Pope Francis says abortion is like ‘hiring a hitman’
The pope has in the past been seen to take a gentler view toward women who have had abortions.
POOL/AFP/Vincenzo PINTO
Pope Francis has, on the weekend, stressed the Catholic Church’s position on abortion saying that it is the same as hiring a hitman, even if the foetus is sick or has pathological disorders. Additionally, he stressed that doctors should help women bring their pregnancy to term even if it was likely to end in the death of a child at birth or soon after.
“Is it legitimate to take out a human life to solve a problem?” Pope Francis asked attendees at a Vatican conference on the issue on Saturday, May 25. “Is it permissible to contract a hitman to solve a problem?”
The Pope further stressed that aborting children who may be weaker, or suffering from disabilities amounted to eugenics – the science of “improving” the human species by selectively mating people with specific desirable hereditary traits, practised by Adolf Hitler in trying to create a master race.
“Human life is sacred and inviolable, and the use of prenatal diagnosis for selective purposes should be discouraged with strength,” Pope Francis said.
In the past, Pope Francis has expressed sympathy with women who have had abortions, and made it easier for their “sins” to be absolved, but this weekend’s speech shows a new hardline approach that reinforces the church’s ancient distaste for the practice.
Pope Francis stated that children who were not expected to live long after birth deserved to be treated in the womb “with extraordinary pharmacological, surgical, and other interventions”, but said that abortion is simply not an option. Such care “helps parents to grieve and not only think of it as a loss, but as a step on a path taken together,” he said.
“Every child in the womb is a gift that changes the history of a family,” Pope Francis said.
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