>In the US it may be no more than an association but that is *not* the case everywhere else in the world. (over here most people think American Catholics are all "cafeteria Catholics" anyway...)
OK, are Italians cafeteria Catholics? Spaniards? I'm just saying you might want to look to other factors than Catholicism on abortion law and practice. Poland and Ireland, two of the only three European countries with little or no legal abortion, also have some history of national oppression, for example. (Portugal is the third).
The topic was religious affiliation and what it explains or doesn't explain about support for gay marriage. I just don't think it's that helpful to say "Baptists!" any more than you can helpfully explain abortion politics in Poland by saying "Catholics!"
>Just because a woman gets an abortion doesn't means she thinks abortion ought to be legal generally. Ask anyone who works in counselling or provision - lots of women rationalise their own decision while still insisting that OTHER women shouldn't be able to get abortions.
Sure, I've witnessed that (picketers who come in for abortions), but it's much more true when abortion is legal and people can have the luxury of their hypocrisy. But how is that the issue in Poland? The majority in Poland is pro-choice. Poland isn't a democracy on this issue. There's some confusion here about the power of the Church to keep unpopular laws in place vs. grassroots attitudes, but the topic was grassroots attitudes.
>My understanding from the Polish pro-choice movement is that they are not at all optimistic about the laws being relaxed any time soon, in fact the current government seems to want to make them even stricter.
If I'm remembering right, when the left was elected in 2003 (SLD) they had promised to liberalize the law but then didn't after they got in power. Kwasniewski was quoted as saying that the birth rate was too low anyway.
Jenny Brown