In 2015, Pope Francis put out a statement saying that all Catholic priests are now officially endowed with the power to forgive women on behalf of God and the church for having abortions. Though he is an Argentinian man, where abortion is illegal and punishable, he has officially given consent for women all over the world to be forgiven for their sins. Which should please me, except it doesn’t, because I suspect (not being able to confirm it with him) that, like my parents, what he actually means is that abortion under awful circumstances is okay, not when it is really a choice. Pope Francis was quoted in the BBC article on the matter as saying that many women have abortions because “they believe they have no other option”. In the same article, the journalist pulled up old comments from the Pope where he called abortion part of a “throw-away culture”: “Unfortunately, what is thrown away is not only food and dispensable objects, but often human beings themselves, who are discarded as unnecessary.”