Public Policy Analysis

Posted: August 26th, 2021

WK 10 Discussion Public Policy Analysis

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WK 10 Discussion Public Policy Analysis

            Reproductive rights have their basis on the recognition of the fundamental right that all individuals and couples can freely decide the number, spacing, and timing of their children and to have the information and means of doing so alongside the right to attain the highest possible standard of reproductive and sexual health. Varied opinions have been put forth by several external stakeholders on reproductive rights in many countries around the world. From my sampling of these opinions in the Virtual Community, the views presented by Father Breyer of the Saint Michael’s Catholic Church on abortion stood out as quite interesting, and thus, form the focal point of this paper.

            Among other things, the reproductive rights policy guarantees American citizens access to abortion and birth control. As such, it is okay to conduct abortion in the US in an instance when a pregnancy is life threatening to the mother (Sen, 2014). For example, if the mother is bearing an ectopic pregnancy. However, the catholic catechism argues that right from conception, human life should be recognized and thus the fetus should be fully respected as having rights similar to grown up people. Hence, abortion is highly prohibited by the catholic church as one of the external stakeholders in the reproductive rights discussion. Similar sentiments are shared by most religious groups. Clearly, these groups disagree with the pro-choice policies.

            Basing on the views shared by Father Breyer, it is apparent that the anti-pro-choice stance of the catholic church on reproductive rights is deeply rooted in the church’s catechism. World over, the catholic population is estimated to be 1.2 billion (Sen, 2014). Instinctively, it is nearly impossible to change the views of such a large population. It is upon this background that the various alternative policy stances to the one taken by the catholic community need to be considered and incorporated into its catechism. The main alternative policy would be encouraging sex education to facilitate the provision of medically accurate information on reproductive health to enable Roman Catholics to make more responsible and scientifically informed decisions. Overall, there exists scientifically proven situations in which abortion ought to be embraced. And thus, with proper sex education, the Saint Michael Catholic Church could change its views on abortion to help save pregnant women’s lives when endangered.

References

Sen, G. (2014). Sexual and reproductive health and rights in the post-2015 development agenda. Global public health, 9(6), 599-606.