TALKING POINTS/FACT SHEET

ABORTION

WHAT ARE CHURCH TEACHINGS REGARDING ABORTION?

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that: 

2258  "Human life is sacred because from its beginning it involves the creative action of God and it remains for ever in a special relationship with the Creator, who is its sole end. God alone is the Lord of life from its beginning until its end: no one can under any circumstance claim for himself the right directly to destroy an innocent human being." (Emphasis added.)

2270  "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 being to life.^"

2271  "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: (Emphasis added.)

 

You shall not kill the embryo by abortion and shall not cause the newborn to perish.

God, the Lord of life, has entrusted to men the noble mission of safeguarding life, and men must carry it out in a manner worthy of themselves. Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception: abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes."

THE PRINCIPLE OF DOUBLE EFFECT

So, then, what happens, for example, when a pregnant mother's life is threatened, and the only way to save her life would result in the death of the child in her womb?  -- The moral & ethical principle that is applied in this case is the "principle of double effect," which states that:

It is morally allowable to perform an action that has a bad effect only if ALL of the following conditions are met:

1. The action to be performed is good in itself, or indifferent (neither good nor bad);

2. The evil effect must not be directly intended for itself, but only permitted to happen as an accidental by-product of the good or indifferent act performed;

3. The evil effect must not be the means by which the good is obtained; AND

4. The reason for permitting the evil effect must be especially serious (grave) with no other alternative.¹

APPLICATION OF THE PRINCIPLE OF DOUBLE EFFECT TO ABORTION

1. The act of abortion, by it's very nature, is evil.  It may never be good or indifferent under any circumstances.  So, the action to be performed must not be a "direct" abortion - the killing and removal of the child.  However, there may be other medical procedures that are good in itself, or indifferent, like chemotherapy, removal of a cancerous uterus, or removal of part of a fallopian tube, that may result in the death of the unborn child.

2. In cases described above, the death of the child may occur as a result of the otherwise "good" or "indifferent" medical procedure, but it may not be the intended consequence of the medical procedure.  For example, if a pregnant woman has a cancerous uterus and the reason the uterus is removed is to save her life, but the baby dies as a result, condition #2 would be met.  Here, the abortion would be an "indirect" abortion.  However, a doctor could not remove the uterus if his intention is to kill the child rather than heal the mother.

3. In the case of abortion, this ties #1 & #2 together.  You may not simply perform an abortion to save the mother.  In other words, the abortion can not be a factor in accomplishing the healing of the mother.

4. Preserving the life of the mother is an especially serious, or grave, reason for allowing the death of the child to occur.  However, if there is any other medical treatment that could save the life of the mother without undo harm or death to the child, it MUST be undertaken instead.

IMPERFECT LEGISLATION

          In our country, where abortion is legal with very few limitations, we sometimes have to work in smaller steps to ultimately outlaw abortions, a concept which is sometimes referred to as incrementalism. This has special application to the current political situation in our State, given that an almost perfect ban on abortions was passed by the legislature last year, but was unfortunately defeated at the polls.

          Pope John Paul the Great explained how we can morally support imperfect legislation in his 1995 encyclical Evangelium vitae ("The Gospel of Life"):

In the case of an intrinsically unjust law, such as a law permitting abortion or euthanasia, it is therefore never licit to obey it, or to "take part in a propaganda campaign in favour of such a law, or vote for it".²

A particular problem of conscience can arise in cases where a legislative vote would be decisive for the passage of a more restrictive law, aimed at limiting the number of authorized abortions, in place of a more permissive law already passed or ready to be voted on. Such cases are not infrequent. It is a fact that while in some parts of the world there continue to be campaigns to introduce laws favouring abortion, often supported by powerful international organizations, in other nations-particularly those which have already experienced the bitter fruits of such permissive legislation-there are growing signs of a rethinking in this matter. In a case like the one just mentioned, when it is not possible to overturn or completely abrogate a pro-abortion law, an elected official, whose absolute personal opposition to procured abortion was well known, could licitly support proposals aimed at limiting the harm done by such a law and at lessening its negative consequences at the level of general opinion and public morality. This does not in fact represent an illicit cooperation with an unjust law, but rather a legitimate and proper attempt to limit its evil aspects.  (n. 73.)

1.  Irving, Dianne N., "Abortion:  Correct Application of Natural Law Theory"

2.  Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration on Procured Abortion (18 November 1974), No. 22: AAS 66 (1974), 744.