At the behest of the Catholic Church, outgoing Nicaraguan President, Enriqe Bolanos, widened the country’s abortion restrictions last month to encompass nearly all situations, including rape, incest, and instances where the pregnancy threatens a woman’s life. In a testament to his religious conversion, and nod to his one-time-nemesis, retired Archbishop Obando y Bravo, Daniel Ortega embraced that ban. Now every woman in Nicaragua must carry her pregnancy to term or face prison terms of up to six years. Abortion providers run the same risk. Ortega’s move casts further doubt on his return to a populist agenda.
Yet, restrictive abortion laws aren’t unique to Nicaragua. In El Salvador, Honduras, and Chile, abortion is illegal under any circumstance. In Venezuela, Argentina, Cayenne, Peru, Belize, and Costa Rica, abortion is illegal under most circumstances―including rape―with an exception for threats to the mother’s life or mental health. In Brazil, Boliva, Ecador, and Mexico, abortion is also illegal, and also includes rape. Only Guyana has no restrictions on abortion―a country with 11 million people on a continent of 370 million. Add Central America’s population of 144 million and you’ve got over half a billion people, 259 million of which are mandated to continue their pregnancies regardless of whether they want or can care for the child―nearly the same number of men, women, and children who live in the United States.
This is the elephant in the living room with regard to the immigration debate. Population in Latin America has increased by 292% over the last 50 years compared to 178% in the U.S. and Canada. With a combined Gross Domestic Product of less than $3 trillion (U.S. GDP was $12.3 trillion in 2005) the region can’t possibly absorb such exponential growth. That leaves many with only one option: the United States. And despite the tough rhetoric, no wall, fence, or vigilante group can prevent the inevitable migration. Nor can increased penalties dissuade the emigres. No employer sanctions, anti-loitering laws, English-only regulations, “get-tough” resolutions, or national I.D. cards―not even economic aid. Cries for “comprehensive reform” promise little but palliatives for what amounts to a flood of refugees. The populations in South and Central America are expanding at an unsustainable rate, and that expansion is inextricably tied to the doctrine and political intervention of the Catholic Church.
Yet despite its worldly ramifications (much less its carnal roots), the problem does have its spiritual facet. The exodus of cheap labor has been a God-send to the Bush Administration, whose perchant for overseas borrowing would have ushered recession were it not for the undocumented workers who fueled the ill-fated housing “conundrum.” And it’s been a God-send for Big Business, whose prayers for an ever-expanding labor pool have been answered. Profits have soared, fanned by the increase in customers, and wages have stalled, reflecting the glut in available labor. But the influx of Latinos has been a particular God-send to the Catholic Church in America. At a time when charges of pedophilia and predatory sex have disillusioned many U.S. Catholics―exacerbated by cover-ups and the seeming nonchalance of The Vatican―congregations have swelled dramatically. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops estimates that the population of U.S. Catholics is currently at 67 million (6% of the 1.1 billion Catholics worldwide.) But that number almost certainly fails to account for the millions of undocumented refugees inundating our borders. Indeed, Father John McCloskey, a widely-read critic of church policy, estimates that “the actual number of Catholics in the US may be many millions more, given the high level of illegal immigration of Hispanics from Latin America, the majority of whom are Mexican."
The American Catholic Church is well aware of those swelling numbers. And they’re aware of the potential political power these refugees represent. Through the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration and its Office of Migration and Refugee Services, the Church, through its bishops, carry out a three-pronged effort to advocate immigration policy, coordinate resettlement services for these refugees, and offer support for those “on the move.” In this way, the Catholic Church―which currently represents nearly 25% of the U.S population―hopes to increase its wealth and political power. The per capita income of South and Central American is far less than the United States. Refugees who make the trek can expect to be well compensated by comparison. It’s no strectch to assume that the Church benefits from any salary increases that affect such Catholic majorities.
With the Bush Administration, Big Business, Labor, and the Catholic Church all squarely behind a policy to rubber-stamp the inevitable, a solution to our immigration crisis seems beyond the reach of consensus politics. Yet without that solution, the “Balkanization” of our Southwest seems assured. At the very least, Congress should rebuke any effort to criminalize abortion and work to roll back erosions to Roe v. Wade. Immigrants, with or without documentation, should be willing to pledge allegiance to the laws and values of their adopted country, and that allegiance must take precedence over their allegiance to The Pope or any other foreign national. If not, our current immigration crisis may well tip the balance of power toward an all-out theocracy.
Andrea Hackett is an freelance journalist, founder of the Las Vegas Dancers Alliance in Nevada, and editor of the Populist Review. She may be contacted at andreahackett@cox.net
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