> However, methinks that the European superstate would have a rather
> beneficial effect on modernizing some of the medieval restrictions on
> reproductive freedom in countries infested with Catholicism, such as Ireland
> or Poland.
Indeed, in Ireland some of the conservative opposition to further integration is based primarily on this assumption. So far, though, the advances in reproductive freedom have been made by Irish decision rather than European fiat. Although the Government insists it will always maintain a veto over the legalisation of abortion, realistically it's hard to see how there wouldn't eventually be SOME modernisation, and that would be a good thing. But it's still not enough to persuade me of the merits of a superstate.
BTW it ain't just a Catholic thing in Ireland. Abortion is illegal even in the part of the island which has a Protestant majority and is still ruled by Britain - because the Protestant churches have battled just as fiercely to keep Britain's liberal abortion laws from being extended to there.