Thanks to President Barack Obama's contraceptive mandate and Catholic concerns about its impact on religious liberty, Catholic women have emerged as this year's most coveted and scrutinized swing voters. At last week's Democratic National Convention, they heard copious testimonials about Obama's pro-woman credentials. Particularly pointed were the appeals from Caroline Kennedy, who invoked her Catholic faith while slamming abortion restrictions supported by the U.S. bishops, and activist nun Sr. Simone Campbell of NETWORK, who became famous this year for blasting the Vatican in the wake of a doctrinal assessment that faulted her organization for failing to faithfully represent Catholic teaching.
The convention's impact on Catholic women voters remains to be seen. But its constant repetition of righteously indignant references to "women's rights" and "choice" reinforced the dominant cultural narrative that a woman's freedom is defined primarily by what she rejects: unwanted children, outmoded ideas about the importance and meaning of marriage and retrograde religious doctrines that call her to subordinate her desires to the demands of others. Shared sacrifice is fine in the form of a more progressive tax code, it seems; but when applied to decisions such as whether to welcome a baby whose conception was unplanned, calls to self-sacrifice are an invitation to oppression.
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