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Scholar: Reproductive choices, religion can co-exist By BILL KETTLER Daniel Maguire says people of faith can support contraception or even abortion without compromising their beliefs on the sanctity of human life. The veteran Catholic educator says the debate over "pelvic politics" has been locked into a false dichotomy of "who's right and who's wrong" on contraception and abortion, when in reality, the world's religions provide justification for limiting reproduction as well as procreating. Maguire's new book, "Sacred Choices: The Right to Contraception and Abortion in Ten World Religions," details the range of religious thought on reproductive issues. He's scheduled to speak at 3 p.m. Sunday at Rogue Valley Medical Center's Smullin Center, 2825 E. Barnett Road, Medford. Admission is free. Planned Parenthood of Southern Oregon invited Maguire to Southern Oregon while he was traveling through the Northwest. "We wanted people to grow in their understanding that there's a pluralism in the religious realm (family planning, contraception and abortion)," said Kellie Shoemaker, Planned Parenthood's community outreach coordinator. "It's not just the religious right that has an opinion on these issues." In a telephone interview, Maguire noted that the world's major faiths emerged at a time in human history when life was short and women bore many children to ensure the species' survival. He noted that just four people in every 100 attained the age of 50 when Christianity was beginning. " 'Be fruitful and multiply' is so understandable," he said, noting that his Irish grandmother bore 13 children, but only five survived. The great faiths' tolerance for abortion is generally less known, said Maguire, a professor of ethics at Marquette University in Wisconsin. In the Catholic tradition, for example, the doctrine of "delayed ensoulment" provides a justification for abortion. Delayed ensoulment holds that a spiritual human soul does not inhabit a fetus until as late as three months into a pregnancy. If a fetus has not achieved the status of person, killing it would not be murder. Similar precepts have emerged in other faiths to help believers find answers to difficult questions, Maguire said. "They adapt to the realities that are there." Maguire said issues of family planning often strain traditional family structures, especially in less-developed societies where many men still impose their children on women. He noted that birth rates typically drop when women have an opportunity to attend school and learn to take a larger role in determining the size of their family. "Men are very frequently the problem," Maguire said. "They're often threatened by the notion that family planning gives women a new role within the family." He noted that three conservative religious communities that agree on little else - conservative Catholics, conservative Protestants and conservative Muslims - find common ground in resisting a greater role for women in family planning. Maguire said decisions about abortion, contraception and family planning must be made individually on the basis of each person's faith. "Laws should not take sides in this religious debate," he said. "When alleged divine inspiration supplants reasoned discourse as the basis of public policy, we become a theocracy. That's what's happening in the debate over abortion and stem-cell research. We're functioning theocratically - just like Iran does." Reach reporter Bill Kettler at 776-4492, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.