Word: reformations
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Roman Catholics, abortion is a grave moral wrong. For a growing number of Protestants and Jews, it is an act that is justified under certain circumstances. Currently, the differences between these views are of more than academic interest. The introduction of several state abortion reform bills has caused a loud and bitter interfaith debate on the subject-and has indicated that even in an era of ecumenical good will, there remain profound disparities between Catholicism and other faiths on fundamental issues...
...Manhattan last week, a New York state legislative committee opened public hearings on a bill to liberalize the state's 84-year-old abortion law. Last month an Arizona state-senate committee approved a similar measure, and in California another abortion reform bill was being prepared for introduction in the legislature. All the proposed new codes would supersede existing laws-of the kind that are in force in most states-that flatly bar all abortions, including therapeutic ones, except to save the life of the mother. Instead, the bills would allow committees of doctors to authorize abortions in cases...
...infanticide have been flatly condemned by the church since its earliest years. Today most Catholic scholars still agree that the fetus is a human life from the very instant of conception; to destroy it willfully, therefore, is to commit an act analogous to murder.* Denouncing the proposed Arizona reform, Tucson's Bishop Francis J. Green declared: "Traditionally, it has been the responsibility of the state to protect life. This law introduces a frightening change in the state's attitude toward a person's right to live...
While Orthodox Jews and conservative Protestants generally remain opposed to abortion reform, there is increasing sentiment in both church and synagogue to liberalize existing laws, within certain bounds. The New York State Council of Churches has endorsed the state's abortion bill on grounds of "profound charity." The New York Federation of Reform Synagogues, which also supports the new proposal, has pointed out that "great suffering and the loss of life of thousands of women is the price that is paid because abortion is illegal...
Because of the strong Catholic opposition, the states' abortion bills are not likely to pass into law, at least in their present form. But on this issue, at least, the Protestant and Jewish acceptance of reform seems to coincide with popular opinion. In a survey taken by the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center, 71% favored legal abortion when the woman's health is seriously endangered, 56% when the pregnancy resulted from rape, and 55% when there is strong likelihood that the child would be born defective...