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Before this non-Catholic Pope, there was an automatic excommunication attached to abortion, and to any act helping produce it. Only the Pope was able to release the excommunication.

(The article wrongly says that only the Pope was able to forgive abortion. There are no reserved sins. An excommunication must be lifted before absolution can be given in confession. Some excommunications could be lifted only by the Pope.)

I have to conclude that the excommunication can now be lifted through a simple confession to a priest. If that’s the case, then for all practical purposes there is no excommunication.

This is the Pope’s answer to the recent revelations about planned parenthood. Tell the mothers that it’s all right, that they can just go to confession and it’ll be all better.

Before this non-Catholic Pope, there was an automatic excommunication attached to abortion, and to any act helping produce it. Only the Pope was able to release the excommunication.

That's not correct; a direct, willed, procured abortion certainly incurs a latae sententiae (i.e. happens by virtue of the act itself--not needing any bishop to pronounce it formally) excommunication for all who participated directly in that act... but it was never reserved to the Holy See, even in the old code of canon law.

I have to conclude that the excommunication can now be lifted through a simple confession to a priest. If that’s the case, then for all practical purposes there is no excommunication.

No... the lifting of an excommunication is ordinarily reserved to the local ordinary (i.e. bishop), though the ordinary has always had the freedom to delegate that authority to his priests (as has been the case in our diocese for many years). The initiative by Pope Francis (and don't get me started on my reservations about his actions and inactions--in short, I wish him safety, health, and a quick retirement/abdication) grants the faculty to lift the "abortion excommunication" to specific "missionaries of mercy" (i.e. priests who've had the power delegated to them by the Pope); it's the case of the "delegating bishop", writ large.

This is the Pope’s answer to the recent revelations about planned parenthood. Tell the mothers that it’s all right, that they can just go to confession and it’ll be all better.

Technically, the Pope isn't doing anything wrong, nor is he doing anything particularly novel (see above), save for the fact that the secular press is trumpeting the move, far and wide. I agree that the press reports, coupled with the Holy Father's... er... inept expressions and omissions (he certainly hasn't shown unabashed support for the anti-abortion movement), muddy the waters re: the abortion-minded. I'm not sure what to do about that, other than pray... hard!