Joe's latest ploy is to try to show that I see things only in black and white and that I over-dramatise. Ha! So let's go back to this for a minute:

"Yes, Steve, I know all those things about the Catholic Church's penalties for abortion - pain of mortal sin, excommunication, being subjected to the scorn of angry hordes of women who wear too much makeup. And I have always told the truth about those penalties. The bishops take abortion seriously - too seriously, to my mind. And yet, Catholic women get abortions at almost exactly the same rate as other women (usually more). That means that for the people it makes a difference for, the official Catholic prohibition is seen for the foolishness that it is.

You can get all dramatic about it and say how terrible it is; but in the end, the Catholic prohibition of abortion is only words, only an opinion."

Ignoring the unworthy and sexist jibe therein, no you haven't told the truth. The actual truth is that, according to your club's explicit rules, with very rare exceptions any woman who has an abortion is no longer a Catholic. No-one needs to put her before judge 'n' jury, she's automatically done it to herself. What sort of a club is is that lets these non-Catholics carry on as if they're still members! A desperate one, I should think...

The Catholic Church has always has a very unhealthy obsession with sex. The great thing about sex is that everyone wants to do it, so this is highly-fertile ground for dissecting it and introducing a plethora of controlling rules which cover every single aspect of it, from what goes on in the privacy of your thoughts, to what you do all by yourself, to everything you can do with a partner. The restrictions are so severe (have a google - try "Catholic attitudes to homosexuality/anal sex/masturbation/contraception/oral sex/withdrawal method/sex before marriage/anything else you like) that they amount to a manifesto for ignorance instead of education - you can't explain to young people what they really need to know because there are moralising interpolations at every turn. Crucially, the means of avoiding unwanted pregnancy (knowing exactly what you're doing and the use of contraception) are denied. Joe Offer crows about the fact that Catholic women have just as many abortions as anyone else. Well I think that's a bloody disgrace. I think he should hang his head in shame that his church's propagation of ignorance and anti-contraception teaching are the precise reasons why Catholic women need abortions in the first place. By the way, I wonder how many of those Catholic women who have abortions are really Catholics, you know, of the bums on Sunday pews variety...stats, Joe?