Who Decides? The Future of Abortion Care in the United States

By Jon O’Brien

The 1973 Roe v. Wade decision was ahead of its time with its affirmation that women can legally choose to have an abortion, but it was also a product of its time. In 1973, the United States was riding the wave of optimism known as the social justice movement, which was in the ascendancy during the 1960s as it sought to right the many wrongs American society had accepted until then. People were speaking out against war, convinced that we as a society could do better for one another. The Civil Rights movement affirmed the common humanity of all Americans with its call for racial equality and justice. Likewise, women were asserting the right to define themselves, their strengths, their voices and desires. Age-old restrictions were giving way: contraception, only recently legal, was finally made available to unmarried women in 1972.

Profane Protest on Sacred Domain: Encountering the Contradictions in Religion and Activism

By Tricia C. Bruce

When wire-cutting and banner-wielding peace activists broke into the Y-12 nuclear plant grounds during the predawn hours of July 2012, the severity of their unprecedented security breach was offset only by its sympathetic protest leader:  82-year-old Roman Catholic nun, Sister Megan Rice.

The image of a plant-protesting, pacifist nun is perhaps no less curious than the crowd of sisters participating in a nine-state “Nuns on the Bus” campaign preceding the 2012 election, or “protest chaplains” staffing prayer tents in the “Occupy” movement, or the financial firepower of the all-Catholic and exclusively male “Knights of Columbus” mobilizing for the preservation of traditional marriage.

Religious people are activists, too.