text: Women were not " denied absolution for having an abortion".
  
  The discipline was that under normal circumstances a priest needed to communicate with the bishop and receive permission to absolve or to arrange to have the bishop himself absolve. This has nothing to do with being "anti-woman" since it also applies to male abortionists, procurers of abortion, and so on.
  
  Any priest could absolve under conditions such as danger of death and other serious circumstances.
  
  What it does have to do with is making sure that the penitent, and the Church, recognize that the murder of an innocent in imitation of Herod is a crime which cries to Heaven for justice and not something that merits "Sheesh".