Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, explains how right wing religious groups attempt to grant precedence to the interests of institutions over the consciences of individuals, and why this dangerous for everyone.

Rabbi Dennis S. Ross, director of Concerned Clergy for Choice, shares stories from New York state about the ongoing work by religious and non-religious leaders towards achieving real religious liberty. He believes this means, above all else, that a woman will be protected when making personal decisions about planning a family.

How do ultraconservative religious groups work to impose their extreme views on everyone? Sara Hutchinson, domestic program director at Catholics for Choice, highlights the recent lawsuits opposing contraception coverage from faith-based universities and for-profit companies to demonstrate how religious extremists, particularly in the Catholic Church, can affect federal law.

Marieme Helie Lucas, an internationally-based panelist from Women Living under Muslim Laws and Secularism Is a Women’s Issue, discusses the influence of Muslim extremists on laws and policies throughout the world and how discrepancies in definitions of secularism can have real consequences for human rights everywhere—and why people in the United States need only look at international examples to see what happens when religious extremism controls public policy.

En este podcast, Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir (CDD) – El Salvador muestra como después de la penalización del aborto en el país en 1998, toda mujer se convierte virtualmente en sospechosa de un crimen que tal vez, ella misma no ha cometido! Los casos de Karina y Marlene nos hacen ver la complejidad de la situación de toda mujer embarazada que puede enfrentarse a un aborto espontáneo y necesariamente involuntario y a condenas entre 8 y 30 años de cárcel!

Abortion in El Salvador = Aggravated Homicide?

In this podcast, Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir El Salvador reveals how, after abortion was criminalized in the country in 1998, women who suffer from a miscarriage can be prosecuted on suspicion of having an abortion and be sent to prison.

En este podcast, Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir (CDD) – Nicaragua comparte con nosotros/nosotras tanto el proceso de penalización del aborto en ese país como la influencia de la jerarquía católica sobre el mismo. Mostrando así que como resultado de tal criminalización, mujeres como Amelia, ven su vida amenazada por falta de un tratamiento de quimioterapia y la imposibilidad de una interrupción voluntaria de su embarazo para sobrevivir al cáncer y hacerse cargo de su niña de 10 años!

Nicaragua 2010: Access to Reproductive Health and the Criminalization of Abortion

In this podcast, we use information from our colleagues in Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir Nicaragua to explain how abortion is criminalized in their country, as well as examining the influence of the Catholic hierarchy. As an example of what is happening as a result of the criminalization of abortion, we provide information about the case “Amalia,” whose life is threatened because medical practitioners refuse to administer chemotherapy as she is pregnant.

This is the fourth and final podcast in a series of four podcasts from a telephone conference call launching a new Catholics for Choice publication.  Truth and Consequence—A Look behind the Vatican's Ban on Contraception reflects on 40 years of Humanae Vitae, the Vatican document that cemented the ban on contraception.

This week's speaker is Mary Hunt, feminist theologian and co-director of Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual.

This is the third in a series of four podcasts of a

Today, we feature noted feminist theologian Rosemary Radford Ruether, a professor at the Graduate Theological Union at the Pacific School of Religion.

On the eve of the pope's visit to the United States, Catholics for Choice organized a telephone conference call with four noted Catholic theologians to launch a new publication examining the impact of 40 years of Humanae Vitae, the Vatican document that cemented the ban on contraception. Truth and Consequence—A look behind the Vatican's ban on contraception reflects on a defining moment in modern church history.

Over the next few weeks, we will be posting podcasts of the four theologians’ contributions. We start with Anthony Padovano, a distinguished professor and author of twenty-eight books.