{"id":2494,"date":"2022-09-15T05:00:23","date_gmt":"2022-09-15T05:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/crcc\/teresa-forcades-a-catholic-nun-who-complicates-the-abortion-conversation\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T10:45:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T17:45:20","slug":"teresa-forcades-a-catholic-nun-who-complicates-the-abortion-conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/crcc\/teresa-forcades-a-catholic-nun-who-complicates-the-abortion-conversation\/","title":{"rendered":"Teresa Forcades: A Catholic Nun who Complicates the Abortion Conversation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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Teresa Forcades: A Catholic Nun who Complicates the Abortion Conversation<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n By<\/span>Linda Freund<\/strong>\n \n September 15, 2022<\/span>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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This article was originally published by <\/em>The Independent<\/a>, with the support of CRCC\u2019s global project on\u00a0engaged spirituality<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s time to reimagine the debate around abortion<\/a>. We are trapped in the tyranny of a binary choice: one side sees baby murderers; the other, patriarchal dictators who want to control women\u2019s bodies. This diametrically opposed pro-life\/pro-choice discourse is a closed-loop. The result: a country that is dumbed down by polarisation.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a millennial raised in San Francisco, \u201cpro-choice\u201d and \u201creproductive rights\u201d might as well have been my lullabies. At 15, I darted over to my nearest Planned Parenthood health center to get birth control pills. I wasn\u2019t sexually active and I hadn\u2019t even had my first period, but I pocketed them with pride \u2013 a souvenir of personal choice.<\/p>\n

Throughout adulthood, the pro-choice\/pro-life binary gave me a comfortable foothold in the abortion debate<\/a> and a prefabricated enemy to address. That changed when I met Sister Teresa Forcades, a former medical doctor, theologian and Catholic nun who supports abortion rights.<\/p>\n

In our catchphrase country, complexity is like dirty dishwater \u2013 opaque and best avoided. But after the Supreme Court decision to strike down Roe v Wade<\/em><\/a>, it is precisely what we need. The majority of Americans refuse to think in such absolutes<\/a> when it comes to abortion. Most of us are more inclined to say \u201cit depends\u201d.<\/p>\n

We need a common framework broad enough for the heart of the abortion debate<\/a>: what does it mean to be a human with dignity?<\/p>\n

Based in Barcelona, Spain, Sister Forcades\u2019s vocal opposition to the church\u2019s stance on abortion has earned her the moniker Europe\u2019s most radical nun. Christian fundamentalist news sites have dubbed her \u201cThe Abortion Nun\u201d and \u201cThe Nun of the Devil\u201d. In 2009, the Vatican sent a letter demanding she withdraw her abortion views and be disciplined (yes, even nuns risk getting cancelled!). Instead, Forcades replied with a theological argument for reproductive rights so rigorously articulated that it silenced her Catholic cohort. Thirteen years later, the Vatican is yet to respond.<\/p>\n

But she won\u2019t be called pro-choice<\/a>. She says this binary limits the possibility that she can simultaneously believe in the sanctity of life and abortion rights.<\/p>\n

Her argument is also deceptively simple. The essence of the classic pro-life argument is that the mother who aborts a pregnancy is choosing to kill her child, and must be forced not to. But take another example: a father whose child needs a kidney transplant to survive.<\/p>\n

Hear Sister Forcades’ Case for Reproductive Rights<\/h4>\n