Crusader Under Attack

The Pontiff's campaign against abortion spills into politics

Pope John Paul II has repeatedly exhorted Roman Catholic clergymen to hold themselves above the run of politics, and he himself, unlike some of his predecessors, has shown little interest in Italian affairs of state. But the Pontiffs pastoral responsibilities to speak out on an issue of deep moral concern to the church have plunged him, inevitably, into a heated political controversy over the most volatile social issue in Italy: whether or not women should have the legal right to have an abortion.

The uproar is over the future of Italy's controversial abortion law passed in 1978. The measure allows women over 18 to have an abortion at state expense in the first 90 days of pregnancy. Some 200,000 legal operations now take place annually in specially designated, state-run hospitals. But because of intense church opposition, many of the approved clinics do not perform the operations. Health officials estimate that as many as 600,000 of Italy's abortions are still done illegally. The grim cost: some 2,000 to 5,000 deaths per year.

No one seems pleased with the present law. Conservatives have put a referendum on the May 17 ballot that would allow abortions only for therapeutic reasons. In turn, liberals are backing a rival measure that would ease some of the restrictions in the current law and allow private clinics to perform the operations.

Ever since the plebiscite was scheduled last November, the Pontiff has repeatedly attacked abortion. On Easter, speaking to 250,000 people in St. Peter's Square, he emphasized his opposition to the practice. He spoke out again a week later during a visit to the Sotto il Monte birthplace of Pope John XXIII. Reaffirming a church statement calling for abortion laws "to be overcome with all legitimate means," he repeated his view that "procured abortion is the killing of an innocent creature. No one can have an attitude of pliant consent or passivity in the face of abortion."

The Pope's voluble remonstrances on the issue (though he has been careful not to refer to the referendums themselves) have incited a wave of criticism from pro-choice advocates. Bettino Craxi, head of the Italian Socialist Party, charges that John Paul is leading a "revival of intolerance, improper interference and excessive zeal on the part of the Roman Catholic Church over the abortion issue."

Papal zeal has also created acute embarrassment among the Catholic politicians in Italy's fragile ruling coalition, led by the Christian Democrats. They had encouraged a low key, nondivisive approach to the issue in the hope of diminishing the political fallout. But the Pope's supporters maintain that it would be unthinkable for John Paul not to speak his mind on abortion in a country that is 95% Roman Catholic. Asks Giulio Andreotti, a sympathetic Christian Democrat and former Prime Minister: "How can one ask the Pope to be silent when one of the most delicate points of moral theology is at stake?"

With the Pope speaking so effectively, Italy's pollsters are cautiously predicting that the referendum to tighten the abortion law will win. A recent survey, commissioned by the Milan weekly Panorama, indicated that 60% of Italian voters--and 63% of the women--would approve the restricting referendum.

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