This hits so close to home for me, but not with the Catholic Church: with the Mormon cult I escaped and its "LDS Social Services."

The shame, guilt, social pressure, condemnation projected on out-of-wedlock pregnancy by such religions is pernicious. I have both a daughter and a son gave up their firstborn children for adoption due to those very judgments. And, of course, I was kept in the dark because of my apostasy and atheism. I would have welcomed those grandchildren into this world, as family, in a heartbeat. But because they were conceived and born in "sin"... I, a "heathen," will probably never know them.

Saddest of all: as it is, I barely know my grandkids who were conceived after wedlock either. Just too "dangerous" for my daughters to risk exposing their children to my heresy on a regular basis.