Former Scientologists Report Being Pressured into Having Abortions by Church

The Church of Scientology is no stranger to controversy, but if even half of what the St. Petersburg Times reported yesterday is true, then the Church just may have outdone itself. According to Joe Childs and Thomas Tobin, former members of the Sea Org — the Church’s internal organizers and employees — claim they were pressured into having abortions. The video above includes some of their stories.

Members of the Sea Org, Scientology’s highest calling, were once permitted to children, but since 1996 they have been prohibited from having children although they are not required to remain celibate. The parents of any children that elect not to terminate the pregnancy are removed from the Sea Org. It is not difficult to see the challenges faced by women in the religion — torn apart by competing pressures from their faith, whatever views they have about abortion, and any desire they have to raise a family.

According to the women interviewed for the story,

“Colleagues and supervisors pressured them to abort their pregnancies and remain productive workers without the distraction of raising children. Terminating a pregnancy and staying on the job affirmed one’s commitment to the all-important work of saving the planet.”

Many of the defectors — including men whose wives had abortions — “were isolated, assigned manual labor and interrogated until they agreed to abortions.”

The church has denied all of the accusations, and spokesman for the church commented, “There is no church policy to convince anyone to have an abortion, and the church has never engaged in such activity,’‘ He explained further that any pressuring that might have occurred was the action of individuals and not condoned by the church or done under its directive.

It might seem odd for a religious group that takes no official position on abortion to pressure women into abortions because that could be seen as a tacit endorsement of abortion. Scientology takes other measures to appear neutral on abortion, namely excluding it from the health coverage it provides to members of the Sea Org.

I remain unconvinced that prohibiting coverage of abortion is neutral, and debates about national health care and government subsidies for abortion rang loudly in my head when I read this bit about the church. Members of the Sea Org depend on the church for their income, and it is a modest one. At least one of the women in the story reported not being able to afford the abortion she said she was coerced into having. To pay for the procedure, she had to borrow the money from a friend. Another woman said that she became pregnant only after the she didn’t receive her weekly allowance and could not afford her birth control. The church denies this charge, arguing that she received her allowance, although it could not produce the documents to support its claim. (One has to wonder if the IRS could find an opening here for investigation, using the church’s tax exempt status as reason to probe its finances if it cannot produce records of payment for its employees.)

To be sure, the St. Petersburg Times has made a habit out of exposing scandal within Scientology, and some have accused the Florida-based paper of having an axe to grind with the religion. Sunday’s reports seem to be thorough, but a better barometer of the women’s claims will be the upcoming court cases against the church that include some of the women interviewed for the story.

Andrew Bluebond is a staff writer for Campus Progress. He attends Claremont McKenna College.

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