Feminists pray to Mary for legal abortion

Despite clear Catholic teaching to the contrary, U.S. abortion advocates in Latin America have distributed a prayer card asking the Virgin Mary to intercede to establish abortion on demand throughout the region.

Many participants at the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean meeting in Puerto Rico were stunned Monday when they received a prayer card with the words, "The love of God and of Mary of Guadalupe is greater. ... For women's lives, safe and legal abortion," reports the Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute.

The words are superimposed over an image of the Virgin Mary. The back of the card says, "Dear Mary of Guadalupe, we thank you because your love is greater, because you listen to us without judging, because you know our heart and you respect the intimacy of our decisions."

The cards were distributed by the American group Catholics for a Free Choice and its Latin American counterpart, Catolicas por el Derecho a Decidir.

One observer told the Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute, "How insulting it is that CFFC, a rich American pro-abortion group, would attempt to use the Latin American people's strong devotion to the Virgin Mary to impose their abortion agenda here."

At a press conference, CFFC released polling data that purports to show Latin American Catholics overwhelmingly accept a broad reproductive rights agenda.

According to the CFFC press release, "Before Catholics were more afraid of what the bishops and the church were saying -- now they are deciding for themselves. What we see is a more mature society and a more democratic one in which the most important guide is the individual conscience, not the institution of the church. What we also see is how isolated the bishops are from society and from faithful Catholics."

Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute, however, points out the very polling data seems to tell a different story.

For instance, the report admits, "Catholics are divided on the question of whether one can have an abortion or support someone who does and continue to be a 'good Catholic.'"

CFFC claims "a majority of Catholics in all three countries [Bolivia, Colombia and Mexico] believe abortion should be permitted in some or all cases."

But the report also states, "Only a small number of Catholics in the three countries say that public health entities should be required to provide abortions to those who ask for them."

The data also show the overwhelming majority of respondents, in some cases more than 90 percent, do not believe abortion is justified "when the woman chooses," "because of a lack of economic resources," "when a contraceptive method has failed," or "when a woman does not feel capable of taking care of a child at that moment."