Clergy and Abortion

 

Episcopalian Priest Aborted Her Baby So She Could Finish Divinity School

   Micaiah Bilger 

Abortion advocates across the nation are trying to send the U.S. Supreme Court a message: Women need abortions to be successful.

This insulting notion has been the underlying theme of dozens of stories pro-abortion women have submitted to the high court ahead of its hearing on a Texas pro-life law, which has been credited with saving more than 10,000 babies’ lives. The law is responsible for closing abortion clinics that could not guarantee they could protect the health of Texas women.
The latest pro-abortion story to be highlighted in the mainstream media is that of the Rev. Anne Fowler, an Episcopal priest from New England, who said her abortion allowed her to finish divinity school and become a priest.
Here is her story, according to an amicus brief submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court:

If the Reverend Anne Fowler had not had access to an abortion when she accidentally became pregnant after enrolling in Divinity School, she would never have been able to graduate, to serve as a parish rector, or to help the enormous number of people whose lives she has touched. Unable to pursue her calling or be the mother she wanted to be for the daughter she already had, she would have been broken.

Fowler, who is active in the pro-abortion movement and is a leader with the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, said her husband left her when she was pregnant with her first child. She gave birth to a daughter, and soon felt called to pursue the Episcopal priesthood. In 1982, during her second year at the Episcopal Divinity School, Fowler said she “accidentally” became pregnant again.

She believed her partner would not be a suitable parent; their relationship ended soon after the abortion. Already solely responsible for her daughter, Anne knew she could not complete Divinity School and pursue a career as a priest if she did not have an abortion. She has never regretted her decision and is grateful that she did not have to travel far, which would have caused her additional stress and financial hardship while she cared for her young daughter.

The brief goes on to list Fowler’s accomplishments, which, she said, would never have been possible if she had not aborted her second child – though she never acknowledged that it was a “child.” Fowler currently is a chaplain for Planned Parenthood.

She meets many pregnant women who are very young or struggling economically or emotionally. Many already have children and could not handle more. Their abortions are often life-saving. Anne believes there should be reproductive justice, which means equal access for all women without having to travel further than they would for other health care.

Fowler submitted her story in the same brief as actress Amy Brenneman, who said she “never, not once” regretted having an abortion.

A lot is at stake in the Texas case Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, scheduled to be heard Wednesday by the high court. The Texas law being challenged requires abortionists to have hospital admitting privileges and abortion clinics to meet the same health and safety standards as other outpatient surgical facilities.
Pro-life U.S. Rep. Diane Black explained the gravity of the case to LifeNews:

Before I came to Congress, I served as a registered nurse. During my time in the emergency room, I cared for a young woman who came to my hospital after undergoing a botched abortion at a clinic that was not properly regulated. When her complications occurred, there was no answer at the after-hours number that she called and by the time she entered my care she was dying and there was nothing that the doctors or I could do to save her.
That young woman lost her precious life; a life that could have been saved if proper regulations were in place to protect her safety and to hold the abortionist accountable. This is what is at stake at the high court.

Black said women’s health advocates should be fighting for the law if they truly care about protecting women.
“Life is precious – whether it is the life of the child in the womb, or that of the young mother facing an unplanned pregnancy – and it deserves to be protected,” Black said. “The deep pockets of the big abortion industry may feel ‘burdened’ by Texas’s compassionate law, but women are not – they are indeed safer as a result.”Source: LifeSite News