Self-proclaimed Catholic President Joe Biden honored longtime feminist and pro-abortion activist Eleanor Smeal by awarding her with the Presidential Citizens Medal.
The medal is given to U.S. citizens who “have performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens,” according to a White House announcement on January 2. The award comes after Biden — the nation’s second Catholic president — awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to former Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards, who reportedly oversaw nearly 4 million abortions while leading the organization for 12 years, between 2006 and 2018.
Smeal is president of the Feminist Majority Foundation and former president of the National Organization for Women (NOW), Catholic News Agency (CNA) reported. She was one of 20 Presidential Citizens Medal recipients on Thursday.
According to the Feminist Majority Foundation, Smeal led the first national abortion rights march in Washington, DC, in 1986, which included more than 100,000 protesters. She has also campaigned for the Equal Rights Amendment and is a critic of laws that protect unborn babies from abortion.
“Smeal, who was raised Catholic, has also been critical of the Vatican and the Catholic Church for its teachings about the sanctity of life, its opposition to birth control, and its teachings about human sexuality,” according to the report.
Smeal was arrested in 1987 during a protest at the Vatican’s embassy, the Apostolic Nunciature of the Holy See, the Washington Post reported. Speakers at the protest spoke against the Church’s teachings on abortion, birth control, and homosexuality.
“Because of my sex, I am second-class forever in my church,” Smeal said at the time. “Because of my sex, I could have been condemned to death at an early age [if I did not disobey the Church ban on birth control].”
