-year-olds to be ``women''
holding mature religious beliefs that
call for aborting pregnancies (although
that {is} the case in Satanism). It is
not the amici, but the parents who are
most concerned for a child's welfare,
and any procedure that endangers them
physically, mentally, or morally. 
	The Judeo-Christian reverence for
life does indeed underlie our laws. To
use ``religious freedom'' as a cover
for pushing murder, is monstrous.