{"id":54068,"date":"2014-09-30T20:44:25","date_gmt":"2014-10-01T00:44:25","guid":{"rendered":"\/news\/?p=54068"},"modified":"2014-10-01T22:51:50","modified_gmt":"2014-10-02T02:51:50","slug":"the-virgin-mary-the-first-pro-choice-supporter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-virgin-mary-the-first-pro-choice-supporter\/","title":{"rendered":"The Virgin Mary: the first pro-choice supporter?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p>Did you know that the Virgin Mary, who is honored as the Blessed Mother in Catholic tradition, was the first pro-choice activist? No? Well, apparently she was the first person to embrace the ethic of \u201cChoice\u201d- according to Sister Donna Quinn, a pro-choice Catholic nun.<\/p>\n<p>In a 2009 article in the Chicago Tribune, entitled <a href=\"http:\/\/newsblogs.chicagotribune.com\/religion_theseeker\/2009\/12\/prochoice-nun-still-fighting-for-womens-care.html\">\u201cPro-choice nun still fighting for women\u2019s care<\/a>,\u201d Sister Quinn makes the following statement:<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u00a0<\/em>I was reminded of being with men and women from the Unitarian faith tradition last year as they celebrated Mary who by her assent, they believed, was one of the first women in the New Testament to express Choice.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Apparently, these Unitarians were embracing Mary as the first pro-choicer. Their reasoning is that because she said \u201cyes\u201d to the angel who asked her to bear Jesus, she was exercising \u201cChoice.\u201d The rest of the article seems to imply that Quinn agrees.<\/p>\n<p>Sister Quinn made this statement on the day that Catholics celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. She celebrated that Marian feast by writing to pro-abortion congressmen to thank them for defeating a piece of pro-life legislation.<\/p>\n<p>Sister Quinn does not limit her pro-choice activity to communing with pro-choice Unitarians, writing to pro-choice congressmen, and making bizarre statements about Mary. She also works as a clinic escort. She works for the abortion clinic (either as a paid staffer or a volunteer, the article was not clear on that point) and ushers women past\u00a0pro-life sidewalk counselors. She is there to guard these women against pro-lifers\u2019 offers of help and support, offers of information on fetal development, warnings about abortion\u2019s risks, and appeals to their consciences. \u00a0She rushes the women past those who would help her carry her pregnancy to term, those who would offer her a chance to see her baby on an ultrasound machine,\u00a0and\u00a0those who would tell her the truth about abortion <a href=\"\/news\/abortion-clinic-counseling-rhetoric-vs-reality\/\" target=\"_blank\">she is unlikely to hear in the clinic.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>As a former Catholic who has severed all ties with the Church, it is not my place to decide\u00a0what Catholics should and should not believe.<\/p>\n<p>But I can\u2019t help but notice that Sister Quinn\u2019s interpretation of the story of Mary and Jesus (assuming she agrees with the Unitarians) is quite different from the stories I heard growing up. I hope that Live Action readers will forgive me, then, for pointing out that something seems rotten in the state of Denmark. The Catholic Church has always been a driving force in the pro-life movement. From the very beginning, Catholics were opposing the killing of unborn children. In fact, it was as a Catholic CCD student that I first heard that abortion was wrong.<\/p>\n<p>The concept of a pro-choice Mary who exercised the first abortion decision by agreeing to bear Christ is bizarre and disturbing. The Virgin Mary as a pro-choice icon? Most of my Catholic friends would disagree.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Did you know that the Virgin Mary, who is honored as the Blessed Mother in Catholic tradition, was the first pro-choice activist? No? Well, apparently she was the first person to embrace the ethic of \u201cChoice\u201d- according to Sister Donna Quinn, a pro-choice Catholic nun. In a 2009 article in the Chicago Tribune, entitled \u201cPro-choice [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":153,"featured_media":54069,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Virgin Mary: the first pro-choice supporter? - Live Action News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-virgin-mary-the-first-pro-choice-supporter\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Virgin Mary: the first pro-choice supporter? - Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Did you know that the Virgin Mary, who is honored as the Blessed Mother in Catholic tradition, was the first pro-choice activist? No? Well, apparently she was the first person to embrace the ethic of \u201cChoice\u201d- according to Sister Donna Quinn, a pro-choice Catholic nun. In a 2009 article in the Chicago Tribune, entitled \u201cPro-choice [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-virgin-mary-the-first-pro-choice-supporter\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-10-01T00:44:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-10-02T02:51:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/virgin-mary-wallpapers-1401.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"959\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"655\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sarah Terzo\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sarah Terzo\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-virgin-mary-the-first-pro-choice-supporter\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-virgin-mary-the-first-pro-choice-supporter\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sarah Terzo\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/2f32fb25f4ca350784baf5509b1b6eb2\"},\"headline\":\"The Virgin Mary: the first pro-choice supporter?\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-10-01T00:44:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-10-02T02:51:50+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-virgin-mary-the-first-pro-choice-supporter\/\"},\"wordCount\":490,\"commentCount\":61,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Analysis\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-virgin-mary-the-first-pro-choice-supporter\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-virgin-mary-the-first-pro-choice-supporter\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/the-virgin-mary-the-first-pro-choice-supporter\/\",\"name\":\"The Virgin Mary: the first pro-choice supporter? 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