--- Yoshie Furuhashi <critical.montages at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Liberalization of abortion laws is also historically
> recent in Western
> Europe: "In West Europe, almost all decisive reforms
> were effectively
> carried out between 1970 and 1990" (Irene M.
> Tazi-Preve and Juliane
> Rolof, "Abortion in West and East Europe: Problems
> of Access and
> Services," 25-30 November 2002,
>
<http://www.cicred.org/Eng/Seminars/Details/Seminars/Bangkok2002/32BangkokTazi&Rolof.pdf>).
> That's not very different from the very religious
> USA, which
> legalized abortion in 1973, and some countries in
> Western Europe
> legalized abortion much later than in the USA.
> E.g., the Swiss didn't
> legalize abortion until 2002 (see
>
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/2021121.stm>),
> even though
> the Swiss church attendance rate is in the same
> league as France,
> which legalized it in 1975:
> <http://www.religioustolerance.org/rel_rate.htm>.
> --
[WS:] So what is your argument, that there is no connection between strength of organized religion and liberalization of abortion laws?
Or could it be that in the 1960s and 1975s progressive forces were in their zenith and suceeded in passing progressive legislation despite religious and right wing trolls - or perhaps because religious and right wing trolls were in disarray?
I would not argue that organized religion alone has much political power, except perhaps in a few islamic theocracies. Organized religion usually wields power when it forges a triumvirate with the reactionary elements in business and government. Organized religion needs reactionary elements in business and government preciseley for that reason - to gain political power. Reactionary elements in business and government, in turn, need organized religion because of its legitimation and popular mobilization capacity.
With that in mind, I do not think that reactionary elements in business and government care about abortion one way or the other, but organized religion does. So in the quid pro quo arrangement - the reactionary elements in business and government crack down on abortion rights and otther rights that organized religion finds objectionable in exchange of organized religion giving legitimacy to- and mobilizing for the reactionary elements.
In sum, it is not just organized religion alone, but its allinace with reactionary political forces that make a difference.
Wojtek
__________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com