For Immediate Release
Harrisburg, PA
With the historic decision the Supreme Court of the United States, which is now clearly under the control of a sociopathic Christian fundamentalist religious cult, thirty-six million women and people assigned female at birth (AFAB) have been stripped of their constitutional freedoms that protect bodily autonomy, privacy and personal choice in healthcare and future.
The overturn of Roe v. Wade represents the willful destruction of a fifty-year precedent of settled law in the United States.
There is a word for when a living being has no choice over its reproductive life, we call such beings livestock, and that is what the six reprehensible and morally-bankrupt justices have chosen to treat 36 million Americans as this week.
And make no mistake. The agenda isn’t merely to attack reproductive rights, as their decision was swiftly followed with a decision that allowed concealed carry of dangerous weapons, and another decision allocating public funding to be used for private, religious schools. And this morning, the Religious Cult on the Supreme Court ruled that teachers and coaches are permitted to call for and offer prayer in public schools, moving us even closer to the Handmaid’s Tale.
Next on their agenda will surely be attacks on sexual expression, gender diversity, marriage equality and other civil rights.
It is on all of us to stand up and fight back because there IS something we can do right now.
Gaining political power is the only way to meet this challenge — and if the Supreme Court is going to leave it up to the states to decide who has control over a woman’s body, then we MUST elect people who stand for human rights, reproductive and bodily autonomy, sexual and gender diversity, and racial equality.
In the mean time, while there are organisations that are engaging lawsuits focused on due process, and other organisations, with problematic histories of anti-Semitism and other issues, who have taken up the fight based on their interpretation of the Free Exercise Clause, we recognise that there are tens of thousands of persons who do not wish to be associated with such groups for whatever reasons they have, who still require advocacy.
The Contemplative Order of Compassion has stood for reproductive freedom, bodily autonomy, sexual and gender diversity, and racial quality, as well as social justice in other areas for more than 40 years.
Presently, consistent with the Supreme Court’s ruling in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, we maintain that states that outlaw abortion but grant exceptions for instances of incest and rape should provide a religious exception allowing members of the Contemplative Order of Compassion to perform the Sacrament of Reclaiming the Sacred Womb abortion ritual. We will have to sue those states to affirm our civil rights, but the law is clearly on our side.
The Sacrament of Reclaiming the Sacred Womb abortion ritual is a sacramental ritual for women and those assigned female at birth (AFAB) to affirm bodily autonomy, self-worth, sovereignty and healing, through a sacred abortion ritual. By sanctifying the abortion process, affirming the individual’s sovereign and sacred rights to spiritual comfort, confidence and bodily autonomy when undergoing a safe, scientific procedure under the care of a qualified medical professional, this is one of the highest sacraments offered in our church.
Where there is no exception for rape and incest, the challenges we mount will be more significant. In the meantime, unfettered access to safe and effective abortion drugs, such as Mifepristone and Misoprostol for use under medical supervision is an important next step, and ought to be immediately provided for use in our sacramental rituals. If necessary, suits will be filed against the FDA for that access.
If you are as outraged as we are, then you can help us take that next step by affirming your membership in the Contemplative Order of Compassion – a non-sectarian, post-denominational, open, affirming and inclusive spiritual home for tens of thousands of people worldwide.
Membership is free, and you can become a member by signing up on our website – http://ContemplativeOrderOfCompassion.org
Our members come from diverse backgrounds, including Christian, Buddhist, Luciferian, Jewish, Muslim, Jain, Humanist, Wiccan, Esoteric, Heathen, Maori, and Indigenous American spiritual traditions. There is room at our table for all spiritual paths, except fundamentalism.
Learn more, and become a member today at: http://ContemplativeOrderOfCompassion.org
And if you would like to make a donation, click here.
It will take unprecedented political activism to restore what is rightfully ours: the ability to make our own decisions about our bodies.
I am in this fight. I hope you are in this fight, too. It will not be easy, but it is a fight we can and must win.
Let’s get to work,
Dr. Francis-Maria (Gianmichael) Salvato
Executive Director/Presiding Minister
The Contemplative Order of Compassion
