The Oscar-nominated film Philomena tells the tale of an Irish Catholic mother separated from her son by one of Ireland's infamous 20th century Magdalene Laundries. But this adoption system wasn't limited to mid-century Ireland; there are millions of Philomenas out there.
Even after the Silsby affair, when ten American missionaries were arrested in Haiti for attempted child theft, the Christian adoption movement is unchastened.
Crisis pregnancy centers set themselves up as innocuous “alternatives” for pregnant women, but some are just steps away from abortion clinics and frequented by some of the most infamous anti-abortion extremists.
For many years, faith-based health providers have received enormous sums of money from both state-based and private entities to provide healthcare services. More recently, that healthcare has included treatment for people living with HIV and AIDS. Unfortunately, many of these providers do not provide a full range of preventative care, especially advice on the use of and access to condoms to prevent the spread of HIV. Too few people have questioned whether the faith-based groups’ use of those funds is as effective as it might be. This report raises some of those questions and provides some proposals for how we might move forward towards more transparency.
The National Abortion Federation estimates that as many as 4,000 CPCs operate in the United States, often using deceptive tactics like posing as abortion providers and showing women graphic antiabortion films. While there is growing awareness of how CPCs hinder abortion access, the centers have a broader agenda that is less well known: they seek not only to induce women to "choose life" but to choose adoption, either by offering adoption services themselves, as in Bethany's case, or by referring women to Christian adoption agencies. Far more than other adoption agencies, conservative Christian agencies demonstrate a pattern and history of coercing women to relinquish their children.
After a brief moment of "miracle news" coverage when the successful delivery of the California octuplets was first announced, criticism of the mother and her doctors began to mount from across the ideological spectrum.
Rick Warren's AIDS work in Africa supposed to negate his anti-gay and anti-choice advocacy. But Warren's AIDS activism is nearly as troubling as the rest of his ideology.
A leading figure in the Christian right anti-trafficking establishment, Linda Smith embodies the tensions between feminists and religious right activists working on this issue.
In 1968, Catholic Church doctrine forbade the use of contraception. Forty years later, the Church's teachings are irrelevant at best to American Catholics, but outright dangerous for those living in the developing world.
