Pontifical Academy for Life: An Inevitable Drift?

Roberto Dell'Oro is Professor of Moral Theology and O'Malley Chair in Bioethics at Loyola Marymount University. He argues that the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision by the United States Supreme Court on June 24, 2022, violates standards of democratic freedom and respect for women's autonomy in a way that borders on “totalitarianism.”

In the potential conflict between a woman's claim to autonomy and a state's right to determine the future of her pregnancy, the Dobbs decision takes the side of the latter to the detriment of the former, rejecting any space for “personal freedom” for women, even in cases of rape or incest, Dell'Oro told a conference.

In a later interview with CNA, Dell'Oro emphasized that his remarks were about the legality of abortion, not its morality.

Mr. Dell'Oro's remarks drew sharp criticism from Teresa Collett, a law professor at the University of St. Thomas, who co-authored an amicus curiae brief on behalf of women scholars who called on the Supreme Court to overturn the Roe decision in the Dobbs case.

“The professor's position ignores that a democratic republic can only exist if it protects the most fundamental human rights, the most fundamental of which is the right to life,” Collett told CNA. In response to inquiries about his remarks, Mr. Dell'Oro described his position as a legal compromise.

Mr. Dell'Oro described the PAV under John Paul II, as “a space for engagement in the pro-life movement in a way very defined a priori by the limits of Catholic doctrine.” Under Francis, he added, it is more analogous to other pontifical academies, which accept leading scholars and researchers, regardless of their religious and moral views.

According to Mr. Dell’Oro, the Pontifical Academy for Life is “the academic space that responds to the concerns of the Church in the field of bioethics.” It puts the position of the Church into dialogue and the members of the academy must know the positions of secular thinkers and thinkers of other religions. – Is it really necessary that they be members to discuss?

“Yes, the academy has become a more pluralistic organism. But again, the pluralism of dialogue is not meant to undermine the position of the Church, but in fact it can potentially highlight the uniqueness of its position,” Dell’Oro said.

It must therefore be believed that the members of the PAV are not capable of reading texts bearing on a morality opposed to the doctrine of the Church, but that they need members who come to preach the “good word” to them within the Academy. Which is ultimately just a verbal pirouette. Moral pluralism is neither more nor less than the negation of the doctrine of the Church.

Professor Tlou was also appointed as a 2022 Fellow of the PAV. Originally from Botswana, she served as her country's Minister of Health between 2004 and 2008. She is the co-chair of the global Nursing Now campaign and the Global HIV Prevention Coalition.

Professor Tlou usually defends contraception, abortion and policies that link the fertility of the poor to their poverty. In a tweet, she expressed her support for unlimited access to contraception as an apparent solution to illegal abortion.

In 2019, Professor Tlou served on the World Health Organization's external review panel for the document titled Consolidated Guidelines on Self-Care Interventions for Health in Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights. Page 67 states that “to the fullest extent permitted by law, safe abortion services should be readily available and affordable to all women.”