In forming an opinion on abortion some Catholics would look to the Pope for guidance. The pope is strongly against abortion, we know this because in the Evangelium Vitae the pope stated that “Today there exists a great multiple of weak and defenceless human beings, unborn children in particular, whose fundamental right to life is being trampled upon. If, at the end of the last century, the church could not be silent about the injustices of those times, still less can she be silent today, when the social injustices of the past, unfortunately not yet overcome, are being compounded in many regions of the world by still more grievous forms of injustice and oppression, even if these are being presented as elements of progress in view of a new world order” in saying this the pope means that abortion has seemed to have progressed because it has ended back street abortions but it is really legalising the injustice of the unborn.
Although the Catholic Church completely disagrees with abortion there is a sort of loop hole which is if a woman is going to be severely harmed or she and the baby will die as a result of the pregnancy then the church sees it as ok to have an abortion.
I completely agree with the churches views that life begins at conception because once the child in conceived then for nine months it grows in to a child and to me this is an act of a being that is alive.
There are many feminist groups who believe that the churches views on an abortion are wrong because they believe in “Abortion on Demand”. They believe that because it is there body they think they should have the right to choose what they do. This is a valid point, but if they believe this then shouldn’t it be right that someone should have the right to speak on behalf of the unborn child.
Currently according to law an abortion can be carried out before 24 weeks as long as two doctors believe that a baby would be detrimental to the woman’s well being. If after 24 weeks a woman can still have abortion as long as a doctor declares the baby to be damaged. There have been cases when an abortion has been granted after 24 weeks where so called damage foetus has been really quite minor, such as a unborn child who had been diagnosed with clef pallet, this called outrage amongst the media and highlighted how the modern world now finds it almost socially acceptable for a child to be aborted.
I think it is very sad that we know live in a society who because the law says that abortion is legal then people don’t stop to think about the fact that almost every foetus aborted could have potentially gone on to have a fulfilling life.
In conclusion I believe that God gave every being on this earth the sacred right to life and no one should have the power to take life away apart from God and therefore abortion is a way of trying to play god which in turn is also wrong.
By Joe Hyland