Transmission of Life (II)
“Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should have no
compassion on the son of her womb? Even if these may forget, yet I
will not forget you” (Is. 49:15).
Abortion
From Scripture it is clear that God regards the child in his mother’s womb
as already a human being in the full sense with a life protected by the
commandment “Thou shalt not kill”:
“For thou didst form my inward parts, thou didst knit me together in my
mother’s womb” (Ps. 139 [138]:13).
“Thus says the Lord who made you, who formed you from the womb and
will help you: Fear not, O Jacob my servant, Jeshurun whom I have
chosen” (Is. 44:2).
“Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, Before I formed you in the
womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed
you a prophet to the nations” (Jer. 1:4-5).
“When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb.
And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud
cry, Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to
me?” (St. Luke 1:41-42).
Abortion has always been vigorously opposed by the Church: Pope Stephen
V, Consuluisti de Infantibus, 891 (DS 670); Decr. Sancti Officii, March 2,
1679 (DS 2134-5); Responsa Sancti Officii, July 24, 1895 (DS 3298). This
is because life “from its very beginning ... requires the creative action of
God.”¹
1
Pope Bl. John XXIII, Mater et Magistra, 1961.
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