Comments misstate Catholic teaching

Response to Kathy Ryg's letter, "Laws should protect a private choice"

I was not surprised at the timing or content of her letter. The Reproductive Health Act (SB25), a radical abortion rights bill, was being voted on in the legislature.

Kathy Ryg is free to and has consistently voted to support abortion rights, but she is not free to define those rights as Catholic teaching. The Catholic Church has 2,000 years of moral teaching on the sanctity of all human life and the moral obligation of every Catholic to defend it.

The Catholic Church clearly teaches that all life is sacred from conception until natural death. One cannot use a conscience argument on abortion because an individual's conscience must be formed according to the teachings of the Catholic Church.

Abortion is not health care. Abortion is the direct killing of a human for societal or personal reasons. If one is a Catholic, one cannot use the argument of religious pluralism or the separation of church and state. In fact, one cannot use linguistic gymnastics to justify abortion.

Also, one cannot say they are using the teachings of the Catholic Church unless they are the teachings of the Church. The infallible teachings of the Catholic Church on the sanctity of human life and the obligation to defend it cannot be deliberately misinterpreted.

Legislation is supposed to reflect the moral conscience of a nation. It is supposed to protect the most vulnerable. In the case of abortion, that would be the unborn.

Ms. Ryg is an abortion rights proponent, however she is not free to use Catholic teaching to justify abortion.

Bonnie Quirke

Libertyville