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FACT
SHEET
ON
ABORTION
Pro-Life Activities Committee
The USCCB
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United States Conference of Catholic Bishops,
September, 2008.
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Fact sheet by the USCCB
Committee on Pro-Life Activities..
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The
Catechism of the Catholic Church states: “Since the first century the Church has
affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not
changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion
willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law” (No.
2271).
In response to those who say this
teaching has changed or is of recent origin, here are the facts:
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From earliest times, Christians sharply
distinguished themselves from surrounding pagan cultures by rejecting
abortion and infanticide. The earliest widely used documents of Christian
teaching and practice after the New Testament in the 1st and 2nd centuries,
the Didache (Teaching of the Twelve Apostles) and Letter of
Barnabas, condemned both practices, as did early regional and particular
Church councils.
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To be sure, knowledge of human embryology was
very limited until recent times. Many Christian thinkers accepted the
biological theories of their time, based on the writings of Aristotle (4th
century BC) and other philosophers. Aristotle assumed a process was needed
over time to turn the matter from a woman’s womb into a being that could
receive a specifically human form or soul. The active formative power for
this process was thought to come entirely from the man – the existence of
the human ovum (egg), like so much of basic biology, was unknown.
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However, such mistaken biological theories
never changed the Church’s common conviction that abortion is gravely wrong
at every stage. At the very least, early abortion was seen as attacking a
being with a human destiny, being prepared by God to receive an immortal
soul (cf. Jeremiah 1:5: “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you”).
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In the 5th century AD this rejection of
abortion at every stage was affirmed by the great bishop-theologian St.
Augustine. He knew of theories about the human soul not being present until
some weeks into pregnancy. Because he used the Greek Septuagint translation
of the Old Testament, he also thought the ancient Israelites had imposed a
more severe penalty for accidentally causing a miscarriage if the fetus was
“fully formed” (Exodus 21: 22-23), language not found in any known Hebrew
version of this passage. But he also held that human knowledge of biology
was very limited, and he wisely warned against misusing such theories to
risk committing homicide. He added that God has the power to make up all
human deficiencies or lack of development in the Resurrection, so we cannot
assume that the earliest aborted children will be excluded from enjoying
eternal life with God.
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In the 13th century, St. Thomas Aquinas made
extensive use of Aristotle’s thought, including his theory that the rational
human soul is not present in the first few weeks of pregnancy. But he also
rejected abortion as gravely wrong at every stage, observing that it is a
sin “against nature” to reject God’s gift of a new life.
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During these centuries, theories derived from
Aristotle and others influenced the grading of penalties for abortion in
Church law. Some canonical penalties were more severe for a direct
abortion after the stage when the human soul was thought to be present.
However, abortion at all stages continued to be seen as a grave moral evil.
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From the 13th to 19th centuries, some
theologians speculated about rare and difficult cases where they thought an
abortion before “formation” or “ensoulment” might be morally justified. But
these theories were discussed and then always rejected, as the Church
refined and reaffirmed its understanding of abortion as an intrinsically
evil act that can never be morally right.
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In 1827, with the discovery of the human
ovum, the mistaken biology of Aristotle was discredited. Scientists
increasingly understood that the union of sperm and egg at conception
produces a new living being that is distinct from both mother and father.
Modern genetics demonstrated that this individual is, at the outset,
distinctively human, with the inherent and active potential to mature into a
human fetus, infant, child and adult. From 1869 onward the obsolete
distinction between the “ensouled” and “unensouled” fetus was permanently
removed from canon law on abortion.
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Secular laws against abortion were being
reformed at the same time and in the same way, based on secular medical
experts’ realization that “no other doctrine appears to be consonant with
reason or physiology but that which admits the embryo to possess vitality
from the very moment of conception” (American Medical Association, Report
on Criminal Abortion, 1871).
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Thus modern science has not changed the
Church’s constant teaching against abortion, but has underscored how
important and reasonable it is, by confirming that the life of each
individual of the human species begins with the earliest embryo.
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Given the scientific fact that a human
life begins at conception, the only moral norm needed to understand the
Church’s opposition to abortion is the principle that each and every
human life has inherent dignity, and thus must be treated with the respect
due to a human person. This is the foundation for the Church’s social
doctrine, including its teachings on war, the use of capital punishment,
euthanasia, health care, poverty and immigration. Conversely, to claim that
some live human beings do not deserve respect or should not be
treated as “persons” (based on changeable factors such as age, condition,
location, or lack of mental or physical abilities) is to deny the very idea
of inherent human rights. Such a claim undermines respect for the
lives of many vulnerable people before and after birth.
For more information:
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration on Procured Abortion
(1974), nos. 6-7; John R. Connery, S.J., Abortion: The Development of the
Roman Catholic Perspective (1977); Germain Grisez, Abortion: The Myths,
the Realities, and the Arguments (1970), Chapter IV; U.S. Conference of
Catholic Bishops, On Embryonic Stem Cell Research (2008); Pope John Paul
II, Evangelium Vitae (1995), nos. 61-2.
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