In an op-ed on the US Supreme Court’s decision to end the constitutional right to abortion, Andrea Tornielli said those who oppose abortion cannot choose pro-life issues.
“To be still for life, for example, means to be concerned if the death rate of women from childbearing increases,” he wrote.
He cited statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showing an increase in maternal death rates in general and that the rate was almost three times higher for black women.
“Being for life, always, means asking how to help women welcome new life,” he wrote, citing an unsourced statistic that 75% of women who have abortions live in poverty or have low wages. .
He also cited statistics from the Harvard Review of Psychiatry showing that the United States has much lower parental leave rates than other wealthy nations.
“Being for life, always, also means defending it against the threat of firearms, which have sadly become a leading cause of death of children and adolescents in the United States,” he wrote.
The Roman Catholic Church teaches that abortion is murder because life begins at conception and ends with natural death.
Pope Francis has compared having an abortion to “hiring a hitman” to eliminating a problematic person.
But he has tried to distract the American Catholic Church from thinking that abortion is the one and only life issue in the country’s so-called culture wars.
The death penalty, gun control, family support and immigration are also life issues, he said.
The Vatican Academy for Life praised Friday’s US Supreme Court ruling, saying it challenged the world to reflect on life issues, but also called for social change to help women keep their children.
US President Joe Biden, a lifelong Catholic, condemned the ruling, calling it a “sad day” for America and calling the court’s conservatives “extreme”.