Woman at Center of Latest Quinn-George Spat Speaks Out

By Chuck Sudo in News on Nov 7, 2011 2:30PM

Cardinal Francis George said yesterday he regretted that Jennie Goodman, a rape victim-turned-victims rights advocate, became caught in the middle of a disagreement between him and Gov. Pat Quinn over Quinn's presenting an award to Goodman on Nov. 17 at an event sponsored by a abortion rights political action committee that donated nearly $500,000 in campaign contributions and in-kind services to Quinn's 2010 gubernatorial campaign.

A Wednesday letter signed by George and Illinois' five Catholic bishops condemned Quinn for aligning himself with a group that supports "the legal right to kill children in their mothers' wombs to rewarding those deemed most successful in this terrible work." [Read the statement here. (PDF)]

The Sun-Times published an interview with Goodman Sunday in which she says she never directed a rape victim to an abortion clinic and criticized George and the bishops for jumping to conclusions.

“It upsets me when they kind of make me feel like I’m a baby killer,” Goodman told the Chicago Sun-Times.

“It does hurt. And it hurts for all those people who have been raped. Yeah, it definitely hit home and hurt me. You don’t know me,” she said, referring to the cardinal. “You don’t know my situation.”

George expressed remorse yesterday at Holy Name Cathedral and said "a rape victim demands all the respect and sympathy that anybody can give."

"I first heard of Ms. Goodman only after we had crafted the statement (and) published it. Then, all of a sudden she comes forward. All of a sudden, she was there, and that wasn't part of the story as we did it," George said.

Quinn has maintained his presenting the award to Goodman next week is "a proper, Christian thing to do to honor someone who’s doing someone that helps the community at large."