Catholic Doctrine and Abortion

Devout Roman Catholics, because of their faith, define abortion under any circumstances as a sin, primarily because all forms of abortion are equated with the taking of a human life. From the perspective of Catholics and other religious groups, abortion is no more than the murder of an unborn human being. Roe v. Wade and other legislation sanctioning legal abortion is both a legal and a moral failure to Catholics. Other than the explicit "Thou shalt not kill" Commandment, the Bible remains silent on the issue of abortion. However, in the Didashe, a book of rules that many consider to be the teachings of the Apostles, it is proclaimed, "you shall not kill by abortion the fruit of the womb and you shall not murder the infant already born" (Pope, 1974, p. 1). The opposition to abortion in any form at any time during pregnancy from conception onward derives from sacred Scripture and tradition, with regard to the "inviolability of innocent human life" (Pope, 1991, p. 1). Any form of abortion during any time of pregnancy is, therefore, viewed as sin and tantamount to murder. In defining the fetus as a person from conception forward, the Catechism of the Catholic Church (2270) is viewed as a total prohibition on abortion, "Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person-among which is the inviolable right of every innocent bei

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Church recognizes the difficult reasons some individuals may opt to have an abortion, from life or death issues for the mother to overwhelming burden posed by another child for the poor. However, these values are secondary in importance to the inviolable right to life of all human persons, which the Church considers an embryo from the point of conception. As Pope Paul VI (1974) says of such difficult considerations, "None of these reasons can ever objectively confer the right to dispose of another's life, even when that life is only beginning...Life is too fundamental a value to be weighed against even very serious disadvantages" (p. 4). From a moral perspective, Christians value the right to life for all humans from the point of conception where they see the abortion issue as more than a religious one. They view it as a fundamental human one with dire consequences for society if abortion is sanctioned in law. This is evident from Christian opposition to partial-birth abortions. When the Supreme Court ruled that states could not ban partial-birth abortions, Christians viewed this as not only a moral violation but also a profound social one. As Curtiss (2008) explains, "The deliberate killing of babies outside the

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