State Penal Laws and
The Catholic Church

State Penal Laws and The Catholic Church

The Catholic Church Must Recognize How Women Are Victimized by the

Campaign to Enforce Church Doctrine on Abortion Through State Penal Laws

by Thomas Coffin

I have previously authored an essay entitled The Temptation of Theocracy, which critiques the dangerous and misguided alliance of certain Catholic bishops and extremist politicians in the effort to legislate Catholic doctrine on abortion. The effort seeks to enforce the Church’s doctrine, in particular the precept that life begins at conception, through appropriate State penal sanctions.

The tactic at issue, melding Catholic doctrine into the fabric of State law, is ancient and has a dubious history. Crusades, inquisitions, torture and execution of those labeled infidels, religious warfare, and persecutions (such as of Galileo for promulgating the science that the earth was not the center of the universe) were common throughout the Middle Ages. Such evils were the predictable by-products of the Church being permitted to invoke powers of the State to proselytize and enforce Church doctrine. Religious zealotry does not respect boundaries.

The Founders of our Nation were intimately familiar with the danger of Church-State alliance and thus purposefully placed in the First Amendment of our Constitution the anti-establishment clause designed to keep separate the two institutions. But the tactic nonetheless persists, and the “wall” between Church and State is constantly under siege. We are witnessing such today in the concerted efforts to sway the Catholic voting bloc to ignore all other issues and cast their votes primarily on the singular issue of electing candidates who will incorporate Catholic doctrine regarding abortion into the penal laws of the Nation.

It is vitally important that bishops, laity, and all voters be fully informed as to what has happened to women in other countries where the Church has succeeded in its agenda. There are 7 such countries, each of which has historically had a heavily Catholic influence—some dating back to the era of colonialism when they were subjugated by Spanish or French invaders.

Among these countries is El Salvador, whose experience is particularly instructive regarding the effect of its penal laws on women. In 1998, after extensive lobbying by the Catholic Archbishop, the country amended its constitution to adopt Church doctrine that life begins at the moment of conception. It also enacted a draconian penal system to enforce this doctrine. What follows are samples of the actual cases that unfolded pursuant to these measures.

Evelyn Hernandez Cruz was 18 years old when she was repeatedly raped by a gang member and became pregnant as a result of the assaults. She was discovered by her mother passed out in the family home and covered in blood after a miscarriage. When she was rushed to a doctor, he reported her to the police because he suspected the miscarriage was not natural. She was charged with murder, convicted, and sentenced to 30 years imprisonment. She served 3 years of her sentence before being vindicated following an appeal.

Maria Maroquin also became pregnant as a teenager. She was at work when she had a miscarriage. She was subsequently convicted of homicide and served 15 years in prison. Guadalupe Varquez was raped at age 17 and became pregnant. She had decided to keep the baby and had even selected a name for it. While at work one day she suffered intense pain, but her employer told he she could not leave to go to the hospital. She had a miscarriage later that day at her employer’s house and awakened to find herself handcuffed to a hospital bed. She served 7 years and 3 months in prison.

Aside from imprisonment for miscarriages (the system places the burden on women to prove the cause), almost half the maternity deaths among teenagers are suicides due to the distress and persecution generated by the dire circumstances that befall them from forced pregnancies that are due to the immaturity of their age and often rape. Many pregnant teenagers find themselves expelled from their schools and homes, abandoned and frightened.

The teenage pregnancy rate in El Salvador is the highest in Latin America. A significant number of these pregnancies are the result of sexual assault or incest. The criminalization of violations of Church doctrine has led to the creation of a special prosecution unit to investigate miscarriages and a mandatory reporting requirement of doctors. Police seize medical records and interview friends, family, and employers of the accused. Investigators include “forensic vagina inspectors”.

These procedures have completely undermined trust by victimized women in the medical system. In addition, it has placed these marginalized victims in prison, and pressures them to seek desperate solutions to avoid severe and lengthy incarceration.

El Salvador has prosecuted numerous victims of its harsh anti-abortion law since 1998, some as young as 12 years of age. It has created a culture in which women who have miscarriages are presumed guilty and reported to police by health care professionals they turn to for help, creating a cruel Hobbesian choice between death or imprisonment.

The El Salvador prison where the convicted women are incarcerated is a virtual hell as it is overflowing at 900 % of capacity. Adding to this humanitarian crisis, conservative policies of the United States, influenced by the hard-line evangelicals and “pro-life” faction of the Catholic Church, ban federal funding of international organizations attempting to provide aid to these terrified and abandoned women if the organizations advocate for the decriminalization of abortion. These are the stark realities flowing from the so-called appropriate penal sanctions the Catholic Church mandates from nations in which it wields political influence. It is one thing to preach moral doctrine and seek to convert people into voluntarily adhering to those beliefs, but it is quite another and an extremely oppressive tactic to compel adherence through the exercise of the punitive powers of Caesar.

This is not the way of people of God. It is instead religious tyranny. What is occurring in El Salvador reflects exactly why the anti-establishment clause was inserted into our Constitution and demonstrates the dangers of opening the door for theocrats to legislate their religious beliefs. The Second Vatican Council declared that governments should protect religious liberty. That surely includes the liberty not to be imprisoned for rejecting a particular creed. The Church should rejoice in the freedom it enjoys to preach, minister, and spread the Gospel. It should stay on its side of the wall, respecting the freedom and rights of those who may not accept its doctrine. This is especially so in our Nation, which has embraced democracy, not theocracy.

Sources:

https://bpr.berkeley.edu/2020/01/19/when-a-miscarriage-is-a-crime-el-salvadors-humanitarian-crisis

https://sites.evergreen.edu/ccc/carebodies/criminalization-of-abortion-in-el-salvador/

9.6.2021