Religious Liberty and Abortion Policy: Casey as “Catch-22”

Like the hapless Yossarian and his fellow GI's in the closing days of World War II, women facing abortion regulations face a frustrating and often humiliating "Catch-22."1 The movie version of the novel made the phrase an unforgettable and telling part of the American vocabu lary. Joseph Heller movingly portrayed the trap of the permission/de nial syndrome—what is given with one order is taken away with another—in a way that every woman facing an abortion can under stand. Recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions regarding abortion have left women facing the classic dilemma captured so memorably by Hel ler's anti-heroes. The dilemma goes to the heart of First Amendment concerns regarding abortion and public policy. For years, two arguments about religious liberty have formed a sig nificant part of the abortion debate. The first—that public policy should not be based upon narrowly-construed sectarian perspectives— reflects the concern that First Amendment protections be safeguarded by policymakers. The second—that no group should seek to impose its own moral/theological beliefs upon others who hold differing beliefs regarded as equally personal and sacred—requests that religious com munities and/or leaders be faithful to the social contract of tolerance.