Life is considered to be present from the moment of conception and Roman Catholics (and many other Christian groups believe) ‘thou shalt not kill’ as the primary reason for the condemnation of abortion.
Another issue for the Roman Catholics is that they believe abortion to be a form of contraception which is against the Roman Catholic teaching. The use of abortion for a Roman Catholic woman is non-negotiable, it is never right, even in circumstances such as rape. However if the mother is in any physical or mental danger because of the pregnancy, then abortion is considered as acceptable, largely because of the conflict of the sanctity of the mother’s life against that of an unborn foetus.
Church of England
The Church of England encourages people to think through the issue of abortion very carefully and recognises that each individual will have differing views on the subject.
The established protestant church is reluctant to take such a hard view as Roman Catholics in the abortion debate. The church recognizes that there may be certain situations when abortion may seem more appropriate than carrying on with the pregnancy. For example if a woman was raped, it may be felt to be right to terminate the pregnancy.
“The church believes that the demand for abortions is unacceptably high. It stresses that abortion should happen as early in the pregnancy as possible and only after serious moral reflection. It’s view on late abortions (after 24 weeks) of handicapped foetuses is that they should only be given if the baby is likely to die from its deformities soon after birth.” (The Church of England)
Like the Catholic Church, protestant churches accept abortion when the life of the mother is at risk as a result of her being pregnant. Most Protestants have no concrete view on when life begins in the foetus.
The Quakers
The Quakers do not have a set teaching on abortion. The Quakers believe that there is God in everybody, so that means that there is God in the foetus as well. However, like Protestants, Quakers do not have a set stage in the pregnancy when the foetus becomes a person.
Quakers look upon people who have chosen abortion in an emphatic way, as they wish to know ‘if it happened to us, what would we do and how would we act?’ even if that persons chosen path is disapproved of, it is Quakers teaching that they should be treated with the same respect as any other Quaker would wish for themselves. Quakers believe that the choice of having an abortion or not should be left up to the mother involved and it should involve her conscience. The movement has difficulty reconciling the principle of non-violence, which could argue against abortion, and the wish that women should be able to play a full part in society, which might sometimes justify abortion.