1/ Thanks for making my point for me. Your assumption is that no one has truly grappled with the church's position, or that cynicism over the church's ability to "heal" is both unreasonable and suggests the church incapable of appealing to reasonable people. Bunk.

As a woman in the Catholic Church I'm fully aware the church places greater value on a fetus than on a woman and effectively teaches that woman's reproductive capacity determines her ontological status, a reductivism not applied to the condition of men. I've put up with this indignity because there's nothing in the gospel suggestive of this nonsense, and the church has its attractions.

Please don't impute motive to me. I'm a mother, I'm not "hostile" to life in the womb. I've held the same position both as an atheist and a practicing Catholic. I believe abortion is morally fraught and should whenever possible be a last resort. But I believe it should be legal and safe.