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The Guardian (London), June 30, 2004 Vatican Birth Control Policy
Spurned BYLINE: Stephen Bates Religious affairs correspondent
The move also represents an assault on US policies which, under George Bush, have blocked aid to organisations supporting abortion. The polls, released at an inter-governmental health conference in Puerto Rico, show at least three quarters of those questioned in Mexico, Colombia and Bolivia supporting contraception being made available to adolescents and even higher majorities in favour of the use of condoms to prevent HIV/Aids. The surveys, carried out by separate polling organisations late last year, questioned at least 1,500 respondents in each country with surprisingly similar results. Although in each case those questioned supported the church's humanitarian and spiritual roles, they also wanted liberalisation of its policies and claimed that using contraception did not prevent them from being good Catholics. Only over the issue of whether hospitals should offer emergency contraception to women to prevent pregnancy were there fewer than three-quarters or four-fifths of respondents in favour, and even on that question the lowest level of support, in Bolivia, still registered 58%. Roberto Blancarte, a Mexican sociologist of religion told the group Catholics for a Free Choice: "We are seeing a silent revolution among Catholics in Mexico and Latin America. This is the first survey on what Catholics really think about sexual and reproductive health and rights and it shows us that there is a big breach between Catholics and the bishops." A US official at the conference was quoted as saying that criticism of the Bush administration's policies was unfair and that the president wanted to support reproductive health measures, including family planning, but abortion could play no part in that. << The Guardian -- 6/30/04 >>
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