Catholics are called to defend life at every stage of existence, from conception until natural death. No Catholic can support abortion, which kills the most vulnerable and innocent children still in their mothers’ wombs.
Abortion intentionally ends a human life and breaks God’s Commandment, “Thou shall not kill.” This grave sin is contrary to the Gospel and goes against the pro-life teaching of the Catholic Church.
Abortion is a result of the secular world’s culture of death. But the Catholic Church promotes a culture of life where ever human life is sacred and every person has transcendent value, worth, and dignity.
Life is a precious gift from God that begins at conception. Created by God in his image and likeness, each person is a unique member of his family and has the right to live.
As Creator, only God can determine who lives or dies. Once reproduction has taken place, no person has the right to intentionally end the life of a baby before it is born, regardless of the stage or scenario.
Supported by Sacred Scripture and the teaching of Jesus, the Catholic Church has consistently condemned the killing of innocent people and has considered children as members of the human family, including those not yet born.
When pregnancy presents as a challenge or a crisis for pregnant mothers and their families, the Catholic Church provides alternatives to abortion, including spiritual and material support.
While the Catholic Church strongly condemns abortion as a mortal sin, it offers healing and reconciliation for women and men who have made the decision to abort a child, and for anyone involved in the promotion or practice of abortion.
Catholics are called to protect the most innocent:
Catholics cannot support or participate in abortions:
The Church condemns abortion but offers reconciliation:
You formed my inmost being; You knit me in my mother’s womb. I praise You, because I am wonderfully made; wonderful are your works! My very self You know.
Psalm 139: 13-14
Abortion has many negative effects:
Upholding the dignity of the human person:
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.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 2270
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you.
My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately wrought in the depths of the earth.
The Church has condemned abortion since the 1st century:
The Church’s teaching on abortion is unchanged and unchangeable:
From the beginning, the living Tradition of the Church-as shown by the Didache, the most ancient non-biblical Christian writing-categorically repeated the Commandment, “You shall not kill”: “There are two ways, a way of life and a way of death; there is a great difference between them… In accordance with the precept of the teaching: you shall not kill … you shall not put a child to death by abortion nor kill it once it is born … The way of death is this: … they show no compassion for the poor, they do not suffer with the suffering, they do not acknowledge their Creator, they kill their children and by abortion cause God’s creatures to perish; they drive away the needy, oppress the suffering, they are advocates of the rich and unjust judges of the poor; they are filled with every sin. May you be able to stay ever apart, o children, from all these sins!”.
Pope John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae, 25 March 1995
All abortions kill:
Arguments for abortion are illogical:
Catholics reject the flawed logic of abortion:
The Truth, Goodness, and Beauty of the Catholic Church
God has all the answers:
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