"God help me in the fight for the decriminalization of the …

"I was desperate, I wanted to do it now and it's over." After the depression seized me as a strange thing, then I said, with time, no, it's is everything, it was already decided, period, "says Sabrina. He is a believer. She is 45 years old and was one of the people interviewed in a qualitative study on Catholic women who abort. The study aimed to understand their mode of transit and to negotiate this experience of voluntary termination of a pregnancy with their religious identity. One of the interviewees expressed gratitude to God because the abortion was complete and uncomplicated for health. Another woman who, at the decision of her mother, aborted as a teenager, "offered this son to God" and, in difficult times, she had the feeling that she was taking care of her. 39; it. Another woman, who refers to her activism in the national campaign for the legalization of abortion, points out that she understands that God is supporting her in this struggle.

The interviews were conducted with women of different ages and different social sectors, with different educational trajectories. In total, ten in-depth interviews were conducted. The majority, between 2015 and 2016, at a time when nothing indicated that the debate in Congress on the decriminalization and legalization of abortion is open. "The goal was to understand the meanings that women give to the decision to abort, as part of their religious practices," said Maria Cecilia Johnson, a doctor of gender studies, a member of the United States. team that conducted the exploratory study. The work was carried out with the support of Catholics for the right of decision, under the direction of Juan Marco Vaggione Conicet, researcher and professor at the National University of Córdoba, and María Teresa Bossio, of the Faculty of Legal Sciences also at the UNC. And he continues to expand the badysis to women's experiences of other spiritualities.

The findings of the first part of the study were published in the article "Religious Dissent and Freedom of Conscience: Catholics Who Decide to Abort" in the "Towards a Good Feminist Life" issue, in 2018, in the Journal of Social and Human Sciences of the Institute of Socio-Economic Research.

"The image of a God who protects and accompanies is the one that appears most relevant and facing different situations: for some, with the certainty that by aborting, they have never felt judged and condemned by God, but this image appears as a form of quarrels during difficult times, "revealed to PáginaI12 Johnson.

-What common points did you find in the testimonials? Asked PageI12.

Although the starting point is that they are self-identified women as Catholics who have experienced one or more abortion experiences, there are different ways to relate to the religious norm. Some, at the time of the abortion, were very aware of what the Church said; on the other hand, for others, belonging to more impoverished social sectors, in which abortion was a contraceptive practice in situations of loneliness and couples who abandoned them or who put pressure on them, this experience to undergo clandestine abortions in very precarious clinics, Positioned against legalization. In interviews, this position was a minority. But it is not by chance that those who have lived through clandestine experiences, of great poverty, are those who, today, having approached Catholicism as being greater, keep in mind what the Church dictates. what Pope Francis says.

-How do believers negotiate with religious mandates at the time of the abortion?

-We saw two cases. On the one hand, the morality of the situation. This is a common point between all. Abortion is a moral decision but involves a certain pragmatism: as autonomous subjects, they appreciate the fact of doing it, under which conditions they decide not to pursue this pregnancy, their economic context, their life. Some of those surveyed said that she had just had her baby and that she was very tied to her recent maternity and that she had become pregnant again. This situation is very different from that of another woman who reported having suffered violence and that if she continued her pregnancy, she would have to continue her violent relationships. It's about evaluating your needs and your possibilities at some point in your life. It is a moral decision, which implies the consciousness of women, as the Catholic doctrine emphasizes, but on the contrary we note a moment after this decision, where the trajectories and the link with religiosity are played, which we mark as a moment . different temporary, when it is recognized that in certain circumstances of their life there was a transgression to the norm of this religious institution, to which they identify or belong.

-How do you deal with this transgression?

-We observe different ways of negotiating or living it. Some people in positions more critical of the Catholic Church, with trajectories defined by the public university, may identify critical glances at the institution and at the same time not stop believing in God or feeling Catholic, incorporating the language of rights, knowing other experiences of abortion. Others said that at the time of the abortion, they did not know that the church was condemning the abortion. Others said that it was a moment of moral weakness, that they repented and knew that God had forgiven them. Some have made other resignations: one of the respondents participated in their province to the Catholic organization for the right to decide, which already testifies to a process of militancy in the campaign for the legalization of abortion. "My God accompanies me, I know that he is by my side in this fight, he does not want children to come into the world to suffer, to be hungry," he said. Others had to deal with what happened later with guilt. Some commented that this feeling came later and one of them, as a researcher, could not help to interpret and contextualize the fact that many of those who felt guilty were those who had been heavily stigmatized and clandestine. Aborting in illegal places reprints you and reinforces the feeling that you are doing something wrong. Some might be blamed and some would not.

– The announcement made in 2016 by Pope Francis to grant to all priests the power to "absolve" henceforth "those who" have sought the sin of abortion "has-it- did it have an impact on the feelings?

– This announcement was recent in the interviews. We badyze how the Pope's statements are so ambiguous that they can be interpreted in a polysemic way. One of the respondents, more politicized regarding the right to abortion, said that the church had nothing to forgive, that she had no moral authority to forgive. Others said they were relieved by Francisco's forgiveness. One of those interviewed objected to the legalization of abortion. She told me that the church had nothing to forgive. Anyway, the one who forgives is God. For many, the forgiveness that counts is that of God; many did not even admit to abortion and did not discuss the issue with any members of the Catholic Church, but they felt forgiven by God.

-What do you look at the legal status of the embryo, one of the highlights of the discourse of the conservative sectors of the Catholic and Evangelical Church?

-For some it involved at one point in putting into discussion the precept of the Church that there is a life from conception. Some, the oldest, did not know the condemnation of the Catholic Church when they aborted very young. And they said that they had learned in the documentary The Silent Scream, that they had seen it after an abortion. That is, the idea that the embryo was a person was not a conception that they had brought before. This is because the Catholic Church over the last 20 or 30 years has reinforced this idea. Far from being deconstructed, these older women had built an idea of ​​the embryo as a person. Many, in any case, did not share it.

– And the idea of ​​God's punishment appears in your beliefs?

-Just in this process, some felt that God was going to punish them. And that feeling that God had forgiven them was the only relief for guilt. But of the others no, they had undergone a process of reformulation of the image of God, that God did not judge them, that he supported them. One of them even stated that she felt that God had accompanied her in the abortion. If we think about what happens when a person undergoes some type of medical intervention, it means that God is hiding it underground.